Dreamstate Australia completes major line-up: Tiësto prepares a two-hour trance set, Ferry Corsten and MaRLo are coming
Dreamstate Australia has finalized the program for its 2027 edition, which will take place over two consecutive days in Sydney and Melbourne. According to the organizers' final announcement from September 9, 2026, the last names added to the line-up include Ferry Corsten, MaRLo, Natte Visstick, XiJaro & Pitch, Nikolina, Nicolas Julian, VisionV and Alt1. They join the previously confirmed Tiësto, who will perform a specially announced two-hour trance set at both Australian editions. The festival is scheduled for Saturday, February 6, 2027, at Sydney Showground, and the following day, Sunday, February 7, the program moves to Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne. Dreamstate's official website confirms both dates and states that tickets are on sale.
The final line-up shows that the Australian edition of Dreamstate is no longer conceived solely as a strictly genre-focused trance event. The organizers describe the program as a combination of trance, techno, hard techno and harder styles of electronic music, bringing artists from several generations and different scenes together on the same poster. Alongside the return of major names associated with classic trance, the program also includes Reinier Zonneveld, Infected Mushroom, Indira Paganotto with the Artcore project, Lilly Palmer, Marie Vaunt, BIIA, Onlynumbers and Prada2000. This line-up clearly positions Dreamstate Australia as a broader electronic festival that retains trance as an important part of its identity while combining it with current techno and hard-dance trends. For the audience, the relationship between the genre's heritage and the contemporary festival sound is one of the main themes of the 2027 edition.
Tiësto returns to the sound that defined the early part of his career
Tiësto continues to attract the most attention. His performance has not been announced as a typical festival set made up of a selection of newer hits and current EDM repertoire, but as a two-hour trance set. Australian music outlet The Music reported back in June that the Dutch DJ would headline both Dreamstate editions and perform two hours of trance-focused music in both Sydney and Melbourne. In doing so, the organizers are highlighting the period of his career before his global breakthrough into pop and festival EDM, when he was strongly associated with the trance scene, releases such as the album In My Memory, and a series of productions that became part of the genre's canon in the early 2000s.
Tiësto's return to the trance format carries additional significance because his professional path has crossed the boundaries of individual electronic music styles for decades. The Grammy's official database lists one win and three nominations for him, including the award for Best Remixed Recording for his remix of John Legend's All of Me at the 2015 ceremony. In the later part of his career, he became one of the most recognizable names in the global dance mainstream, but it was precisely trance productions and long DJ sets that were crucial to his reputation around the turn of the century. That is why his appearance at Dreamstate Australia 2027 is presented not simply as another festival booking, but as a programmed return to a part of his catalogue that is heard far less frequently on this scale today. The two-hour duration additionally creates room for a set that can include more than just a short sequence of the best-known classics.
Ferry Corsten among the most important final additions
Among the last names added, Ferry Corsten stands out in particular, another Dutch producer whose career is deeply connected with the development of trance. Corsten's official biography recalls his work under the names System F and Gouryella, as well as his decades-long presence on the international electronic music scene. The Gouryella project in particular is an important connection with Tiësto: the two Dutch producers collaborated on the project in the late 1990s, during a period when melodic trance was gaining strong international momentum. Corsten subsequently continued building a solo career that moved through trance, progressive, melodic house and techno, and Dreamstate now brings him back onto the program alongside one of his best-known former collaborators.
His inclusion gives the final version of the line-up a stronger historical dimension. The festival therefore brings Tiësto and Corsten together on the same program with artists who established themselves much later, in a different festival and club environment. Corsten's presence is particularly relevant to audiences who follow Dreamstate primarily because of the brand's trance identity, as his projects and solo releases belong to an era that strongly shaped the international sound of the genre in the late 1990s and early 2000s. At the same time, his more recent production shows that his musical direction has not remained frozen in a single period either. It is precisely this combination of heritage and contemporary approach that fits well with the broader concept of the Australian edition.
MaRLo, XiJaro & Pitch and the harder side of the program
MaRLo, an Australian DJ and producer of Dutch origin associated with trance and a more energetic festival sound, also joins the final round of artists. His official website shows an active international performance schedule throughout 2026, including his own Altitude series, making him one of the artists with a strong connection to Australian audiences and the country's electronic music scene. In the context of Dreamstate, his performance represents a link between melodic trance and the stronger, faster-paced festival approach that has become increasingly present at major electronic events in recent years. Natte Visstick, an artist associated with the harder side of the contemporary dance sound, has also been confirmed alongside Nicolas Julian, VisionV, Nikolina and Alt1.
The appearance of Belgian trance duo XiJaro & Pitch carries a special story. In the final line-up announcement, their performance was described as the project's final Australian show. This means Sydney and Melbourne will receive a rare opportunity to see the duo as part of a major festival program before the end of their Australian concert run as it is currently announced. Organizers and media outlets that reported the announcement emphasize their strong connection to emotional and uplifting trance, further expanding the range of a program in which harder techno artists appear alongside projects closer to Dreamstate's traditional audience. For a festival that originally established itself as a destination dedicated to trance, such artists remain an important part of the continuity of its identity.
Complete Dreamstate Australia 2027 line-up
According to the organizers' final announcement and current event listings, the program for Sydney and Melbourne includes the following artists:
- Alt1
- BIIA
- Billy Gillies
- Dimatik
- Factor B
- Ferry Corsten
- Indira Paganotto presents Artcore
- Infected Mushroom
- Lilly Palmer
- Marie Vaunt
- MaRLo
- Natte Visstick
- Nicolas Julian
- Nikolina
- Onlynumbers
- Prada2000
- Reinier Zonneveld
- Tiësto - trance set
- VisionV
- XiJaro & Pitch
The list shows how broad the genre range of the 2027 edition is. Reinier Zonneveld is among the most recognizable names in the contemporary techno festival circuit, while Infected Mushroom brings a long-standing psytrance tradition to the program. Indira Paganotto builds her Artcore project around a combination of techno energy and psychedelic elements, while artists such as Lilly Palmer and Marie Vaunt further emphasize the techno component. On the other hand, Factor B, Billy Gillies, Ferry Corsten, MaRLo and XiJaro & Pitch maintain a strong connection between the program and trance. In this way, the organizers are trying to bring together audiences who follow electronic music from different generational and genre perspectives, rather than limiting the festival to a single school of sound.
Two cities in two days: Sydney, then Melbourne
Dreamstate Australia 2027 begins on Saturday, February 6, at Sydney Showground within Sydney Olympic Park. The venue's official website confirms the event and states that it is an 18+ program. Sydney Showground also warns that stage lighting, pyrotechnics and smoke effects will be used during the event and recommends arriving by public transport because of the expected increase in traffic in the surrounding area. For visitors arriving from other parts of Australia or from abroad, a practical option may be to review accommodation in Sydney near the festival venue, especially if they plan to arrive a day earlier.
The following day, Sunday, February 7, Dreamstate moves to Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne. Organizer Symbiotic confirms precisely this order and both locations on its current events page. Such a schedule means these are two separate one-day editions of the same festival program rather than a single multi-day event at the same location. For international visitors choosing Melbourne, it is relevant that Flemington Racecourse is a major event venue in the city's metropolitan area, so it is sensible to plan arrival, return travel and accommodation for Dreamstate visitors in Melbourne in advance. The exact performance schedule by time and stage had not yet been listed in verified sources at the time of the final line-up announcement, so the detailed daily timetable will need to be followed through the festival's official channels.
Dreamstate began as a dedicated trance brand, while the Australian edition expands the format
Dreamstate was launched by American promoter Insomniac in 2015 as an event dedicated to trance music. In its own history, Insomniac states that the brand was created in response to the growth of the trance movement in the United States, after which it expanded into international markets, including Australia. The first edition was held in California in November 2015, and the original concept was very clearly focused on different subgenres of trance. Over time, individual regional editions developed their own programming profiles, while the Australian version now openly promotes a combination of trance, techno and hard techno. This development helps explain why the 2027 line-up simultaneously includes Tiësto's returning trance set and artists belonging to significantly harder contemporary styles.
The expansion of the genre spectrum will probably remain one of the main points of discussion among long-time fans of the brand. On one hand, the presence of Tiësto, Ferry Corsten, Factor B, MaRLo and XiJaro & Pitch gives the program a strong trance core. On the other hand, Reinier Zonneveld, Lilly Palmer, Marie Vaunt, Natte Visstick and other artists signal that the organizers are also targeting audiences following the current techno and hard-techno wave. Commercially, such a combination allows the festival to reach a broader visitor base, but at the same time it changes expectations associated with the Dreamstate name. The final 2027 program can therefore be read as an attempt to balance the history of the brand with current trends at major electronic festivals.
Why the 2027 edition matters to trance audiences
The greatest symbolic value of the program comes from the meeting of several generations of trance at the same festival. Tiësto and Ferry Corsten represent the period in which Dutch trance became a global festival and club force in the early 2000s, while MaRLo, Factor B, Billy Gillies and XiJaro & Pitch represent later phases in the evolution of the genre and its more energetic variants. Infected Mushroom additionally recalls the parallel development of psytrance, which emerged from a different scene but has shared part of the festival audience with melodic trance for decades. In such a context, Tiësto's two-hour set becomes a central programming point not only because of the size of his name, but also because of the possibility of connecting historical repertoire with today's generation of listeners.
For Dreamstate itself, the final line-up announcement closes a months-long cycle of artist presentations and shifts the focus to organizing the two events in February. Tickets are currently on sale, according to Dreamstate's official websites and organizer announcements, while details such as final set times, artist allocation by stage and any additional logistical instructions may be published closer to the festival date. Visitors are therefore advised to check practical information on the official event and venue websites, particularly because entry conditions, bag rules, transportation and other operational matters may differ between Sydney and Melbourne. What is already clear is that Dreamstate Australia 2027 has a completed program that attempts to bring together two important stories in contemporary electronic music: renewed interest in trance heritage and the continued strong growth of harder techno styles.
Sources:
- Dreamstate / Insomniac - official confirmation of the Sydney and Melbourne dates and ticket-sale status (link)
- Symbiotic Events - official venues and dates for the Australian edition of Dreamstate 2027 (link)
- Sydney Showground - official information about the event, age restriction, transport and venue conditions (link)
- AMNPLIFY - final Dreamstate Australia 2027 line-up announcement and list of the latest additions to the program (link)
- The Music - confirmation of Tiësto's two-hour trance sets in Sydney and Melbourne (link)
- Insomniac - history of the brand and information that Dreamstate was launched in 2015 (link)
- Ferry Corsten - official biography and information about the System F and Gouryella projects (link)
- Grammy Awards - official information about Tiësto's Grammy nominations and award (link)