Overview
Goldrush 2026 kicked off the music festival season here in Phoenix on September 11th and 12th. From explosive performances to a wild west themed venue with plenty of side quests to do. Goldrush is a yearly music festival focusing on electronic music hosted by Relentless Beats. This year was the 9th annual GoldRush here in Arizona, the lineup featured the likes of Griz, Martin Garrix, deadmau5, Alesso, and plenty others across half a dozen stages. Goldrush recently swapped back to using the Rawhide Western town last year. The change has been a great one in my opinion as it lends itself perfectly to the Wild West theme GoldRush is known for.
GoldRush Night One, Getting a Lay of The Land:
Night one of Goldrush had some killer artists like Alesso, Deadmau5, Sullivan King and AlleyCVT just to name a few. Besides headbanging to the main headliners a bunch of night one was spent exploring the western themed festival. From the hidden Dude Wipes stage to the Arcade, Goldrush had no shortage of things to do between sets. This year’s redbull stage really stood out with its extremely high energy mixes ranging from Drum and Bass to Hardstyle Techno. The Golden Gorge was this year’s main stage and featured massive stone like structures and cacti. An early set that stood out to me was Domina. Her set consisted of a bunch of dark techno and hardstyle which was refreshing to see on the main stage. After her set I went over to Pioneer Peak which was the second main stage. Zoey808 was up next, his set felt like a house party with a mix of rap and trap edm. Kaivon took to the stage next, he mellowed the vibes a bit with his psychedelic dubstep beats.
After him I took a break from the main stages to relax and wander around the festival grounds. I checked out the dude wipes and redbull stages. I liked that the dude wipes stage was hidden behind a wall of fake porta potties. The stage was a really fun one and I returned a few more times throughout the weekend. Next up I checked out the Redbull stage, it was situated in one of Rawhide buildings and featured a disco ball and LED dancefloor. This stage was about high energy and was always playing something upbeat and fast.
I went back to the main stage for Sullivan King. He put on a great performance with a mix of edm and metal. At some points he would bust out the guitar and start shredding, he was definitely one of the more memorable sets from the festival for me. Next up was desdmau5 who brought it down a notch with his deep house music. The night ended with high energy performances from Alesso at Golden Gorge and AlleyCVT at Pioneer Peak. I spent most of this time at AlleyCVT’s set. She was tearing it up with her explosive dubstep drops.
GoldRush Night 2, Crossing Off My List
Night 2 of Goldrush was the night I was looking forward to the most. After checking out the secondary stages and buying a deadmau5 plush I set off to see Valentino Khan. He was first up on my list, at the Golden Gorge he was racing the energy with his upbeat house beats. Next up was DJ Pauly D, he had great stage presence and really amped up the vibes. His set was a blast and had me excited for the rest of the night. It’s Murph took the stage next. His set was one of the ones I was most excited for and he did not disappoint. His set was really upbeat and had the whole crowd dancing, he was a great lead into the next act on the main stage.
Griz was after him and he continued the explosive energy started in the previous sets. His stage presence was amazing with him playing saxophone on stage alongside huge arrays of lasers and lights. After that amazing performance I made my way to Pioneer Peak to end my night. Ray Volpe was taking the stage and was the main DJ I’ve been waiting to see. Ray Volpe absolutely killed it with his fast and explosive dubstep. He definitely lived up to my expectations, and was a bittersweet way to end the weekend.
Overall this year seemed to be a step up in production value and stages and has me optimistic about its future. Next year is the 10th anniversary of GoldRush and I’m interested to see what they’ll implement, whether it be more stages or maybe even bringing back the ferris wheel, only time will tell.
