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Armin van Buuren's festival is leaving its long-standing home in Utrecht to "further expand the brand and enhance visitor experience"
By Lisa Henderson on 23 Jun 2023
A State of Trance is the Netherlands' biggest trance music festival
Armin van Buuren has announced ambitious plans to expand his Dutch festival, A State of Trance (ASOT).
The Dutch DJ revealed that the festival will leave its long-standing home in Utrecht and take up residency at Rotterdam Ahoy in 2024. This is partly due to the demolition of the largest stage in the event’s former home, Jaarbeurs.
Next year, the ALDA-promoted festival will see more than 70 artists performing across five stages and two days at the arena.
In addition to the usual night-time programme, various fringe activities will be organised in Rotterdam during the weekend, including demo sessions, masterclasses, panels, pre-parties and Q&As with artists. The temporary A State of Trance Hotel will be the hotspot of the weekend.
The move was announced on van Buuren’s A State of Trance radio show: “Utrecht has been a great home base for my A State of Trance events in the Netherlands for many years. We have all been able to make a lot of beautiful memories there; in 1993 I went to the Jaarbeurs for my very first rave and I also held Armin Only shows there.
“We often hear from fans that they would like an even broader ASOT experience, so we will really focus on that next year”
“But the large iconic space where our main stage used to be is unfortunately being demolished, so we had no choice but to look for a new home. We see a lot of possibilities at this new location and I can’t wait to continue building the future of A State of Trance in Rotterdam!”
Allan Hardenberg, CEO and co-founder of ALDA, adds: “The good cooperation with the city of Rotterdam is a great opportunity to further expand the A State of Trance brand and to enhance the experience for the visitor to an even higher level. We often hear from fans that they would like an even broader A State of Trance experience, so we will really focus on that next year with the addition of the day program and the A State of Trance Hotel.”
In other news, a new festival celebrating A State of Trance’s 20th anniversary is coming to London’s Dockyards this summer.
Van Buuren, ARGY, Ben Gold, Cosmic Gate, Gareth Emery, MORTEN, Pretty Pink, Solarstone and Vini Vici are some of the names set to play the 2 July event, which will feature three stages.
Organisers are expecting an audience of 20,000, making ASOT London the largest trance event in the city’s history.
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