Dreamstate SoCal 2026: Trance Turns the Queen Mary Into a Second-Decade Statement
Dreamstate SoCal is back for its eleventh year. The trance-focused festival returns to the Queen Mary Waterfront in Long Beach on November 20 and 21, and this year's edition is the biggest and most genre-curious Insomniac has built for it yet.
The festival now spans more than 70 artists across four stages, including the new Long Beach Amphitheater. Beatbox’s Art Car stage also joins the grounds, featuring local trance artists, a welcome nod to the SoCal scene that has kept this event going. Last year marked ten years at the Queen Mary, so this is the first chapter of the festival’s second decade.
The debuts this year that trance purists may raise an eyebrow on tells a clear story where Dreamstate is headed. ARTBAT, Enrico Sangiuliano and Pegassi all make their Dreamstate debuts, bringing melodic techno, driving techno and Eurodance-tinged energy to a festival that has widened its sound over the years to include techno, hardstyle and melodic artists. Reinier Zonneveld rounds out that harder-edged contingent.
Of course the nostalgia will hit because the loudest word-of-mouth moment of the lineup is Above & Beyond, who aren’t playing their usual format. They’re delivering an Anjunabeats Classics set, which should be an emotional one for anyone who came up on the label’s mid-2000s run. Add Paul van Dyk, Solarstone, Mauro Picotto, Marco V and Warp Brothers, and the weekend becomes a living history of the genre.
Along with the newcomers and nostalgia hits, there will be some very strong B2B collaborative sets. Some include Ferry Corsten and Marsh, Alpha 9 and Ilan Bluestone, Hannah Laing and Marie Vaunt, Aly & Fila and Billy Gillies, John Askew and Simon Patterson, Bryan Kearney and John O’Callaghan presenting Key4050.Psy fans are covered as well, with Vini Vici and Infected Mushroom alongside Astrix. Andrew Rayel and Dash Berlin, back after a drawn-out legal battle over the group’s trademark, bring the big-room uplifting side.
Dreamstate balances reverence for trance’s roots with a clear push toward what the next generation is dancing to. Whether you’re there for the classics or the debuts, it’s the genre’s flagship U.S. gathering, set against the Long Beach skyline. We’ll see you by the water.
Two-day and single-day passes are sold through Front Gate Tickets, and for more information on the event you can check it out here.
