Author: Jack Needham

The main-stage of the Belgian music festival Tomorrowland has been engulfed in fire. Footage shared on Wednesday 16 July shows the main stage crumbling beneath a weight of flames and smoke. Videos viewed by Festival Insights show the stage to be destroyed. In several videos seen on social media by Festival Insights, there are large pillars of fire billowing from the main stage, while smoke emanates from the surrounding structures. One video shared by DJ Mag, shows how the fire took hold of the main stage. Another, from the YouTube account The Daily Guardian, highlights some of the damage the…

Morocco’s MOGA Festival returns to its roots in Essaouira for its sixth festival edition from 1-5 October. The five day festival will encompass two days of ‘OFF’ events spanning Essaouira’s historic centre, followed by three days of ‘IN’ programming at the Hôtel le Golf d’Essaouira & Spa.  The first wave of acts confirmed for the house and techno festival include Apollonia, Arapu, Bonobo (DJ Set), Bedouin, DJ Tennis, Folamour, Janeret, Patrick Mason, Saoirse, and more. Founded in 2016, MOGA hosts a line-up of electronic music headliners while celebrating the “rich local culture and cuisines” and “local sounds” of the coastal…

Dancefloor Pro, a purpose-built platform designed to “empower promoters and venue operators,” has launched to the public. The service acts as a dedicated ticketing hub for dance music promoters, and will provide marketing support, community building tools and “everything required to foster strong bonds and develop loyal, long-term superfans,” for promoters, Dancefloor Pro tells Festival Insights. The service is founded by DJ and former DICE engineer Ben King, and was developed in collaboration with promoters to “solve the many real-world challenges they face,” the company says. The platform gives promoters access to a suite of tools to manage every stage…

BANG FACE is one of the festival industry’s greatest, but most unlikely success stories. The yearly event welcomes roughly 5000 ravers who are given a simple mission – have fun, and don’t take yourself too seriously. Pool parties, inflatables and thousands of gallons of UV paint are all par for the course. So, too, are electronic beats played at great speed to crowds of ravers at 7am in the morning. It might not be for everyone, but it’s not designed to be. It’s a weekender that has never changed its morals. Rather, it’s doubled down on them, especially when the…

The dust has settled on Glastonbury 2025, even if the hangovers probably still persist. And that’s it for another year. Well, given 2026 will be a fallow year for Glastonbury Festival, that’s it for another two. In true Glastonbury fashion, this year’s festival had no shortage of iconic moments, surprise guests, and created more than a few headlines. The likes of Lewis Capaldi, HAIM, Lorde and Pulp all popped up unannounced, even if rumours of their appearance had been rife for the past few months. Charli XCX, Lola Young and CMAT pulled some of the weekend’s biggest crowds. So too…

The past few summers have been defined by massive cultural shifts, mostly into the mainstream. 2024 saw the major breakthroughs of Charli XCX, Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter. Pop’s Powerpuff Girls had already been grinding it out for years, but last year marked a planetary alignment in making them global phenomenons. Barbenheimer dominated 2023, where millions of cinema-goers exchanged their regular outfits for hot pink cowboy boots and even more extravagant cowboy hats. Although Oppenheimer didn’t exactly produce any stand-out bangers – sorry, Ludwig Göransson – the Barbie soundtrack dominated the airwaves. Dua Lipa dance the night away, Nicki Minaj and…

Reading & Leeds Festival has announced more acts for its 2025 outing. Leigh-Anne, formerly of UK pop act Little Mix, brings her solo show to Reading & Leeds, and joins singer-songwriter Skye Newman and indie acts Bartees Strange. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Reading & Leeds Festival (@officialrandl) Houston trio Waterparks and North London R&B act Demae have also been added to the Main Stage. On the Chevron Stage, dance producer Charlotte Plank, US-songwriter Still Woozy, and Nottingham act LYVIA will join the stage headliners AJ Tracey, Becky Hill and Sammy Virj. The newly…

Glastonbury 2025 is nearly here. Arguably the world’s biggest festival opens its doors on Wednesday 25 June, welcoming over 200,000 people to a small pocket of Somerset. The 1975, Neil Young and Olivia Rodrigo will all headline the Pyramid Stage across the three-day event. Other highlights throughout the weekend include the likes of Charli XCX, Sir Rod Stewart, Loyle Carner, Raye and more than a few rumoured secret acts. Where to watch Glastonbury 2025 But if you’re amongst the many thousands, potentially millions of people who missed out on tickets this year then don’t fret. Much of the weekend’s coverage…

Notting Hill Carnival’s future may be in jeopardy if “urgent” government funding isn’t raised. As first reported by the BBC, Notting Hill Carnival chair Ian Comfort has written to Lisa Nandy, Culture Secretary, in an effort to raise funding which he stated was “essential to safeguarding the future and public safety of this iconic event”. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has stated it will “respond to the letter in due course”. The request comes after a recent review of the festival identified “critical public safety concerns” that required greater funding to address. In response, the Mayor of London Sir…

Few major festivals have come from such humble beginnings as Budapest’s Sziget Festival. What started as a student event in 1993 now, quite literally, takes over an entire island on the Danube river, Hungary. Over the years, they’ve welcomed everyone from R.E.M, Oasis and The Cure to then up-and-coming acts Dua Lipa and Lewis Capaldi. This year’s six day edition sees Charli XCX, Post Malone, Chappell Roan, Shawn Mendes, A$AP Rocky and Anyma as headline acts. It’s a festival line-up that represents changing music tastes for modern, increasingly more demanding music fans. But while Sziget Festival has been partying for…