SAN DIEGO – In San Diego’s unstable music festival circuit, The Mustache Bash — a boutique disco and rave festival — has consistently grown since its conception 18 years ago.
But growing into a full-scale annual music festival was never its founders’ intent. Back in March 2008, about 16 San Diego State University sophomores had an idea for a house party. After exclusively attending fraternity and sports team parties, they wanted to throw their own.
Tyler Dupraw, one of the students and a Mustache Bash co-founder, said every college party needs a theme, and someone pitched a mustache party. They didn’t think that was enough of a theme, so they paired it with ’70s funk and disco fashion.
“We were, I think, like 19 years old and none of us had grown a mustache before,” he told Times of San Diego. “So we just stopped shaving for a few months, and sure enough, we all grew a scraggly form of a mustache.”
Live music was always a key component of the party. The group had musician friends who were willing to play at their parties.
The first party was a success, prompting Dupraw and crew to continue throwing it for their final three years of college. Every year, the party grew — bringing issues beyond the college students’ realm of control.
“It was growing to the scale where it got broken up, we got noise complaints,” Dupraw said.
In most cases, a group of college friends would disperse, occasionally reminiscing on the wild theme parties they threw together, especially under the pressure of neighbors potentially shutting down their party. Not the case for the Bash.
In their fourth year, and first out of college, they decided to rent a venue for the party in Pacific Beach. They kept it word of mouth and never poured money into marketing or advertising. At this point, it was still just a party that was supported by a group of friends playing music.
Yet, it was still growing every year. By the seventh year, they found they needed to upgrade the venue again, moving downtown to the Grand Horton Hotel.
“That was the first year we hired a band that wasn’t a part of our immediate group,” he said.
The year after that, they moved it to Broadway Pier, where they began to experience even more growth — adding more stages and increasing production.
“Those were our formative years [at Broadway Pier] from going to just a party to more of a boutique festival,” Dupraw said.
This year, the festival will be held at the Mariner’s Point Park in Mission Beach, its second year at the location, from 2-10 p.m. on Saturday, March 21. The event will feature four different stages with 16 artists and DJs performing throughout the day and into the night.
The Mustache Bash Family Band is an annual highlight. It’s a collective of San Diego musicians who get together to play ’70s funk/disco hits. The festival lineup now also boasts a mix of EDM/house and disco artists, including this year’s headliner Marc Rebillet.
Rebillet is an electronic musician from New York who has garnered a large following on Instagram for his improvised electronic/funk style music.
“This one’s going to be a pretty rowdy one,” Dupraw said. “Rebillet is gonna bring the fire.”
Other lineup highlights include Blu Detiger, a New York City-based funk bassist who played the Bash in 2023, and Gavin Turek, a disco artist from Los Angeles.
To Dupraw, the growth and success of their party is not a surprise. They’ve always kept the core founders, never looking for outside investment. Even though they spent little money on advertising, Dupraw said the festival has remained a welcoming space.
He and the 10 founders who remain involved want to create an event that holds true to their original idea — a party with live music and friends.
That hasn’t stopped them from growing, but with growth comes expenses — more stages, more bars, a roller rink — which then can raise ticket prices.
“It’s a tricky thing,” Dupraw said.
But most new expenses come from improving upon the prior year. If attendees complained about bar lines, that could mean adding another bar the following year. That also means improving the lineup year by year.
“We’ve never been in it for the money,” Dupraw said. “It’s always been a labor of love.”
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