How Balad Beast 2026 Redefined My Idea Of A Global Music Festival

Over the last few months, I’ve spent more time in concert media pits than in cafés. If there’s a live show in the city, chances are you’ll find me somewhere near the speakers, chasing the next drop or doing ELLE Mic Drops. This time, though, music led me somewhere different—not just into the crowd, but into conversation. So when I found myself in Jeddah last weekend, stepping into the historic streets of Al Balad for Balad Beast 2026, I thought I knew what I was walking into. I didn’t.

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This was my first international music festival, and instead of feeling like a louder version of what I’d already seen, Balad Beast felt… intentional. Cultural. Deeply rooted in where it was happening. Set inside a UNESCO World Heritage site, the fourth edition of the festival unfolded across narrow alleyways, ancient façades, and open squares that have witnessed centuries of history, now pulsing with sound, light, and thousands of people moving together.

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Across four stages —Bab, Omda, Souq, and Roshan, more than 70 artists came together over two days. The lineup moved fluidly between global heavyweights and regional voices: Playboi Carti, Tyga, Shaggy, LANY, Alesso, Solomun, alongside acts like TUL8TE, Vinyl Mode, Cosmicat, Dish Dash, and Baloo himself. One can say it wasn’t just genre-spanning; it was global music-spanning. 

What struck me first was the scale without excess. Balad Beast isn’t trying to overwhelm you. Instead, it invites you to wander. To groove upon a DJ set echoing through a historic courtyard which I know enjoyed quite a lot more than I expected, or follow the sound of electronic beats down a narrow lane lined with traditional Roshan windows. It felt closer to discovering music than consuming it. That sense of discovery is very much by design.

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Baloo (Ahmed Alammary)(CCO at MDLBEAST, DJ and producer), speaks about the festival with the clarity of someone who understands both sides of the barricade. “Being a DJ, being a member of the dance floor,” he told me, “gives me insight into what people want to listen to, what the vibe should feel like, what an epic stage could look like. The roles serve each other beautifully.”

That duality, artist and architect, runs through Balad Beast’s DNA. Baloo is clear that the job isn’t about serving personal taste. “I don’t only serve the niche that I play music for,” he said. “You have to think about what works for ticket sales, for different audiences, for the local crowd. I’m Saudi, so I sit between the local and the global—and that amalgamation is a privilege.”

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You feel that balance most clearly at the Bab Stage, the festival’s main square. On Day One, Destroy Lonely kicked things off with a ferocious set that had the crowd screaming along to BLITZ. Then came a landmark moment: Playboi Carti’s first-ever performance in Saudi Arabia, opening with Timeless, his collaboration with The Weeknd, flanked by dancers in traditional Saudi attire. It wasn’t performative cultural fusion—it felt organic, confident, and powerful.

By the time Alesso closed the night, Al Balad had transformed into something almost surreal: centuries-old architecture lit up by cutting-edge visuals, global EDM drops echoing through a space that has existed long before festivals were even a concept.

Day Two leaned into range. Naïka’s soulful, Afro-inflected pop eased the crowd in, followed by regional favourite TUL8TE, whose Arabic tracks landed with a familiarity that made it clear how deeply local audiences were being centred here. Shaggy’s set, It Wasn’t Me, Boombastic, Angel, felt like a collective throwback, proof that 90s icons still hold their own in a Gen Z-dominated crowd. Tyga closed the festival with hit after hit, bringing the final night to a sharp, celebratory finish.

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For someone used to International festivals in India, what stood out wasn’t just the lineup, it was also the heart warming hospitality. Everything ran smoothly, from movement between stages to crowd flow. The city itself felt welcoming, curious, alive. And the food, rich, comforting, endlessly generous, became part of the experience, not a side note between sets.

Baloo believes that many artists don’t fully realise what it takes to make festivals like this work. “Artists are usually worried about what they’re going to play, how the crowd will react,” he said. “They’re not thinking about the spaces, the curation, the experience as a whole, and that’s okay. It takes years to understand that no festival is the same as another.”

That learning curve has shaped MDLBEAST’s evolution. From the early days of Soundstorm, where, as Baloo puts it, “a lot of it was mystery and guessing what people want”—to now, the focus has shifted decisively to the audience. “The audience is king,” he said simply. “They should lead the thinking and the curation.”

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Nowhere is that clearer than at Balad Beast. When asked to describe the festival in three ideas, Baloo didn’t hesitate: “It’s one of a kind. It’s incredibly giving, there’s so much detail, so much to discover. And finally, music. The same artists can play here year after year, but they’ll sound different every time.”

That difference is what stayed with me long after the final set ended. Balad Beast isn’t just importing global culture into Saudi Arabia; it’s exporting a new kind of festival language, one where heritage isn’t a backdrop, but an active participant. Where electronic music, hip-hop, pop, and Arabic sounds coexist without hierarchy.

As someone attending their first international festival, I arrived expecting novelty. I left with perspective. Balad Beast didn’t feel like a destination event designed only for spectacle. And if this is where the region’s music festivals are headed, the future sounds very, very good and fun. 

Also, read:

From Fujii Kaze To Linkin Park: ELLE India’s VIP Weekend At Lollapalooza India 2026