Founder Brent Bolthouse on 14 Years of Neon Carnival

Forbes

11-04-2025

THERMAL, CA - APRIL 15: The Lokai Ferris Wheel is seen at The Levi's Brand Presents NEON CARNIVAL ... More with Tequila Don Julio on April 15, 2017 in Thermal, California. (Photo by Michael Bezjian/WireImage)
Brent Bolthouse is far from being a stranger to nightlife — after all, he's been in the scene for the last few decades (to say the least).
Over his trajectory managing several high-profile venues like the Roxbury and The Viper Room, he eventually went on to develop iconic clubs and restaurants, including Hyde Lounge and Katsuya, alongside Sam Nazarian's company, SBE Entertainment Group.
After establishing himself as a household name in the night scene, he eventually expanded his roster of notable spots to be sighted at when he opened the Santa Monica lounge The Bungalow at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel. The Bungalow now has locations in Long Beach, San Diego and Huntington Beach.
Of all his successfully renowned projects, Neon Carnival may be his most iconic endeavor to date considering its 14-year-long run in the desert. Known as one of the most exclusive after-hours events during Coachella weekend, Bolthouse initially devised and created Neon Carnival in 2011. The invite-only affair features DJ performance sets, electric park rides, festive carnival games and of course, a neon-lit atmosphere.
This year's edition, which is presented by PATRÓN EL ALTO Tequila, is set to take place on Saturday, April 12th and will feature performances from Anderson. Paak, also known as DJ Pee .Wee, Charly Jordan and Chase B & Friends.
In anticipation of the celebration, Bolthouse exclusively shares the overall allure of Neon Carnival, his fondest memories and this year's special 'surprise' performances.
How did Neon Carnival come into fruition?
I was like, 'Where's the afterparty?' This is probably 16 years ago… because it took a few years [to get Neon Carnival going], so basically then, I was basically thinking about corporate clients that I could bring in because at that time, we had our company events, so we were doing things with T-Mobile, Armani, Mercedes and all these big brands. I started soft pitching them this idea.
Culture hadn't become the thing that it is today, so they were like, 'I don't know.' And what happened that was interesting was I did the launch of a ride at Magic Mountain called Tatsu. We closed the park. It was closed to the public and we got to invite 5,000 people to Magic Mountain. In context, Magic Mountain holds 40,000 people, so basically it was empty. I think 80% percent of the rides were open. Some of the rides weren't, but the food was open, we had bars set up, DJ AM was deejaying and that was sort of the birth of the idea of doing something that had rides, games and fun associated with it. I always say that that Magic Mountain party was the mother of Neon Carnival because that's really what had me start thinking… I need to create something. Interestingly enough, the first year that we did Neon Carnival was with T-Mobile and they didn't understand the idea of a carnival, so we just did a party inside a hangar and had DJs. It was just one of those things and they didn't see it. It was their party and they were paying for it, so I only had so much [say]
The next year, they didn't do it and that was the first year of Neon Carnival. I pitched it to Armani Exchange. They loved the idea. They actually had sunglasses coming out that were called 'Neon Sunglasses.' Everything aligned… the stars aligned and that's really how it kind of started. I think what we saw at Magic Mountain was… it was a bunch of celebrities and it was a bunch of people and everyone was just there having fun. It's this idea that carnivals are fun. Kids love them and then there's this point in time where you're a certain age and you just don't do it anymore. Unless you've become a family and you have kids and you take your kids, right? I think it's just this beautiful opportunity for people to reminisce and have fun and you know, that's really what we're about. It's just really about having a great time.
What inspired the name, Neon Carnival?
We were going to have carnival games [the year they first partnered with them] and when Armani Exchange said, 'We have neon sunglasses," [then] I said we're gonna call it 'Neon Carnival.' They were like, 'Perfect.' It all was serendipitous. I have this big belief that names sort of come when you know they are right. You're like, 'That's the name, right?' It's a hard yes.
What goes into planning an event of this magnitude every year?
We start planning in the fall, so we started last fall planning. This is now our fourth year at our new location. It took us a few years to sort of figure out the hangar and figure out what was the best for the hangar when we were at the airfield. And then when we moved over to Desert International Horse Park, it's like figuring out what works best, what's the best way for traffic, what's the best way for cars and what's the best way for people to go. I think last year, we kind of hit our stride. We figured out a great layout, we kind of retweaked it after a couple different iterations over the last couple of years. We signed another lease with them, so we'll be there for the next few years. It feels like this year's going to be awesome because we've kind of got some of those production things worked out. We get to really focus on how to make it as fun as possible. I don't think people have any idea how much time, energy and resources go into it… that it's a completely hosted party.
Do you feel pressure to make the event fresh year after year?
One of the things that I think is great about Neon Carnival is it's not every weekend. It's once a year. I think that alone just keeps us fresh in general. And then I think there's something to be said about being familiar. We want to be iconic and we want to be something that's consistently fun. I don't want to compete with [Coachella]. We're not affiliated with Coachella in any way, shape or form. With the DJ entertainment that they have over there and with the tents and lasers and the lights and the LEDs… we can't compete with that, right? They do it so much better than what we'll ever be able to do it. We're not trying to give you the same thing you just spent the last six hours seeing. We hope that you're coming into something that's new. We had Anderson .Paak last year who is a great friend and we do a lot of things with him throughout the year, so he's going to come back. I think that's a new spin. We haven't really had those kind of DJs before. Anderson was so awesome last year, he brought in a surprise performance with Busta Rhymes. Rumor on the street is Anderson has some more surprise performances potentially happening in his set on the night of, so I think that's kind of exciting, you know, when you can sort of plant those little seeds. I think we're just hitting our strides with how the layout is and how it was because last year was so much fun. It was just a blast.
What's your favorite Neon Carnival memory ever?
It was so cool when one year Clint Eastwood came with his kids. He someway made his way over to the squirt gun game and started shooting people like Dirty Harry. Like, that is Clint Eastwood! And he's got like a squirt gun and he's spraying maybe his friends or people, but it was just one of those moments where it was like, 'That's so cool.' It's nice to kind of see some old friends… Leo [referencing Leonardo DiCaprio] is there every year. He's such an old friend and he's been coming to my things since he was 16. It's always nice to see him be like, 'This is the best party in the world.' It's just like that moment where you have somebody like him who goes to the best parties of the world. It's like, 'This is awesome, this is so much fun and we love this so much.'
And lastly, what's next for Neon Carnival? Is there another reiteration of it in the future or do you see a world where you would expand on it?
There's always talks of expanding. There's always talks of partnering with people. We don't really talk about that stuff until it's real. In 2019, we did Stagecoach and that was so much fun. What we've seen is the rise of country music and we've seen the culture is changing, but the sponsors are not there yet. We sort of did that as a beta to see if it was possible and the same amount of people came to Coachella and the same amount of people came to Stagecoach. It was two different audiences and it was really fun. It's just an expensive party to do when everything is posted and everything's free. All of it costs so much money that you need real sponsors. So that's on the horizon for that to happen. We're manifesting that.