Watch Dirtybird Explain Why Community Is Better Than Competition

As we all know, a common way for labels and collectives to attempt to build a fanbase is by trying to seem untouchably cool, fashioning themselves as club music celebrities even at the risk of alienating people. As you can see in their episode of Smirnoff Sound Collective‘s TRIBES series, part of the reason San Francisco/Los Angeles-based crew Dirtybird is so beloved is because everything they do flies directly in the face of that. In their various roles as DJs, producers, party organizers, and even chefs, they go out of their way to prioritize community over competition, friendliness over pretentiousness, and most of all, good times over bad ones.

If you ask label founder Claude VonStroke, a strong family bond is simply embedded in Dirtybird’s DNA, and it’s illustrated as much by their first parties in Golden Gate Park a decade ago as it is by their own Dirtybird Campout festival, which just took place for the second year in a row this weekend. And yet, while we learn that the collective didn’t make money off their parties for “a really long time,” if you ask any crew member today about the label’s future, whether it’s Kill Frenzy, J.Phlip, or Shiba San, they’ll all say the same thing: the sky’s the limit.