Is Trance Coming Back? The Evidence For, the Evidence Against and a DJ's Read

Yes, trance is coming back, but not the way it left. It is returning through hard dance and hard techno, through Tiësto going back to his roots, and through a UK circuit of daytime trance parties that keeps selling out, not through Beatport's list of 2026's biggest trends, where it does not appear. Tomorrow, Saturday 14 November, A State of Trance stages its first indoor UK festival at Drumsheds, so this is the day to weigh it: the evidence for, the evidence against, and a read from a DJ who plays house and garage and has no stake in the answer.

The evidence, in one table

The case for

Tiësto is the headline. The DJ who defined big-room trance at the start of the century spent the 2010s making EDM and pop house, then closed his Club Life radio show at the end of 2025 after 978 episodes and 18 years. On 2 January 2026 he started Prismatic, a show built on trance and progressive, which he framed as a creative reset rather than a goodbye. His Warehouse Project date on 11 December is listed as sold out.

The second pillar is doof. The numbers are in the Hannah Laing profile. Mixmag's July cover story describes it as a refreshed take on classic trance and hard house with a fanbase of older and younger heads, and Laing tells the magazine that whether she is making a trance record or a techno record, the main influence is still that 90s sound. A 17,000-capacity festival built on those records is a trance festival in all but name.

The third is a London circuit that never stopped. Trance Sanctuary's Kearnage X, Bryan Kearney at Troxy on 7 November, was down to its last 500 tickets by late September. The same promoter has a Euphoria day rave on New Year's Day, whose early-bird tickets had gone, and FSOE Road to 1000 on Saturday 6 March 2027, billed as day and night events for the 1,000th episode of Aly & Fila's Future Sound of Egypt show. The ASOT date itself, and its 25-year story, is in the ASOT London guide.

The route back runs through hard dance

The stronger evidence is where trance's ingredients turn up without the word. On 27 January Beatport made psy-techno a sub-genre: "techno's hypnotic pulse with the psychedelic sound design, driving basslines, and intricate layering associated with Psy-Trance". Its June review said "harder, faster sounds, from hard techno to psy-techno" are "still doing serious damage at peak time". That is trance's toolkit sold under a techno label.

The bills say the same. Pegassi is on the ASOT line-up at Drumsheds and on The Warehouse Project's XXL in Manchester two weeks later. Ben Hemsley, a hard dance regular, is on the ASOT bill too. Ali James, on three of the Teletech UK dates this month, is described in his Resident Advisor biography as a fusion of hard dance, hard techno and psytrance. And Terminal V London booked I Hate Models, who did more than anyone to bring trance melody into hard techno. It is the route donk took too: back as an ingredient first, and as a name later.

The case against

Start with the one sales signal that covers the market. Beatport's mid-year review, which ranks January to June sales, opens with the year's biggest trends: tech house, house, melodic house and techno, afro house, Latin electronic, Brazilian funk, UK garage, jungle and drum and bass, and the harder, faster end. Trance still has three categories on the store, Trance (Main Floor), Trance (Raw / Deep / Hypnotic) and Psy-Trance, and none is named.

Then look at what sells out. Tiësto's WHP date is a Tiësto sell-out; it would have sold whatever he promised to play. The ASOT festival was still on general sale at the end of September, normal for a 14,999-capacity building about seven weeks out, but not the same story. And look at the hours: ASOT 13:00 to 22:30, Kearnage X 15:00 to 22:00, and a New Year's Day party billed as "another day rave filled with nostalgia". Nostalgia fills rooms. It does not always build new ones.

A DJ's honest read

I do not play trance, so I have no stake in this. Trance is coming back in two places at once. The name is coming back through the old guard, Tiësto, ASOT, Trance Sanctuary, for a crowd that remembers the records. The sound is coming back through the young end: the melody, the long breakdown and the 140-plus tempo are all over the hard techno and doof rooms selling out fastest, and the 20-year-olds in them call it hard techno, doof or psy-techno, anything but trance.

I will call it a full revival when the two meet: trance in Beatport's trends list, an ASOT London that sells out rather than sells well, and a young producer happy to call their record trance. That is how garage came back, as an ingredient first and a name second, the story in UK garage 2026: never left, just faster. My guess is that trance is about a year behind it.

FAQ

Is trance coming back in 2026?

Partly. The big names are back in big rooms, including A State of Trance's first indoor UK festival and Tiësto's sold-out WHP debut, and trance's sound is spreading through hard techno and hard dance. Beatport's 2026 mid-year review does not list trance among the year's biggest trends.

Why is trance popular again?

The generation that went out around 2000 is going out again, often in daylight, and a younger hard techno and hard dance crowd has adopted trance's melodies through artists such as Hannah Laing and I Hate Models.

Is Tiësto playing trance again?

Largely, yes. He ended Club Life after 978 episodes at the end of 2025 and launched Prismatic, built on trance and progressive, on 2 January 2026.

What is psy-techno?

Techno's hypnotic pulse with psy-trance sound design and driving basslines. Beatport made it a sub-genre of Techno (Peak Time / Driving) on 27 January 2026.

Where can I hear trance in London this winter?

A State of Trance at Drumsheds on 14 November, Trance Sanctuary's Euphoria on New Year's Day, and FSOE Road to 1000 on 6 March 2027.

When is A State of Trance London 2026?

Saturday 14 November 2026 at Drumsheds, 13:00 to 22:30, across three rooms, with Armin van Buuren, Ferry Corsten and Cosmic Gate on the bill.

Sources

• The Warehouse Project (thewarehouseproject.com/events), Drumsheds and Ironworks London event listings; Resident Advisor listings for Kearnage X at Troxy (7 November 2026), A State of Trance at Drumsheds and XXL at Depot Mayfield (28 November 2026), checked 8 November 2026
• DJ Mag, 5 January 2026, and EDMTunes, 6 January 2026, on Club Life and Prismatic; Mixmag's Hannah Laing cover feature, 20 July 2026
• Trance Sanctuary's website; Beatportal on psy-techno, 27 January 2026, and Beatport's 2026 mid-year review, 29 June 2026; Resident Advisor

This guide is part of House of MNEEMO's ongoing coverage of the electronic and club music scene, written by London-based DJ and producer MNEEMO, who runs the HOUSE OF MNEEMO party series and its DJ school. For tomorrow's festival itself, read the A State of Trance London guide.