Best 10 sets seen at Electric Forest 2026

On Friday night, Jekyll & Hyde and Nikita the Wicked, performing their first-ever B2B round the Honeycomb Stage (located in Sherwood Forest, the literal spiritual heart of the festival), were frankly incredible. This set melded their styles for a thrilling hour of mesmerizing, psychedelic bass music that felt very well suited to the 2:30-3:30 a.m. set time. California-based Jaquill & Hyde called the show one of the best nights of their lives, and Kentucky-born, California-based Nikita just danced like the rest of us.

GRiZ have a long history with Electric Forest, having headlined the band for years, but there was something about Friday night’s performance on the main stage that felt like a new level of superiority. Performing Forest for the first time since the end of their hiatus, the artist not only drew a large crowd, but also a buzz. Throughout the day at the festival, attendees could be heard talking about their plans for the show and their excitement about it as they lined up for food, drinks, and showers. GRiZ could be seen among the many participants, and flags with his logo were hung at several campgrounds.

And GRiZ lived up to the hype, playing a nearly two-hour set that blended funk, dubstep, and hip-hop, and from the final moment of fireworks lighting up the sky to the moment they played the Isley Brothers’ “Shout,” the whole thing felt like a big party, like we were all on the dance floor at a wedding. (When he dropped it, someone in the audience yelled, “Bold!”) For this set, he brought out trumpet player, rapper ProbCause (a regular collaborator), and producer/vocalist Karina Zanders, who frequently appears in his large sets. All in all, this group’s hang-up on stage cleared up the group’s hang-ups in the crowd, and GRiZ sincerely thanked the audience for giving them the opportunity to make their dreams come true. His gratitude was evident and certainly rewarded by the crowd.

Saturday night’s Tripoley stage, set up by experimental bass producer Ravenskoon, was all hard, edgy beats and hard drops, but also beautifully soft. Towards the end of the show, the Georgia-born artist took to the microphone and said his performance was a testament to “never, never, never” giving up. He told the sold-out crowd, one of the biggest crowds we’d seen all weekend, that 10 years ago he himself saw some of his favorite artists live at Electric Forest, and that he’s been dealing with mental health and addiction issues for a long time, but his show was just a testament to his hard work. He asked the crowd facing difficult situations to hold up their cellphone lights so they would know they were not alone. There was so much light, tears, and hugs from friends, family, and strangers. And through it all, we dance.

“Face-melting bass music” is a common colloquialism in certain circles of electronic music, but I’d never actually felt the skin on my face start to rattle until British producer Casey Crabb performed a blistering hour-long performance on the Observatory stage on Friday night. This set highlighted why he’s one of the most exciting emerging artists out there right now, as he tore through dubstep hits like a nail-biter, peppering his set with a selection of new classics like RL Grimes’ 2014 must-have “Core” and a wavy take on Jack U and Justin Bieber’s 2015 hit “Where Are You Now.” He closed the show with London Grammar’s 2013 “Hey Now.” It was one of the most captivating performances of the weekend, a moving and beautiful chef’s kiss.

The singer and violinist, who grew up in a Colombian-Nicaraguan family between Florida and Kentucky, performed Saturday’s Pride Takeover show on the Honeycomb Stage, where sunlight filtered through the trees and bubbles floated above the crowd, creating a prime-time atmosphere. At the heart of the atmosphere, of course, was Cult, with the artist telling the crowd that he had no contact with his family after coming out and singing a song about his relationship with his sister. Cult has authority, panache, and serious star quality, and we wouldn’t be surprised if we see him on an even bigger stage next year.

Excision has long been a dominant force in dubstep, and it’s easy to take him for granted, but Thursday night’s show on the Ranch Arena Stage effectively worked like a tractor beam drawing in passersby, and by the end of the performance, a few casual fans were totally headbanging on the rails. From the monster and gladiator motifs in the visuals to the sound of the music itself, the set was an exercise in aggression, with the Jeff Abel-born artist also creating balance by weaving in compilations of pop-leaning songs like Rihanna’s “Where Have You Been” and the Cranberries’ “Zombie” (both of which are inevitably among the biggest hits). The artist took to the microphone at the end of his set to mention his annual festival in Ohio, and said we were seriously considering it given how big and setting the show he puts on.

When we spoke with her in April, Karina Zanders talked about her love of nu-metal from her Y2K era, which she enjoyed as a listener and once played as part of a hardcore band. So it was a sick move for her to include samples from artists like Rage Against the Machine and Korn in her Friday afternoon set on the festival’s large Sherwood Court stage. She deftly balanced house-leaning production with heavy bass and dubstep, performing remixes alongside her own original material. (A snippet from her stunning recently released album Anything Goes.) Despite the heat and sunshine, there were moments when I got goosebumps all over my body when she performed her inventive edit of Aerosmith’s “Dream On,” which removed most of Steven Tyler’s vocals and sang the song live with her own powerful vocals. It was also great to see her again later that night during GRiZ’s set on the main stage. There she displayed the same dignity and skill.

Those who only know this duo through their smash hit “On My Mind” with Diplo should definitely join the side piece more fully. Playing at Sherwood Court on Friday night, the pair, Party Favor and Nitti, expressed how unabashedly fun their music is and always has been, performing both original compositions and edited versions of songs like Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” and the Calvin Harris and Florence Welch classic “Sweet Nothing.” Sharp, smooth, and unpretentious, this set was a real treat.

The legendary jam band has headlined Electric Forest every year since its early days, and their presence as the festival’s unofficial house band creates continuity and pays homage to the festival’s jam roots. The band’s 3 hour and 45 minute (!) set at Ranch Arena on Saturday captivated many of the festival’s longtime attendees, and the performance (partly performed by electronic innovators Shpongle) reminded the electronic festival of exactly why it has been a staple of the festival for so long, while adding a refreshingly analog vibe. Although technical issues forced a delay in the second set, the show eventually reached its traditional ‘shebang’ moment – Forrest Show’s blissful final ritual, culminating this year with a fireworks display that could be seen from anywhere during the festival.

On Saturday night, Channel Tres performed at Ranch Arena, headlined by a rare vocalist in a slot normally reserved for bands or large DJ sets. (Torres, of course, is also a DJ, having played a slot during the Pride Takeover earlier in the day on the Honeycomb Stage.) On the main stage, the Los Angeles-based artist kept it down, then warmed up the crowd with some heat, then built a big, funky, exciting energy while playing songs like his “Black Techno Guy” and En Vogue’s “Free Your Mind.” At one point, he asked the audience to cheer harder because he was a “gay black guy from Compton right here in the woods,” and the audience happily obedient. That atmosphere was amplified by the two very stylish and agile dancers who were with him, and the audience lost it when he performed the SG Lewis and Robyn collaboration “Impact,” also showing their genuine love for the unreleased song he debuted with.