Portland DJ Ryan Giskaas, who goes by Rose Guard, has been making music for more than 10 years and DJing for around five years. He spoke with Dance Music Northwest about his process, who inspires him, and what keeps pulling him back into the Pacific Northwest scene. DMNW: Tell us…

This week is the scariest time of year, where Seattle will be flooded with costumes, candy, and creepy vibes. Ravers across the Pacific Northwest will go into the heart of the city on October 30th and 31st for the biggest party around: Boo Seattle. Insomniac will once again be br…

Boo Seattle, one of the region’s largest Halloween parties, is right around the corner, set to kick off at WaMu Theatre during Halloween weekend and featuring four diverse stages. Celebrate in the Grand Hall The Grand Hall will be the festival’s main stage. Boo describes the stag…

Recently a sign was spotted in downtown Seattle teasing a potential Calvin Harris return to the Emerald City! Similar signs were spotted across North America, in Chicago, Houston, Oakland, Philadelphia, New York City, and Vancouver BC. Now, it’s officially confirmed that Calvin H…

We’re finally back home after an amazing time running around Same Same But Different Festival in Lake Perris, CA. This fest was jam packed with things to do, we did our absolute best to experience as much as possible throughout the weekend. Even though this is a smaller festival,…

Many who explore the world of EDM quickly become hooked on the culture. Much of the raver crowd resonates deeply with experience of shows and festivals; we think of them as home away from home. But why do we feel like raves are where we belong? There are increasing studies being…

CRSSD returned to Waterfront Park in San Diego for another two-day fall festival this past weekend. Having FOMO? Don’t worry, DanceMusic Northwest was there to recap the highlights. Saturday starts off with Notion, Marlon Hoffstadt, Chase West Saturday was energetic, and even tho…

This month, we headed to South Lake Union for White Rabbit Group’s special event, Soundwavs at the Park. This lakeside rave brought some major talent to the neighborhood to entertain us both on land and on the waters of Lake Union. Headliners JSTJR, Louis The Child, and a dozen o…

September is passing fast, and festival season isn’t over yet. We just found out we’re headed to Same Same But Different Festival! Come along as we break down all the lovely little components that make up this small, yet still mighty festival taking place September 25 through 27.…

Yo, Tape B is coming back to WaMu this winter! He previously played a year ago to a super-sold-out crowd. Resale tickets were hard to find, and prices were through the roof. This time, he is returning for 2 nights: Friday, December 4, and Saturday, December 5. Support is already…

GENESI was one of our favorite artist discoveries in 2025, and his set at Boo Seattle Halloween last year was spectacular! Now, he’s coming back for his headline debut in Seattle on Friday, September 26. Big shoutout to Level 1 for booking one of our favorite artists, in collabor…

Boo Seattle is one of the biggest Halloween parties in the Pacific Northwest, and this year’s house and techno lineup is one of its most adventurous. Acts include techno superstar Sara Landry, fan-favorite James Hype, standout Cloonee, and powerhouses Walker & Royce, and that’s j…

Bumbershoot once again graced Seattle Center for its 2026 season, loaded up with musical talent and local vendors galore. Headlined by Turnstile, Death Cab for Cutie, Chase & Status, and TOKiMONSTA, Bumbershoot’s 2026 lineup had exceptional range. Combined with one of the best it…

White Rabbit Group is sending off the summer of 2026 in style with Soundwavs At The Park. This Saturday, September 12, WRG is hosting over a dozen artists at South Lake Union Park for a final outdoor rave before the winter chill hits. This special 21+ event will feature two stage…

The Good, the Bad, and the Bottlenecks In the second year since the festival made the move to 21+ only, we continued to enjoy the benefit of the noticeably more relaxed crowd, plus we never felt trapped in “beer jail,” which meant being able to walk around the festival with a dri…

CRSSD Festival returns to San Diego’s Waterfront Park this September with a star-studded house and techno lineup. There are four innovative DJs you should have on your radar: Carlita, Helena Hauff, HorsegiirL, and VTSS. Carlita blends house with Latin and Turkish grooves, creatin…

This year we headed up to Salmo, BC for another fantastic visit to Shambhala Music Festival. This nearly week-long event has consistently brought us back along with thousands from across the world, to revel in the scenery and community that has been a work in progress for over a…

The week-of countdown to Capitol Hill Block Party has begun, and the schedule has finally dropped! Attendees can now get excited about the lineup, plan their meetups with friends, and navigate the inevitable conflicts between the four awesome stage options. Will you pop into Neum…

It’s officially happening — Skrillex is making his return to Washington! After rumors and speculation recently that Skrillex was planning an outdoor show at Gas Works Park, we finally have official confirmation. View this post on Instagram A post shared by @showbox Officially: Sk…

Ricky Win, known by many as WIN WIN, has been DJing in the Seattle community for six years. Originally from Norway, where his older brother was a raver back in the ’90s, WIN WIN got his start during COVID throwing house parties, boat parties, and his own events before breaking in…

This wasn’t our first time getting lost in Northern California’s Lightning in a Bottle (LIB) festival, but each year we attend, it gets even better. There are so many incredible factors that come together to create this special festival. The PLUR is alive and well in Bakersfield.…

Beyond Wonderland at the Gorge 2026 was a spectacular sixth edition of the annual festival! Since taking over from Paradiso starting in 2021, this has been a PNW raver’s yearly pilgrimage. We can always count on a wide range of artists, with many favorites returning from previous…

The iconic c89.5, serving Seattle’s airwaves for over 50 years, is getting a rebrand. DANCE 89.5 came online at 9am this morning on Mornings with Drew Bailey, marking the electronic music station’s first major brand shift in decades. Complete with new callsign, website, and a tea…

As far as Seattle is concerned, NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal has officially solidified himself as a dubstep DJ. Shaq, who goes by DJ Diesel behind the decks, brought an electric energy to Pioneer Square Saturday night during World Cup weekend. Everyone was already feeling the exci…

We are very close to one of our favorite festivals of the year, Beyond Wonderland PNW at the Gorge 2026! Since its inception in 2021, we’ve marveled at the improvements each year and are grateful for filling the void of Paradiso. The festival continues to impress us with well-rou…

For the next 60 days, Seattle will be seeing an influx of over seven hundred thousand people, as football fans from across the world come to witness six legendary World Cup matches at Lumen Field. On Thursday, June 18th, the night before the U.S. goes head to head with Australia,…

CRSSD Festival is returning to San Diego this fall, and it’s bringing another heavy-hitting house, techno, and indie-fluid lineup to the waterfront. Arguably, the most notable set of the weekend will be Chris Lake going B2B with Disclosure’s DJ set in a one-of-a-kind performance.…

Seattle’s SODO neighborhood is in for a special treat as Obsidian drops an extra show in their series on Friday, June 12th. Mita Gami, making his Seattle debut, will be taking over The Shop, Seattle’s “country club for gear heads” luxury car club, for a night of deep, hypnotic gr…

It’s no surprise to us that FVDED in the Park, Western Canada’s largest urban open-air music festival, is returning this year on July 3 and 4, 2026, to Holland Park, B.C., with yet another stacked lineup. Every year, Blueprint outdoes itself and secures a wide-ranging lineup with…

It may be the beginning of festival season, but Insomniac Events is already thinking of the spooky season months away. Last month, Insomniac Presents released two huge names for this Halloween’s BOO Seattle music festival at the WAMU Theater. Insomniac announced GRiZ and Subtroni…

On Saturday, May 9, we returned to scenic Eugene, Oregon, for the fourth year in a row for Red Cube’s famous Foam Wonderland. This long-standing staple of the Oregon rave community has brought some of the biggest names in EDM to the Cuthbert outdoor amphitheatre for a day of fun,…

NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal is taking over Seattle’s Pioneer Square this summer, bringing his hard-hitting dubstep set as DJ Diesel during the FIFA World Cup. Shaq is headlining a massive block party on June 20 that is sure to shake the city. The party starts at 7 p.m. and will t…

Madeon is fresh off a mesmerizing Coachella performance from weekend two in April, and now is going on a world tour! On September 25, Madeon will bring his Victory Live tour to WAMU. Last time Madeon performed in Seattle was for 2023 Capitol Hill Block Party. If you’ve never seen…

Have you caught a boat rave On the Hiyu yet? Both Vivid Presents and White Rabbit Group have been throwing some incredible shows on Lake Union over the last few years. Now, C89.5 is doing their own massive version of a boat party series. To celebrate the 75th anniversary of Washi…

Illenium is bringing his show back to the Las Vegas Sphere for two more nights in July after a string of shows earlier this spring! Many of you die-hard Illenium fans saw the video clips uploaded to Instagram and YouTube, or watched the full set online thanks to live streamers li…

One thing that Seattle knows how to do is make the most of summer. With the FIFA World Cup taking over the city this June, there are countless events for soccer fans to enjoy the game. In fact, Seattle was ranked among the top cities for FIFA fan experiences. Little did we know t…

Live Nation and First Avenue Entertainment have announced plans for a new 5,500-capacity indoor music venue in Seattle’s SoDo neighborhood. Dubbed the SoDo Ballroom, the new venue will be built as an addition to the existing Boxyard event space, directly across the street from T-…

You’ve probably heard his Daka mix or caught him as a special guest, and now, ToBeHonest is blazing his own path forward. He spoke with Dance Music Northwest about his upcoming Q Nightclub show on May 29, to tell us all about how he found his sound, and where he’s headed next. DM…

Arguably the most scenic music venue in the world, the Gorge Amphitheatre hosts a wide array of concerts each year, and this year electronic dance music takes center stage. Now that sunlight has returned to Washington, the Gorge Amphitheatre, known as the Gorge, is ready to once…

DoLab hit us early with this year’s line up, and we’ve been so obsessed we had to take some time to break it all down. Showcasing a variety of huge headliners like Zeds Dead, Mau P, Sara Landry, Empire of the Sun, and many more, we needed a second to get our heads back on […] The…

The wait is over! Bass Canyon returns to Washington for its eighth year, and the recently announced lineup is hotter than ever. Hosted by Canadian dubstep legend Excision, the largest bass music festival in the Pacific Northwest will take place on August 14-16, 2026, at our favor…

A Seattle staple for over 50 years has unveiled its 2026 lineup. Bumbershoot is returning, and it’s bringing a beloved Pacific Northwest band with it. Death Cab for Cutie, the indie rock group that got its start in Bellingham, will return to headline the Seattle festival for the…

This summer in Seattle is shaping up to be a big one for house music. Day Trip, one of Seattle’s most energetic outdoor festivals, has announced its first-ever block party series. Artists range from Latin house favorite HUGEL to tech house staples Walker & Royce. Day Trip announc…

If you, like us, are enraptured by humanity’s return to the moon on Artemis II, Yuri’s Night at Seattle’s Museum of Flight should be your next destination. The annual 21+ spectacle “transforms the Museum into an intergalactic nightclub celebrating real and imagined spaceflight wi…

Spring is just around the corner, and that means Pacific Northwest dance music fans are preparing for another incredible season of outdoor electronic music events. This year, Seattle’s premier floating venue, On The Hiyu, is hosting a stacked 2026 slate of shows. The iconic Hiyu…

Get ready to get wild — Midnight Tyrannosaurus is bringing his hard-hitting wubs back to the Emerald City. The bass-wrangling beat master is stopping in Seattle on Friday, May 29, during his “Devil in the Jungle” North America tour. Dubstep fans can expect a next-level show that…

Appropriately positioned at the onset of International Women’s Month, MMBASSY’s second iteration of its “See Her Be Her” event delivered yet another jam-packed day of insightful and necessary conversations around the role of women in dance music. Over six hours on a Saturday at t…

If the initial lineup announcement is Shambhala’s appetizer, the stage-by-stage lineups are the main course. The party started with the Village, gifting us with a scintillating combo of Farm favorites and bass music legends. “Everything is about to get loud,” Shambhala vowed in i…

Last Wednesday, Fox Stevenson came to Seattle on his Sunk Cost Fallacy Tour to share his recently released full-length album. The Sunk Cost Fallacy Tour spans across Europe and North America, including Canada, the United States, France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and Germany, g…

It’s that time of year once again! The anticipation has begun, as one of the biggest electronic music festivals in the great white north has released its first look at this year’s lineup, with Shambhala Music Festival having released its first list of artists who will be gracing…

This year Thunderdome took place at the same time as the Super Bowl, and lucky for us PNW natives, the Seahawks won it! This coincided with one of the best winter electronic music festivals; Excision presents Thunderdome: Year 7. Known for a jaw-dropping amount of lasers and a sc…

If you were lucky enough to catch RÜFÜS DU SOL at the Gorge back in October 2022, when Fred Again… (who has been on an insane ride of his own) opened the show in what turned out to be one of the most unforgettable nights of that year, then you already know what’s at stake […] The…

Outdoor concert lovers rejoice! Capitol Hill Block Party is returning for its 28th year this summer. CHBP 2026 will host over 100 musical performances at indoor and outdoor venues in the heart of Capitol Hill across three days, August 7-9. This year’s lineup brings an eclectic mi…

International Women’s Day is fast approaching, and local production outfit MMBASSY is bringing back one of our favorite new events, See Her Be Her, for its second edition on March 7th. Featuring headliner Bexxie, an expanded day of women-led nightlife panels and workshops, and a…

Genre-bending producer and songwriter Fox Stevenson will be gracing stage of Seattle’s The Crocodile on Wednesday, February 25th. Stevenson is on tour supporting his sophomore album, 2025’s Sunk Cost Fallacy, an album that blends a wide variety of rock and electronic influences i…

Above & Beyond will be returning to the Gorge Amphitheater for another headline installment of Group Therapy in Washington state! On September 11th -13th, Above & Beyond will bring the Anjunafamily together once again to celebrate the 700th episode of their ongoing Group Therapy…

Beyond Wonderland PNW at the Gorge is now in its sixth year, and now that its 2026 lineup has dropped, it’s time to start planning those camping groups and time off requests! The two-day festival takes place on June 27-28. There will also be a pre-party on Friday, June 26, which…

From February 6-8, Excision returns to the Tacoma Dome for the sixth installment of The Thunderdome. Known for its bone-crushing sound systems and arguably the most advanced laser production in the world, this year’s three-day takeover is shaping up to be the heaviest yet. Whethe…

We’ve all been there. You’re at a festival with your friends, navigating multiple stages, and you’re trying to keep track of your crew. Maybe you came into the festival an hour later than the group. Maybe you’re at different performances. This is the regular occurrence Totem Grid…

2025 has been a monumental year for well-crafted dance music albums, with releases from some of the industry’s most talented artists, as well as from a selection of promising newcomers. As is tradition here at Dance Music Northwest, we’ve picked out some of our favorite albums fr…