The first lineup of The Dinah’s new era brings queer pop, hip-hop royalty and five full days of sapphic celebration to Palm Springs.
The Dinah has never been subtle. For more than three decades, thousands of queer women and nonbinary people have descended on Palm Springs for a gloriously over-the-top mix of pool parties, live music, flirting, friendship and the specific kind of freedom that comes from taking over an entire hotel with your community.
This year, that tradition continues with some very familiar queer favorites leading the way.
The Dinah will return September 30 through October 4, 2026, with Hayley Kiyoko, Da Brat, The Aces, Sasha Keable, Blimes Brixton and Mama Duke among the artists taking the stage. The weekend will also mark the first festival produced under new owners Rose Garcia and Bella Barkow, making this lineup our first real glimpse at what The Dinah’s next chapter will look like.
And yes, Lesbian Jesus is coming to the desert.
Hayley Kiyoko Takes Over the Hollywood Party
Hayley Kiyoko will headline The Dinah’s signature Hollywood Party on Saturday, October 3, bringing “Girls Like Girls” back to the kind of massive queer crowd it was made for.
The timing feels especially right. Kiyoko is in the middle of an exciting new creative chapter, having transformed the song that helped make her a queer pop icon into a novel, a feature film and a companion album. She also made her feature directorial debut with the film, bringing the sapphic coming-of-age story full circle more than a decade after the original music video first made so many young queer people feel seen.
We have been following the project since Girls Like Girls was first announced as a feature film, and seeing Kiyoko celebrate this era at one of the world’s largest gatherings of queer women feels like a particularly satisfying homecoming.
Opening for Kiyoko will be The Aces, the Utah indie pop band made up of Cristal Ramirez, Alisa Ramirez, Katie Henderson and McKenna Petty. The four longtime friends have built a devoted queer following through songs that are honest about identity, relationships and their experiences growing up in the Mormon Church.
Basically, Saturday night is for the indie-pop lesbians.
Da Brat Leads the Black and White Ball
Friday’s Black and White Ball will belong to hip-hop pioneer Da Brat.
In 1994, her debut album, Funkdafied, made her the first solo woman rapper to earn a platinum certification. She went on to collaborate with artists including Mariah Carey, Missy Elliott, Jermaine Dupri, Aaliyah and The Notorious B.I.G., building a career that has stretched across more than three decades.
British-Colombian R&B singer Sasha Keable will join Da Brat on Friday night. Keable’s smoky, emotionally direct sound earned her a growing international audience and a 2025 NPR Tiny Desk performance that introduced even more listeners to her mix of soul, R&B and hip-hop.
The wider lineup includes Blimes Brixton at Friday’s G-Spot Pool Party and Mama Duke at Sunday’s Sapphic Splash, along with 10 DJs performing throughout the weekend.
More Than a Music Festival
Of course, nobody goes to The Dinah expecting to spend the entire weekend standing politely in front of a stage.
The five-day schedule includes daily pool parties, late-night dance parties, a Singles and Solos social hour, workout and wellness activities, a DJ battle and the return of comedy night, headlined by Cameron Esposito. Events will take place across the Hilton Palm Springs, Hotel Zoso and other venues around the city.
For Garcia and Barkow, the weekend is about maintaining what generations of Dinah attendees already love while making space for the festival to evolve. Both women came into ownership with long histories at the event. Garcia spent years as a Dinah emcee, while Barkow worked behind the scenes as its operations manager and event producer.
That continuity matters. When it briefly appeared that The Dinah might end after 34 years, the response made clear just how deeply the festival is woven into queer women’s culture. The Dinah is not simply another stop on the music festival calendar. It is a place where people have come out, fallen in love, found community and experienced what it feels like to be part of the majority, even if only for one very sweaty weekend in the desert.
Now, it is staying independently owned, community-led and firmly in queer hands.
The Dinah 2026 takes place September 30 through October 4 in Palm Springs, California. Tickets, festival passes and hotel packages are available through The Dinah’s official website.
