Vote up the festivals that deserve to be raved about the most.
Hundreds of thousands of people flock to the best EDM festivals in the USA every year. Devoted dance music fans are willing to travel across the country, or even the world, for the biggest EDM festivals, whether they prefer the balmy Miami weather of Florida’s Ultra Music Festival, or the all-night parties of EDC Las Vegas. From raves in big cities like Chicago, Atlanta, and Dallas, Texas, to gatherings in the deserts of California and forests of Michigan, the American music festivals come in a variety of forms. However, the best fests all have one thing in common: they recruit top DJs for their lineups year after year because they put on an experience like nothing else on the market.
This list of good EDM festivals includes shows from across all electronic music genres - from techno to dubstep, all are welcome here. Additionally, there are a number of entries which aren’t dance-music exclusive. Coachella and Bonnaroo, for instance, make the cut because each year they host electronic lineups that rival any Insomniac event. Finally, this list only includes events that are currently being produced in 2020 and beyond; canceled concerts or ones on hiatus do not qualify for inclusion (with the exception of festivals like Ultra and SXSW that have been postponed or canceled due to the Coronavirus outbreak).
What are your top 10 EDM festivals in the US? Which upcoming lineups are so stacked that you find yourself thinking, “I wish this festival were near me!”? It’s up to you to decide which of these massive events takes home the gold, so vote up the EDM festivals that drop the bass the hardest, and vote down the ones that you feel drop the ball.
Deep in the forests of Michigan, this festival welcomes attendees are welcomed to an enchanting forest lined with LED lights and art structures. Originally devised by Madison House as the jam band-heavy Rothbury Music Festival from 2008-2010, the event's success piqued interest with Insomniac Events, who helped develop it into one of the most visually stunning festivals in the country.
Since the Electric Forest rebrand in 2011, the three-day summer festival has blended DJs, jam bands, and folk rock artists into its annual lineups. Among the festivals most frequent artists are Bassnectar, STS9, and Big Gigantic. Additionally, jam band the String Cheese Incident headlines annually, typically with three separate shows.
Secondary Locations: Orlando, Mexico City, Tokyo, Shanghai
Date Founded: 1997
Electric Daisy Carnival is the largest American EDM festival, and second only to Tomorrowland internationally. In 1997, EDC debuted at the Shrine in Los Angeles as one of the earliest productions in Pasquale Rotella's now-sprawling Insomniac Events empire.
Since 2011, the three-day event has taken place annually in Las Vegas, Nevada - a fitting setting for its larger-than life, LED stage designs and carnival rides. Practically every well-known DJ of the time performs at the festival each year, but EDC's scale is not the only thing that sets it apart from its competitors.
Where most festivals go from the day into the night, EDC lives up to the Insomniac name. Typically, the musical lineup begins around 7 PM, and festivities continue through the night until 5:30 AM.
Since 2011, the flagship event has taken place annually in Las Vegas, Nevada, but Insomniac has been producing satellites of the festival in secondary cities since 2001's EDC Texas in Austin. As the festival has gained popularity, it's also expanded both nationally and internationally. Currently, EDC installations are held annually in Orlando, Mexico, China and Japan.
Lost Lands is a music festival founded by dubstep superstar Excision. The annual Ohio event centers around a prehistoric setting with dinosaurs galore, inspired by the tyrannosaurus rex iconography of its founder's aesthetic. Lost Lands has quickly become one of the best festivals for bass music since locking down sets from the likes of Zeds Dead, Rezz and Kill The Noise in its first year. Naturally, Excision also performs every year.
Twice a year, Goldenvoice brings its heralded CRSSD Festival to San Diego's Waterfront Park for a weekend of tastefully-curated artists spanning the techno, house, and future bass realms. For 2020's Spring edition, the biennial concert weekend will feature sought after DJs and producers such as Gesaffelstein, Carl Cox, and Charlotte de Witte, alongside compelling live groups like Soulwax and Rüfüs Du Sol.
Secondary locations: Croatia, Korea, India, Australia, South Africa, UAE
Date Founded: 1999
Over the course of the past two decades, Ultra has blossomed into one of the world's biggest electronic music festivals. Since Russell Faibisch and the late Alex Omes hosted the first UMF in Miami's South Beach in 1999, the now-three-day event has moved between various Miami outdoor venues. It was was set to return to its typical location, Bayfront Park, in 2020, but has been postponed due to concerns over the outbreak of the coronavirus.
With a consistently lofty slate of eclectic top DJ headliners and guest performers, Ultra Music Festival has hosted many of dance music's most memorable live moments. Perhaps most notably, Swedish House Mafia closed out Ultra 2013 with the final set of their farewell tour, five years before they would play their first reunion show on the same stage.
Since 2008, the brand has expanded internationally as Ultra Worldwide, producing festivals in numerous countries throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa. In 2012, Ultra formed a "global alliance" with the previously unrelated electronic music label Ultra Records, fusing into the larger Ultra Music entity.
Hosted every Labor Day Weekend at Randall's Island Park, Electric Zoo is the largest dance music-specific festival in New York City. EZoo's 2009 debut set the event's tone for years to come with a variety of high-profile artists from the EDM, trance, house, and techno spheres.
Adam Beyer, David Guetta, Busy P, Armin van Buuren, and deadmau5 were among the names on the eclectic first lineup in 2009, while Eric Prydz, Above & Beyond, and Dog Blood (the supergroup of Boys Noize and Skrillex) headlined the festival in 2019
Over the years, Electric Zoo has also hosted a smattering of festivals around the world, with past events held in Mexico, Brazil, China, and Japan.
