As summer rolls around, so does the traveling dance machine known as the Love Festival.

Celebrating its 18th year overall and the 12th in Hawaii, the fest was co-created by DJs Reza (based out of Los Angeles) and G-Spot (nee Greg Dehnert of Hawaii) to showcase the hot club spinners of the day at large venues.

For the latest edition, to be held once again at the Wet ‘n’ Wild Hawaii water park in Kapolei, Dehnert is looking forward to sharing the main stage with two guest deejays in particular.

"I’m excited Kaskade is coming out," he said. "He’s got a new album out (‘Dynasty’) that’s supposed to be really hot, and a lot of people from 18 to 30 like his songs. His career has taken off like a jetliner.

"And Hyphy Crunk will be here for the first time. As you can imagine from his name, he plays a mix of (Bay Area) hyphy and (Southern) crunk, plus some electro and hip-hop. A lot of people like Reza and myself who are deejays and promoters know about and like him. He runs a successful weekly in L.A. on Thursday nights, where he gets anywhere between two and three thousand people. To get those kind of numbers on a weekday night, that’s pretty hype, and he’s been doing it for three years. I’ve heard some of his mixes and Reza has worked with him. I like how he’ll give the festival a different, grimier dimension."

With three arena stages situated around the park, a bunch of current and Hawaii-born deejays will get their time to move the crowds.

"Bryan Mizota, aka DJ Evil, has been immersed in deejay culture in L.A. He’s been doing a lot of remixes for Tommy Lee’s Electro side project." (Lee is better known as drummer for Moetley Cruee.) "And there’ll be a number of local deejays working in the festival again, like Kaii, Big Daddy Dave and Scarred," G-Spot said. "First-timers include Keebler, Soundsex, Miki Mayhem and, at the KTUH (college radio) stage, Nocturna and Matt Kee.

"Since Reza and I partner on this, we make the decision of what local deejays will play. It’s a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t situation, because so many people want in and deejay at the event. We get inundated by requests from around the globe, as early as 14 months in advance."

THE LOVE Festival began in Las Vegas this year, playing the Palms on Memorial Day, stopping off in the islands, as it always does in July, and moving to Los Angeles in August. It plays Denver for the first time in September.

The two deejays plan to take the fest on a global scale, having done previous work in Mazatlan and Tokyo, and they are working on one to be held in Brazil.

"We’re forward-thinking," Dehnert said. "The festival has been recognized around the world as a positive event, and the Hawaii stop is considered a premiere party event in the club and concert industry. Every year, we get more people flying out to Hawaii, so its reputation has obviously preceded itself. … It’s kind of become Hawaii’s annual party pilgrimage. The event’s been around for awhile and some of our local audience have come to every one of them.

"When you get right down to it, the Love Festival is mostly a big-a– dance party."

And Dehnert’s enthusiasm for the event and deejaying in general has been revived. "Over the years, sometimes it’s been difficult for me individually to do the festival year in and year out, but, ironically enough, I’m falling in love again with the scene and the music. I’ve been playing a lot and enjoying it more.

"Every year, we try to make every facet better. The lighting and sound system on every stage gets better, as well as the lineup," he said. "In fact, this year the lighting show is phenomenal — we’ve got inflatables, like a 22-foot heart, and props, plus we’ve commissioned the local graffiti artist Easp to do a large art piece.

"We hope the people will see the difference. We’re doing some funky things, and I can’t wait until we open Pandora’s box."