Black Book Records boss and one of house music's most reliable groove engineers, making bassline-first tech house that fills every dancefloor it touches.
HouseTech-house
Breakaway Carolina 2026 Lineup
Breakaway's biggest stop: two September nights at zMAX Dragway outside Charlotte, house on one shoulder and bass on the other, with three b2b sets printed on the admat.
Breakaway Carolina is expected back September 2027 (dates aren't announced yet). Until then, here's the full 2026 lineup and the acts you would have loved.
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About Breakaway Carolina 2026
Breakaway is a touring festival brand that plays over a dozen U.S. cities a year, and Carolina is its largest stop: two days at zMAX Dragway on the Charlotte Motor Speedway grounds in Concord, with house on one shoulder and bass on the other. The 2026 edition splits its marquee names by night: Chris Lake closing Friday, Tiësto closing Saturday.
Friday leans harder into bass and club heat (Kettama, Hamdi, Daily Bread, What So Not), while Saturday stacks the house end with Cloonee going back-to-back with Chris Lorenzo, plus Cassian, J. Worra and Westend. Three b2b sets are printed on the admat itself, which tells you something about how this festival thinks about pacing.
The 2026 build-out is five stages, including a Beatport Live stage (The Block) and a silent disco, and the promoter says the main stage more than doubles in width this year. Lineups are printed A-Z per day, so day assignments are official even though set times aren't out yet.
Expect dance, house, electronic and bass across 42 acts.
At a glance
- Dates
- –Friday to Saturday, two days
- Where
- zMAX Dragway at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Concord, NC
- Lineup
- 42 acts
- Website
- Official site
Breakaway Carolina 2026 lineup & schedule: all 42 acts
Search it, filter by day, stage or genre.Browse all 42 acts
Search it, filter by day, stage or genre.
The elder statesman of big-tent dance music, a trance godfather turned arena-house fixture, still detonating 'The Business'-sized hooks three decades in.
DanceHouse
MLE
Dance
Darby
Electronic
SVDKO
Electronica
Dreya V B2B Cole Knight
A shared back-to-back set where Dreya V and Cole Knight trade records the whole way through.
Dance
Koastle (DJ Set)
Melodic, hook-first electronic that borrows from house and bass alike, here as a DJ set.
ElectronicMelodic bass
KLO
Los Angeles bass and UK garage, built for the sound-system end of the room, with an underground following and cosigns from Disclosure, Fred Again and Hamdi.
Dance
Heavy, riddim-leaning dubstep built for the low end and not much else.
DubstepRiddim
Two rising house names sharing one booth, trading off back-to-back for the whole set.
House
Australian bass mainstay and a project that helped define future trap, still swinging between festival-sized drops and moodier, more experimental cuts.
BassTrap
Starjunk 95
House
Brazilian house phenom: young, relentless, and groove-first, riding the country's house wave onto festival main stages worldwide.
House
UK bass with a dancehall bounce: the sound of a soundsystem set rather than a festival drop, with 'Skanka' the breakout.
BassUK garage
Sample-soul house on the rise, with warm, chopped-vocal grooves and a headphone producer's detail, here in DJ-set form.
Melodic house
Irish rave-house heat with big-room energy and underground credentials, breakbeats and pianos at full sprint, and Galway-to-warehouse momentum fully underway.
HouseBreakbeat
Dusty, hip-hop-rooted electro-soul that would sound at home on a boom-bap record if you slowed it down, with Atlanta sample-craft in the Pretty Lights lineage.
Electro-soulHip-hop
Dublin producer working the bright end of dance music, with pop-sized hooks built onto house frames.
Dance-popHouse
Rad Cat
Remix-honed melodic dance from San Diego, with bright, poppy leads and festival-sized polish.
Dance-popFuture-bass
Z3lla
Dance
Distant Matter
Dance
Chicago-raised tech house with the city's DNA intact: chunky, swinging grooves with a classic house vocal streak.
Tech-houseHouse
Sound-design-first bass that is glitchy, precise and genre-fluid, the kind of set that exists to show off what a sound system can actually do.
BassElectro
Duo whose calling card is live pop vocals over heavyweight drops: melodic bass with a frontwoman, not just a drop reel.
BassDance-pop
NYC tech house that is punchy and playful, peak-time tools with remix-radar ubiquity, reliability with personality.
Tech house
UK bass house with garage in its bones: rolling, swung and bass-forward.
Bass-houseUK-garageHouse
Dutch producer who plays guitar over his own melodic bass music. Earnest in a genre that often isn't, with sincerity as the signature.
ElectronicFuture bass
Australian melodic house from deep inside RÜFÜS DU SOL's orbit: polished, emotive, engineered for the sunset slot.
Melodic-house
UK producer whose rhythmically intricate trap sounds like nobody else's, with 'Do You?' swagger and global percussion baked in.
TrapFuture-bass
Brothers making breezy, jazz-flecked bedroom pop with soft chords, shuffling drums, and a sun-warmed melancholy built for headphones and golden hour.
Dance
Cloonee B2B Chris Lorenzo
Two UK house heavyweights in one booth, with Cloonee's rolling tech house against Chris Lorenzo's swaggering bass house.
Tech-houseBass-house
Bass music with metal's aggression baked in, heavy, dark, and increasingly vocal-led, with Boise drops of blast-furnace weight.
DubstepMetal-bass
Johnny!
Hip-hop
Nash RLY
HouseDance
Thrillbill
Bummy
Atura
DanceElectronic
Très Mortimer
Dance
Pharrö
DJ Susan
Dance
San Diego house DJ folding reggaeton, hip-hop and mariachi samples into hard-hitting club tracks like 'Vamonos De Fiesta'.
House
Airrica
Dance
The headliners
Chris Lake · Black Book Records boss and one of house music's most reliable groove engineers, making bassline-first tech house that fills every dancefloor it touches.
Tiësto · The elder statesman of big-tent dance music, a trance godfather turned arena-house fixture, still detonating 'The Business'-sized hooks three decades in.
Up-and-comers to catch early
Beltran · Brazilian tech house's fastest riser: a Beatport-chart breakout with a groove-first, gleefully unconventional style.
Hamdi · UK bass's current breakout, all dancehall bounce and soundsystem weight that jumped from the underground to main stages.
nimino (DJ Set) · London producer whose warm, chopped-soul house edits are quietly everywhere. Catch him before the rooms get bigger.
Westend · NYC tech house riser: punchy, playful peak-time tools that have been all over the big rooms this year.
Other acts worth planning around
- Cloonee B2B Chris Lorenzo · The b2b of the weekend on paper: two UK house heavyweights sharing one booth on Saturday.
Kettama · Friday's rave-house peak, with big-room energy and underground credentials, and one of the hottest names in house right now.
What So Not · Friday's experimental edge: the Australian project that helped define future trap.
TroyBoi · Saturday's rhythm workout: intricate, percussive trap that sounds like nobody else on the bill.
Daily Bread · The bill's electro-soul outlier, with dusty, hip-hop-rooted grooves as a change of pace between DJ sets.
The lineup by day
Friday lineup (September 25)
Chris Lake, Beltran, Chasewest B2B Discip, Daily Bread, Darby, Dreya V B2B Cole Knight + 16 more
Friday set times (22 sets)
- Johnny! · Main Stage
- Thrillbill · The L.A.B
- Nash RLY · Pavillion Stage
- Bummy · The L.A.B
- MLE · Main Stage
- Darby · Pavillion Stage
- SVDKO · The L.A.B
- Dreya V B2B Cole Knight · Main Stage
- Koastle (DJ Set) · Pavillion Stage
- KLO · The L.A.B
- Atura · The Block
- GRAVAGERZ · Pavillion Stage
- Chasewest B2B Discip · Main Stage
- What So Not · The L.A.B
- Très Mortimer · The Block
- Starjunk 95 · Pavillion Stage
- Beltran · Main Stage
- Hamdi · The L.A.B
- nimino (DJ Set) · Pavillion Stage
- Kettama · Main Stage
- Daily Bread · The L.A.B
- Chris Lake · Main Stage
Saturday lineup (September 26)
Tiësto, Bonnie X Clyde, Cassian, Cloonee B2B Chris Lorenzo, Distant Matter, J. Worra + 14 more
Saturday set times (20 sets)
- Pharrö · Pavillion Stage
- Jay Pryor · Main Stage
- Rad Cat · Pavillion Stage
- Z3lla · The L.A.B
- DJ Susan · The Block
- Distant Matter · Pavillion Stage
- J. Worra · Main Stage
- Nitepunk · The L.A.B
- Bolo · The Block
- Bonnie X Clyde · Pavillion Stage
- Westend · Main Stage
- Taiki Nulight · The L.A.B
- Airrica · The Block
- San Holo · Pavillion Stage
- Cassian · Main Stage
- TroyBoi · The L.A.B
- Łaszewo · Pavillion Stage
- Cloonee B2B Chris Lorenzo · Main Stage
- Kai Wachi · The L.A.B
- Tiësto · Main Stage
Breakaway Carolina 2026 lineup FAQ
When is Breakaway Carolina 2026?
September 25–26, 2026 (Friday and Saturday).
Where is Breakaway Carolina held?
zMAX Dragway at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, NC, just outside Charlotte.
Who is headlining?
Chris Lake tops Friday's bill and Tiësto tops Saturday's.
How many acts are playing?
36 billed sets across two days, three of them b2b sets, so 39 artists in all.
Are day-by-day lineups published?
Yes. The lineup is printed A-Z per day, and every act's day is shown on this page. Set times aren't out yet.
How do I work out which acts I'd like?
Type a few artists you already love into the search at the top of this page and you'll get ranked matches from this lineup, with reasons.
When is Breakaway Carolina 2027?
Breakaway Carolina is expected back in September 2027; the festival has not announced the 2027 dates yet. The 2026 lineup stays on this page until it does.
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