With ASOT’s new event in Rotterdam just two weeks away, here’s a rundown of what to expect
It’s been a while since the announcement of the new A State Of Trance event and so far, we’ve discovered almost all the details of the celerations weekend that will bring artists and lovers of trance music from all over the world to Ahoy Rotterdam for the second year in a row.
The fact that this 2025 edition is called TRANSFORMATION is no coincidence, as it was not for the previous two events, named REFLEXION and DESTINATION: the first, which symbolized the passage between the first 1000 episodes of Armin van Buuren‘s radioshow and the prospect of a new vision of trance music to come and the second, mainly dedicated to the arrival at a new home, a new destination, after eight years in Jaarbuers Utrecht, towards Ahoy Rotterdam, precisely; the era of A State Of Trance TRANSFORMATION, the name does not hide it, clearly indicates what has been clearly evident for some time in the musical path of many trance and progressive artists, that is the incorporation of new and old sounds, mainly techno.
Techno and trance music, since their birth, have always walked side by side: trance music, after all, collects what are often the rhythms and speeds of the techno genre and especially in the 90s many historical trance successes had many affinities with the genre that today is classified as techno music: then, at the end of the 90s and especially during the early 2000s, the harmony and the trance sound have detached themselves more, going to build their own identity, the one that lovers of pure trance particularly love.
It’s evident that techno music in recent years has definitely returned to the forefront in the main festivals and many critics have noted that this techno music is actually a return of what twenty-five years ago was German or Belgian hard trance music: in addition to this return of old style sounds, in recent years what is called “melodic techno” has taken hold at festivals, which in reality, in our opinion and not only, is rather a sort of “slowed-down” trance music: it goes without saying that what has made this trend famous in recent times are also the new incredible visuals that have accompanied these events recently.
These trends have clearly not gone unnoticed by Armin van Buuren and his team and the new act of A State Of Trance at Ahoy Rotterdam on 21 and 22 February 2025 will clearly feature a lot of trance music but with plenty of space also dedicated to techno and progressive artists: the line-up and the timetable have been complete for a few days:
In a similar format of A State Of Trance REFLEXION event in 2023, on the first day, Friday 21, the festival will be divided into two rooms and and the doors will open between 18:00 and 19:00 and the event will end at 1:00: on the mainstage, called Area I, Armin van Buuren will play a “solo” set in which he will celebrate his musical journey, but accompanied by artists such as ARTBAT, Ben Hemsley and Maddix: with the latter, Armin will propose an unprecedented FACE 2 FACE set in which the two DJs will play one in front of the other. If what will happen in the Mainstage will surprise you, it really seems that Area II seems to resemble a another Mainstage with the expected names !
On Saturday February 22, as usual, the festival will last 9 hours, from 21:00 to 6:00 (8 hours, from 22:00 to 6:00 for those who have the Regular ticket) and here the new imprint directed towards a fusion with the techno genre given to the event is more evident, especially in the Mainstage, Area I: absolutely noteworthy is the B2B of Armin planned with one of the icons of techno, Adam Bayer, who promises to leave his mark. For the rest of the areas planned, as every year, you are spoiled for choice.
The anthem signed for the event this year was written with Ben Hemsley and will finally be released on February 13th, it is called Is It Beautiful ? and that’s what you expect from an anthem by A State Of Trance: a dreamy melody, exceptionally accompanied by Lucy Pullin‘s voice, interrupted by a fantastic drop:
VIP weekend tickets, like every year, sold out in a few days but an official resale/waiting list point has recently been put on sale where you can buy the last tickets put back on sale and the last Friday and Saturday VIP and Friday and Saturday Regular tickets still available:
On A State Of Trance.com you can read all the news about how to get to the event, all the information about the festival and about the events that will take place on Saturday at the Mainport Hotel in Rotterdam for A State Of Trance By Day before the event.
We will be there and we can’t wait, once again !