Lorde, Turnstile and a $1,000 Ticket: Inside FORM Arcosanti’s High-Stakes 2026 Return

Two years ago this weekend, the vibe at the festival was stifling.

The National Weather Service reported a record high of 108 degrees on Oct.

4, the first day of FORM Arcosanti 2024.

“It was really, really hard,” says the festival’s founder Zach Tetreault.

“It was like, tremendously difficult.” Related FORM Arcosanti Announces 2026 Lineup With Disclosure, Lorde, Geese, Turnstile & More Powderfinger Is Teasing 'Something Extraordinary' Ella Langley Wonders Onstage If She Can Have Both 'The Man & The Dream' Amid Tucker Wetmore Dating Rumors While performances by artists like PinkPantheress, Thundercat, James Blake, Skrillex and Four Tet all happened smoothly and attendees generally had a good time, behind the scenes, it was a struggle to stay ahead of the heatwave.

With FORM happening in a remote stretch of the Sonoran Desert roughly 70 miles north of Phoenix, all potable water must be brought into the site, and “we just burned through 10 times more water than we ever have,” says Tetreault.

“There were 10 times more medical visits because of people passing out.” On the show’s second day, it was 113 degrees.

2024 was the first time FORM had happened since 2019; prior to that, it happened annually since its start in 2014.

Setting up at an architecturally far-out experimental town in the Arizona desert, FORM became known as a destination for artsy, in-the-know music devotees who traveled across the desert to see artists like Charli xcx, Florence + the Machine (whose creative direction is done by Tetreault’s wife Molly Hawkins, who is also the creative director for Harry Styles), Anderson .Paak, Solange, Father John Misty, Chance the Rapper, Bonobo, Skrillex and other bookings that punched above the weight of FORM’S slim 2,000 capacity.

As it was for many independent festivals, bringing the festival back after the pandemic was challenging enough.

Now, as FORM returns this weekend after taking last year off, the approach is do or die.

“The stakes are so high,” says Tetreault.

“This is at a turning point where it has to be really, really good this year,” says Tetreault.

“It’s always good, but for it to continue, it has to be on another level.” For the festival’s core team – Tetreault runs FORM with longtime partners Mike Feinberg, Kim Swift and Alex Hoffman – the pressure is particularly high, given FORM’s nearly $1,000 ticket price and the expectations that come with paying such a premium.