Techno Music Festivals

What started as a fusion of house, funk and electro in Detroit back in 1988 is now one of the world’s most prevailing music genres. Techno’s early pioneers include Jeff Mills, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson, who are often credited with inspiring today’s techno artists and influencing how the sound has developed.

Nowadays, techno is most often associated with Germany, and in particular its capital Berlin. The city’s club scene is thriving, with non-stop parties going from Friday through to Monday at places like Tresor and Berghain.

It’s here too that you’ll find that a lot of techno’s foremost artists reside, namely Berghain residents Ben Klock and Marcel Dettmann, as well as the likes of Blawan and Rødhåd.

But all over the world techno fans are spoilt for choice when it comes to techno music festivals.

Huge brands such as Time Warp and Awakenings have become synonymous with the genre, with their events, including Awakenings & Time Warp presents Connect, drawing in crowds from across Europe, while New York plays host to Time Warp US. Over in Croatia Sonus Festival sets up a techno Eden on their sunny beaches. In France you can attend I Love Techno Europe, which takes place in Montpellier during December.

And beyond those huge names, you’ll find a number of smaller techno festivals, helping shape the scene by giving a platform to some the genre’s best underground artists, as well as taking over some pretty unique spaces. Take 19/7001 Festival, which takes place in a former bunker complex near Berlin, or Poland’s Instytut, which pounds around the walls of a 19th-century fortress.