EDM news
MDLBEAST Signs With ESMAA To Support Sustainable Growth For The Regional Music Scene!
The Saudi-based music entertainment company, MDLBEAST, has confirmed an agreement with ESMAA, the Gulf-based music rights management organization, to support regional and international music artists and composers by ensuring they receive payment for the use of their work played at SOUNDSTORM, XP music conference, and on BEAST TV.
Prior to ESMAA, there was no regional entity available to ensure music creators and rights holders were paid when their music was played in venues or in facilities in the Gulf region.
MDLBEAST’s ESMAA agreement is a significant moment in the evolution of the regional music scene with the Saudi-based company representing one of the most exciting movements in the industry.
MDLBEAST have agreed a performance license fee with ESMAA to ensure artists and composers who have their music played at MDLBEAST’s SOUNDSTORM, XP music conference, BEAST TV, or venues receive a payment for that usage. Similarly, as MDLBEAST is a rights holder through MDLBEAST Records, the company and their talent will receive payment when their music is used by other organizations who are also signed up to ESMAA.
Commenting on the agreement, MDLBEAST’s Chief Operating Officer and Head of Talent Booking and Events, Talal Albahiti, said, “Ultimately we want to grow the music industry in the region and the best way to do that is to make sure it is economically viable for artists and composers to create the sounds we all want to hear. ESMAA is that solution for the Gulf. At MDLBEAST, we certainly want to see creators getting fair reward for their work wherever the music is played, and for us that is two-fold; we pay to ensure any time we use an artist’s tracks during our licensed events, they get paid, and as a rights holder we receive payment when our artists’ music is used by other media and events, and we pass that payment on.”
He added, “We believe that there has never been a more exciting time for the music industry in the Middle East and the agreement with ESMAA is a really important step towards sustainable growth and fair representation for talent globally.”
By committing to this licensing agreement and using innovative music recognition tech, MDLBEAST is putting the artists first and ensuring license fees are distributed back to the owners of the music rights. Additionally, MDLBEAST will now be able to provide precise data and market insights for artists, composers, rights owners, and global PROs about Saudi and the region’s biggest music festival. This agreement is supported by music technology leaders BMAT who are able to track and fingerprint all music performed at SOUNDSTORM ’21, monitoring 8 stages with over 200 DJ sets and live act performances – a clear indicator of the growth and value of the market.
ESMAA Founder and CEO Hussain ‘Spek’ Yoosuf commenting on the deal said, “Saudi Arabia’s music scene is undergoing incredible change at the moment and MDLBEAST are right at the front of that. It is a watershed moment as music rights holders will be paid performance royalties for the first time for uses within Saudi Arabia, and we commend MDLBEAST for taking the necessary steps to respect creators.”
ESMAA is a stand-alone subsidiary of PopArabia, the independent music company based in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
EDM Events Held At The World’s Most Historic Sites, from the Great Wall and Petra to Versailles and the Pyramids
EDM events held at historic sites have become one of the more interesting ways major artists and promoters are taking electronic music beyond standard clubs, arenas, and festival grounds. The strongest examples are not just famous locations with a stage placed nearby, but performances where the site matters to how the event is filmed, produced, and remembered. Anyma and Tiësto have brought major electronic productions to the Pyramids of Giza, Bedouin performed for Cercle at Petra, Nina Kraviz played a sunrise set on the Great Wall of China, and Adriatique filmed a Cercle set at Hatshepsut Temple in Luxor. The same idea also appears through POSITIV Electronic Festival at the Roman Theatre of Orange, Charlotte de Witte at Ancient Messene, and Nifra at Masada Fortress, where historic architecture, ancient ruins, desert landscapes, and protected heritage sites become part of how each performance is experienced. These events show why historic locations are becoming a serious part of electronic music’s destination-event culture, especially when the artist, production, and setting all make sense together.
Great Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
Events:
Anyma presents Quantum Genesys
@anyma
The End Of Genesys | Pyramids of Giza
Tiësto at the Pyramids of Giza
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The Great Pyramids of Giza have become one of the clearest examples of how far large-scale electronic shows can go when the location is part of the story. Anyma presents Quantum Genesys took place at the pyramids on October 10, 2025, with the night split between his Quantum DJ set and The End Of Genesys audiovisual show across two stages. The production leaned into the contrast between the ancient site and Anyma’s digital world, using large visuals, lighting, and a long nighttime format that ran from 5 PM to 3 AM near the Giza Plateau. Tiësto at the Pyramids of Giza followed on December 19, 2025, with a PRISMATIC set that brought another major electronic name into the same setting, adding to Giza’s recent place in destination EDM events.
Petra, Jordan
Events:
Bedouin at Petra for Cercle
Medaina Festival
Petra is one of the most recognizable historic sites connected to electronic music through Bedouin at Petra for Cercle, filmed at Al-Khazneh, the Treasury, in 2022. The set was not a public festival, but a controlled early-morning performance with no crowd, placing Bedouin’s hybrid live sound directly in front of the sandstone monument. That format worked differently from a standard stage show because the production did not need a large audience setup to make the location central to the performance. In 2025, Medaina Festival gave Jordan a wider electronic music moment across Petra and Wadi Rum, with a lineup that included Âme, Bedouin, HVOB, Jimi Jules, Mind Against, Patrice Bäumel, and Sonja Moonear. With Petra already listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, the location adds one of the article’s strongest examples of electronic music being presented in direct connection with an ancient landmark, while Medaina Festival extends that connection into a broader destination event across Jordan’s desert and heritage settings.
Masada Fortress, Israel
Event:
Nifra Live at Masada Fortress
@nifraofficial Do you know this track? ❤️ My new live set recorded at Masada Fortress is now on youtube #nifra #trance #trancefamily #trancefamily #trancemusic #tranceclassics #raver #femaledj #dj #edm #trancecommunity #masada #delerium #silence ♬ Silence – Andrew Rayel & Achilles Remix – Delerium
Nifra Live at Masada Fortress placed the Slovakian trance artist at one of Israel’s most dramatic historic sites, high above the Dead Sea in the Judaean Desert. Masada is a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its desert plateau, Herod the Great’s palace complex, and the remains connected to the Roman siege of 73 A.D. For the 2023 set, Nifra performed from the clifftops of Masada Fortress in partnership with Tiede Night’s, with the sunset timing giving the performance a direct visual connection to the desert landscape around the site. The result fits the article because it connects a known trance artist with a protected ancient fortress, without stretching the angle into a normal festival or unrelated event space.
Great Wall of China, China
Event:
Nina Kraviz at the Great Wall of China
Nina Kraviz played a sunrise set at the Great Wall of China in May 2018, turning one of the world’s most famous historic landmarks into a stripped-back techno performance with no need for festival-scale production. The set was filmed on the wall in the early morning, with the mountain landscape and stone watchtowers framing the performance as the light changed across the site. For an artist closely tied to underground techno, the location gave the set a very different feel from a club or warehouse show, placing her sound against a landmark known for Chinese history, military architecture, and centuries of preservation. The Great Wall is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, which makes Nina Kraviz at the Great Wall of China one of the most direct examples of a globally known electronic artist performing at a protected historic site.
Roman Theatre of Orange, France
Event:
POSITIV Electronic Festival
@saralandrydj POSITIV FESTIVAL B2B WITH BESTIE 💫 After 6 years of friendship it was insane to do a show like this together @Nico Moreno 🥹 Such a crazy venue at the Théâtre antique d’Orange and it was completely full from front to back! 🤯 Thank you Positiv for making this happen 🖤 #electronicmusic #hardtechno #techno ♬ original sound – Sara Landry
The Roman Theatre of Orange brings POSITIV Electronic Festival into a venue that was already made for live performance more than 2,000 years ago. Set in France’s Rhône Valley, the UNESCO-listed theatre is known for its preserved Roman stage wall, which still rises behind the crowd and gives the festival a setting that feels completely different from a standard outdoor stage. POSITIV Electronic Festival has used that space for major electronic lineups, with recent names including Amelie Lens, Argy, James Hype, Sara Landry b2b Nico Moreno, Anfisa Letyago, Paul Kalkbrenner, Mind Against, Joachim Pastor, and KAS:ST b2b Space 92. The event also makes strong use of the theatre’s architecture through large-scale lighting and video mapping across the ancient stage wall, turning the preserved Roman structure into part of the show without losing the historical weight of the venue.
Ancient Messene, Greece
Event:
Charlotte de Witte at Ancient Messene
Charlotte de Witte at Ancient Messene brought the Belgian techno artist into the ancient theater at Messene for a 2021 live DJ set presented by Onassis Stegi. The performance was streamed through the Onassis Channel and placed her sound inside one of Greece’s major archaeological settings, with the stone theater, open-air site, and surrounding ruins giving the set a very different frame from a club or festival stage. The project was based on a concept by ADD Festival, with Onassis Foundation directing the stream and presenting it as a filmed electronic performance from the ancient theater rather than a public festival. With Charlotte de Witte already recognized as one of techno’s biggest names, the Messene set gives the Greece section a stronger link between a major electronic artist and a historic site.
Hatshepsut Temple, Luxor, Egypt
Event:
Adriatique at Hatshepsut Temple for Cercle
Adriatique at Hatshepsut Temple for Cercle brought the Swiss duo to the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut in Luxor, one of Egypt’s most striking ancient sites on the west bank of the Nile. The temple sits within the wider Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis UNESCO World Heritage property, giving the set a direct link to Egypt’s ancient history beyond the usual destination-show setting. Adriatique performed in front of the temple’s long terraces and limestone cliffs, with the Cercle format keeping the focus on the duo’s melodic techno, the architecture, and the scale of the site. The result placed a major electronic act inside a location already known for ancient Egyptian history, making the performance feel closely tied to Luxor rather than just filmed in a scenic location.
@cercle_music Somewhere in the world, at the Hatshepsut Temple, with @ADRIATIQUE. #cercle #cercleshow #adriatique #hatsheput #electronicmusic ♬ original sound – Cercle
The strongest historic-site electronic events are the ones where the location has a real role in the performance. Anyma at the Pyramids of Giza, Bedouin at Petra, Nina Kraviz at the Great Wall of China, Adriatique at Hatshepsut Temple, and POSITIV Electronic Festival at the Roman Theatre of Orange all show how different that can look, from large audiovisual productions to filmed DJ sets and full festival formats. The site changes the way the performance is seen because the architecture, history, lighting, crowd setup, and filming all become part of the final result. That is what separates these shows from normal destination events, where the location is often secondary to the lineup.
Historic locations also come with limits that standard event venues do not have. UNESCO-linked landmarks and protected heritage spaces involve local approval, access rules, sound restrictions, staging limits, preservation concerns, and cultural responsibility. That does not mean electronic music cannot work in these places, but it does mean the event has to make sense beyond the photo. As more artists and promoters look for settings outside standard stages, the strongest historic-site events will be the ones where the music, production, and location feel connected from the beginning.
EDC Las Vegas 2027 Expands To Two Weekends with new Dusk Till Dawn concept across 12 days
EDC Las Vegas 2027 will return to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway with one of the festival’s biggest format changes in years, as Insomniac introduces Dusk Till Dawn, a new concept spanning two consecutive weekends and 12 days across Las Vegas. Following the sold-out 2026 edition, which marked 30 years of Electric Daisy Carnival, the 2027 festival will open with EDC Dusk from May 14 to 16, continue with EDC Dawn from May 21 to 23, and run as the full Dusk Till Dawn Experience from May 13 to 24. Pasquale Rotella said the new format gives Headliners the freedom to choose between one weekend or both, while allowing EDC Las Vegas to extend further into the city through themed events, lower capacity, and more space on the dance floor.
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How EDC Las Vegas 2027 Will Split Across Dusk And Dawn Weekends
The new Dusk Till Dawn format changes EDC Las Vegas 2027 from a single festival weekend into two separate editions at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with EDC Dusk taking place from May 14 to 16 and EDC Dawn following from May 21 to 23. Instead of placing the full festival inside one weekend, Insomniac is giving Headliners the option to choose the first weekend, the second weekend, or the full Dusk Till Dawn experience. That shift gives attendees more control over how they plan EDC Las Vegas, whether they are flying in for one weekend, staying in the city longer, or treating both weekends as one extended festival run.
The wider Dusk Till Dawn Experience will run from May 13 to 24, taking the concept beyond the three festival nights of each weekend. EDC-themed events will take place throughout Las Vegas during that period, connecting the main festival at the Speedway with the citywide side of EDC Week, Hotel EDC, Camp EDC, and related Las Vegas events still to be announced. Insomniac also confirmed that the 2027 edition is being planned with lower capacity, giving Headliners more space on the dance floor while reducing some of the travel and accommodation pressure that usually comes with one packed festival weekend. While artist lineups, stage themes, and full citywide event details have not been announced yet, the structure already marks a major change from the usual three-day EDC Las Vegas format.
More Space And Expanded Las Vegas Events For 2027
One of the biggest practical changes for EDC Las Vegas 2027 is the lower-capacity plan, which directly addresses how large the festival has become at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. After the sold-out 2026 edition welcomed hundreds of thousands of Headliners for the festival’s 30-year celebration, the 2027 format gives Insomniac more room to spread attendance across two weekends instead of concentrating everyone into one three-day run. For attendees, that could make the experience feel less compressed, with more space on the dance floor and less pressure around travel planning, hotel availability, and arrival logistics.
The expanded Las Vegas side also becomes a bigger part of the 2027 concept. The full Dusk Till Dawn Experience runs from May 13 to 24, with EDC-themed events planned throughout the city alongside the main festival weekends. EDC Week, Hotel EDC, Camp EDC, and other related events have not been detailed yet, but the longer calendar gives EDC Las Vegas more room to connect the Speedway experience with what happens across the city before, between, and after both weekends. For fans who usually plan Vegas around EDC, the added dates also leave more room for pool parties, club shows, hotel events, and off-site meetups without forcing everything into the same short festival window.
EDC Las Vegas 2027 Ticket Prices And Sale Date
Tickets for EDC Las Vegas 2027 go on sale at 12 p.m. PT on Friday, May 22, 2026, through the official EDC Las Vegas website. The new format gives Headliners separate price tiers depending on whether they want to attend EDC Dusk, EDC Dawn, or the full EDC Dusk Till Dawn two-weekend experience. For one-weekend passes, GA starts at $399.99 all-in, GA+ starts at $499.99 all-in, and VIP starts at $899.99 all-in.
For Headliners planning to attend both weekends, EDC Dusk Till Dawn passes start at $599.99 all-in for GA, $899.99 all-in for GA+, and $1,699.99 all-in for VIP. Layaway plans will also be available for all pass types, beginning with a $5 deposit. With one-weekend and two-weekend options now separated, the 2027 ticket structure gives attendees a more direct way to plan around time, budget, travel, and how much of the new Dusk Till Dawn format they want to experience.
Whethan Returns With WAREHOUSE.WAVS2 On SoundCloud as his viral remix series enters its second installment
Whethan returned with WAREHOUSE.WAVS2, the second installment of his viral remix series, released exclusively on SoundCloud before his EDC Las Vegas set at bassPOD on Sunday, May 17 from 2:30 AM to 3:30 AM. The project pulls from the records currently appearing in his live sets, with edits of A$AP Rocky’s Distorted Records, Breathe Carolina’s Blackout, Kaskade’s Move For Me, Turnstile’s BIRDS, The Pack’s Vans, and several early 2000s and 2010s rap staples. Following his return to bass and dubstep in 2025, WAREHOUSE.WAVS2 brings his current SoundCloud era into focus through live-tested flips, heavier production, internet-era references, and the underground pop-up culture now surrounding his shows.
Whethan Packs WAREHOUSE.WAVS2 With Rap Throwbacks, Dance Classics, And Heavier Edits
WAREHOUSE.WAVS2 brings together records Whethan has been playing in his recent live sets, with the tracklist moving across rap nostalgia, festival-era electronic music, hardcore influence, and heavier bass edits. A$AP Rocky’s Distorted Records, reworked with Dennett, gives the project one of its darker rap entries, while Breathe Carolina’s Blackout brings back a 2011 emo-electronic crossover record from the early EDM boom. Kaskade’s Move For Me adds a progressive house reference point, and Turnstile’s BIRDS pushes the tape toward the heavier crossover between hardcore and bass music. These choices make the project feel close to Whethan’s current live direction, where familiar records are being rebuilt for louder drops, SoundCloud circulation, and late-night sets.
The rap side gives WAREHOUSE.WAVS2 one of its strongest threads, especially through Huey’s Pop, Lock & Drop It, Rich Boy’s Throw Some D’s, Yung Joc’s It’s Goin Down, and Lloyd Banks and Juelz Santana’s Beamer, Benz Or Bentley. These records come from different points in 2000s and early 2010s club and street rap culture, which makes their placement next to Mike WiLL Made-It, Miley Cyrus, and Juicy J’s 23 feel tied to a specific era of party records, mixtape circulation, and internet discovery. The Pack’s Vans adds another blog-era reference, bringing in the late-2000s skate and internet wave that fits the tape’s SoundCloud-first format. Across the full tracklist, Whethan treats these records as source material for the bass and dubstep direction he returned to in 2025, turning recognizable hooks and cultural references into edits made for live sets, online clips, warehouse pop-ups, and his current heavier run.
Whethan’s Bass Return Is Turning Live Edits Into Real Demand
Whethan’s return to bass and dubstep has not stayed limited to SoundCloud clips or one-off set moments. Since moving back into heavier production in 2025, his remix videos and live edits have helped push a visible surge across Instagram, TikTok, and SoundCloud, with nearly 90,000 fans signed up through Laylo for shows, releases, and pop-ups. That kind of response gives WAREHOUSE.WAVS2 more context than a standard remix-series drop, because these tracks are connected to a run that has already moved from online attention into packed rooms, late-night edits, and faster demand around his shows.
That demand has also shown up offline, with sold-out headline dates across Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Denver, plus underground warehouse pop-ups around the country reaching capacity within minutes. His current festival run has expanded the same heavier direction onto larger stages, including appearances tied to Coachella’s Do LaB, EDC Las Vegas, Electric Forest, and Lollapalooza. With support from names including Subtronics, John Summit, GriZ, and DJ DIESEL, Whethan’s bass era is now moving across several parts of the scene at once: festival crowds, underground pop-ups, internet remix culture, and the SoundCloud-first audience that made WAREHOUSE.WAVS2 the right format for this chapter.
WAREHOUSE.WAVS2 Keeps Whethan’s Remix Series Close To The Fans
WAREHOUSE.WAVS2 keeps the remix series connected to the audience already following Whethan’s edits online and hearing them at shows. The project stays close to the way this run has been moving in real time, with flips appearing in sets, clips spreading online, and listeners going to SoundCloud to find the versions they have been hearing in those moments. That format fits the second installment because it keeps the series direct, fast, and connected to the culture around his heavier production.
For Whethan, the release also shows how his current bass and dubstep direction is being carried by more than official singles alone. WAREHOUSE.WAVS2 gives fans access to the edits that have been part of this recent run, while keeping the rawer remix format intact. It is a SoundCloud-first project built around immediacy, crowd response, and the kind of live-tested records that have become central to his return to heavier music. WAREHOUSE.WAVS2 is available now exclusively on SoundCloud.
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