Top 10 EDM Festivals Worth the Trip in 2027

Tomorrowland is the festival most dance-music fans have on their list, and for good reason. It has been held at De Schorre, a provincial recreational park in Boom, about 16 km south of Antwerp and 32 km north of Brussels, since its first edition on 15 August 2005. It now runs over two weekends; the 2024 twentieth-anniversary edition drew 400,000 people, and the 2026 XXL anniversary edition, themed Consciencia, put more than 500 artists across 16 stages, with Calvin Harris on the Mainstage for the first time alongside David Guetta, Martin Garrix, Hardwell, Armin van Buuren, Amelie Lens and Ben Klock. The production is the draw: Digital Spy called the 2018 edition "the most elaborate festival on earth", and the festival has been voted best musical event of the year five times in a row at the International Dance Music Awards. It is also resilient. When a fire destroyed the main stage on 16 July 2025, two days before opening, a smaller replacement opened on 18 July and the show went on. Most travelers stay in DreamVille, which has seven camping areas from basic Magnificent Greens to lockable Terra Soils suites, or book a hotel package in Brussels. The 2027 dates are not out yet; in 2026 the weekends were July 17-19 and July 24-26. Tickets are the hard part. Press reported the 2026 Full Madness Pass from EUR 400 and day passes from EUR 138, and official tickets sold out.

EDC Las Vegas is the biggest party in America and, by its own record, one of the biggest anywhere: 525,000 people came over three days in 2023. Insomniac runs it at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and the 2027 edition changes shape. It now runs over two weekends with identical lineups, EDC Dusk on May 14+15+16 and EDC Dawn on May 21+22+23, and Insomniac says it is cutting capacity and ticket prices to ease congestion, with side events across the city from May 13-24. The format is dusk to dawn, with sets ending at sunrise. There are 9 arenas of sound, the Kinetic Field main stage can hold 70,000 people, and the grounds add art installations, 18 carnival rides and four Ferris wheels. EDC began in 1991 in Chino, California, and moved to Las Vegas in 2011; the 2026 edition was its 30th anniversary, with Tiesto, Martin Garrix, Zedd, Armin Van Buuren, John Summit, Above & Beyond and Peggy Gou. Tickets use all-in pricing: GA is $479.99 for Dusk and $529.99 for Dawn, both weekends are $859.99, and VIP starts at $1,349.99. Camp EDC offers ShiftPods, RV camping and campgrounds. Two cautions: it is an 18+ event, and the desert is a real risk, with high winds forcing stage closures in 2019 and heat-related calls doubling on the 2017 opening night.

Ultra Music Festival is the city-center option: three days in Bayfront Park in downtown Miami. The 27th edition runs March 26-28, 2027, Friday to Sunday, during Miami Music Week, and the festival also owns the Winter Music Conference, which it bought outright in 2018. Ultra was founded in 1999 by Russell Faibisch and Alex Omes, and the first edition was held on Miami Beach on March 13, 1999. It now welcomes 165,000 attendees a year from more than 100 countries, and DJ Mag readers have voted it the world's number one festival more than once. The bookings are bold. The 2026 lineup was nearly 80% new compared with 2025 and featured Swedish House Mafia, John Summit, Hardwell, Alesso b2b Martin Garrix and the world debut of Amelie Lens b2b Sara Landry. Ultra was also the first major U.S. electronic festival to power a stage with zero-emission batteries in 2026. The practical side matters for travelers. GA 3-Day tickets are $479.16 all-inclusive at Tier 3, VIP 3-Day tickets are $2,396.03 at Tier 2, and VIP is 21+. Gates run Fri 4:00 pm-midnight, Sat 12:00 pm-midnight and Sun 12:00 pm-10:00 pm. There is no re-entry, no camping and no staying overnight, so budget for a Miami hotel.

Untold is the best-value big festival on this list. It started in 2015, when Cluj-Napoca was European Youth Capital, and more than 240,000 people came to the first edition. It has grown fast: over 500.000 persons attended the 2026 edition, and it ranked 3rd on the DJ Mag Top 100 Festivals list. It was also named Best Major Festival at the European Festival Awards 2015. The 2027 "Star Edition" runs 5-8 August 2027, centered on Cluj Arena, with a Main Stage and a Galaxy Stage named on the official site. The 2026 bill shows the scale of booking: The Chainsmokers, Kygo, Marshmello, Martin Garrix, Lewis Capaldi, Zara Larsson, Steve Aoki and Afrojack. Demand is strong; over 20.000 tickets sold in the first phase within a few hours of going on sale on 8 August 2026. Prices are lower than at the big western festivals. A GA 4-day pass at Phase 3 costs 864,66 lei, the under-25 pass 719,34 lei, and the festival estimates the final price at festival time at 1809,24 lei. Accommodation packages start at 806.00 Lei. Know what you are buying: standard GA orders are non-refundable unless you pay for a Risk Free pass, which allows returns up to 30 days before the festival. The site sits close to homes and is exempt from curfews, so music runs well into the morning.

Creamfields is described as the UK's most prestigious electronic dance music festival, and it is a proper camping festival. It runs Thu 26 - Sun 29 August 2027 over the Bank Holiday Weekend at Daresbury in Cheshire, where it has been held since 2006. The first edition was in 1998 in Winchester, Hampshire, for 25,000 people; today the four-day event hosts 70,000 per day. Live Nation has owned it since 2012, the year the final day was abandoned in heavy rain and the site got £500,000 of investment. The stages are built big: the Steel Yard, which debuted in 2016, is a 15,000 capacity super structure. Early 2027 announcements include Martin Garrix b2b Alesso, their first back-to-back set in the UK, a Sammy Virji APEX takeover and a new stage. The 2026 edition, 27-30 August 2026, featured Disclosure, Swedish House Mafia, Calvin Harris and Martin Garrix. Tickets are straightforward and include camping: Standard Four Day Camping is £300 + £25 booking fee, Standard Three Day Camping is £280 + £25 booking fee, and you can pay in instalments with a £20 deposit. Upgrades run from Dreamfields pre-pitched tents to luxury camping and Bronze, Silver and Gold campsites, though all 2 day camping and Dreamfields had sold out by 02/10/2026. Bring a raincoat; this is an English summer.

Awakenings is the techno festival to travel for. It began on 30 March 1997 at the Gashouder in Amsterdam's Westergasfabriek, around Easter, which gave it its name, and it is now described as one of the biggest techno events in the world. The 2027 festival runs Friday July 09 2027 - Sunday July 11 2027, 15:00-23:00 each day, at the Beekse Bergen site in Hilvarenbeek. The 2026 edition sold out with a record-breaking 119,000 visitors and spread across a mainstage, a forest stage, a hidden rave area, an industrial warehouse, a hard techno tent and a house stage. Its headliners show the focus: Charlotte de Witte, Richie Hawtin, Amelie Lens, Ben Klock, Rødhåd and Adriatique. Tickets for 2027 are already on sale, though the lineup will be announced later, so you are buying on reputation. The campsite is part of the appeal, with swimming beaches and a night programme that runs until sunrise after the main stages close at 23:00. If you cannot make July, the same organisers run Upclose 2027 on May 15 & 16 at Houtrak in Spaarnwoude-Park, and Awakenings EXO in Colombia on Dec 4, 2026. The organisation was taken over by SFX, now LiveStyle, in 2015. Skip it if you want pop crossovers; this is techno from start to finish.

Sónar Barcelona is the festival for people who care about where electronic music is going next. Ricard Robles, Enric Palau and Sergi Caballero founded it in Barcelona in 1994, when nearly 6,000 people came, and The New York Times described it in 2017 as a festival "of the experimental and the crowd-pleasing". The 2027 edition returns to the classic split: Sónar by Day on the seafront in the center of Barcelona from 17-19 June 2027, and Sónar by Night at Fira Gran Via on 18-19 June, across two nights and four stages. The Sónar+D creativity, technology and business congress, running since 2013, moves back into the day program. The first 2027 names include Bonobo, Carl Cox, Peggy Gou, Goldie live, Jessie Ware, Honey Dijon presents Sinister, Yung Lean, Cornelius and Tokischa. It has had a turbulent few years. In 2025 artists cancelled over parent company Superstruct's sale to a KKR-led consortium, 2026 moved entirely to Fira Gran Via under new director François Jozic and drew 150,000 fans, below 2025's record 161,000, and on 27 October 2026 the festival posted "Sónar is dead" before relaunching. Tickets are good value: SonarPass is 160€, SonarPass Flex 182,09€ with a full refund until 28th February 2027, and VIP 275€. There is no camping; you stay in the city.

Movement is a pilgrimage for techno fans, held in Detroit, the birthplace of the genre. It takes over Hart Plaza on the Detroit riverfront every Memorial Day weekend, and the 2027 dates are May 29-31, 2027. The site has hosted electronic music since the Detroit Electronic Music Festival was first held there in 2000, and Movement has run each Memorial Day weekend since 2006. The 2026 edition marked the 20th anniversary, with over 115 acts led by Dom Dolla, Sara Landry and Carl Cox. Attendance figures are old but show the scale: 107,343 people came in 2012. It was nominated for Festival of the Year at the 2017 Electronic Music Awards. The festival is more local in feel than the giants above it. Detroit vendors sell handcrafted goods and records "only available in Techno City", and Artist-In-Residence installations are placed around the grounds across multiple stages. 2027 tickets are on sale with a payment plan: as low as $60 down for GA 3-Day and $65 down for VIP 3-Day, with the rest split into 5 payments. VIP adds private air-conditioned bathrooms, VIP-only viewing platforms and discounted rooms at official VIP hotels. There is no campsite, so book a hotel downtown early. If you love techno history, this is the trip to make.

Ultra Europe turns a festival into a Croatian beach holiday. Ultra brought its brand to Split in 2013, when the debut on 12-14 July drew about 103,000 people, and Croatia's Ministry of Tourism calls it strategically important. The 2027 festival runs July 9, 10, 11 - 2027 at Park Mladeži in Split, as part of Destination Ultra, which pairs the main event with a yacht regatta along the Dalmatian coast; early editions also added an Ultra Beach party on the island of Hvar. Ticket prices are lower than at Ultra Miami: Tier 1 GA 3-Day Combo tickets are €235 before service charges, taxes and fees, with a payment plan from €39 up front, and VIP runs from €459 for the Sky Deck to €509 for VIP ULTRA. You can stay at the Beachville Campsite in a tent or a mobile home, which over 4,000 people used in one year, or join The Yacht Week sailing edition. Entry is for ages 18+ only, and Premium GA is 21+. The appeal here is the whole week: festival nights in Split, then the Dalmatian coast by day. It ranks ninth because it shares its brand and booking style with Ultra Miami, which ranks higher, but it is the easiest way on this list to combine big-room EDM with a summer holiday.

Time Warp is not a weekend festival but one huge night, and it is one of the most respected indoor techno events in the world. It began near Stuttgart on November 26, 1994, and has been in Mannheim since 1995. The 2027 edition is on Saturday 03 April 2027, from 21:00 to 14:00 the next day, at the Maimarkthalle, billed as "17 Hours. 5 Floors". Over 40,000 visitors come, and it is known for its sound and lighting; it was one of the first major events to use Funktion-One sound systems as standard for indoor techno. The 2027 lineup is already out and reads like a techno hall of fame: Charlotte de Witte, Sven Väth, Nina Kraviz, Richie Hawtin, Ben Klock b2b Rødhåd, Loco Dice, Seth Troxler, I Hate Models and Mau P. Tickets are on sale, but the official site does not publish a price, so check before you plan. It is 18+. In 2026 Time Warp also ran international editions in New York City, Mexico City, Los Angeles and São Paulo, so you may not have to travel to Germany to experience it. Because it is a single indoor night with no camping, it ranks last here, but for a spring trip built around one perfect techno marathon, nothing else on this list compares.