25 Absurd EDM Tales That Really Occurred in 2025

From mid-crowd competition intercourse to serotonin-flushed Jon Hamm memes, 2025 noticed no scarcity of “you’ll be able to’t make these items up” moments.

EDM has all the time functioned as a type of glitch within the musical matrix, however in 2025, the simulation lastly gave up on logic fully.

Nothing may’ve ready us for the sheer absurdity of the final 12 months, which noticed Jon Hamm infiltrating the membership scene, wooks competing for love, and the ultimate minute of fame for the “Ibiza Closing Boss.” 2025 proved that whereas the kickdrum stays constant, the world surrounding it has moved right into a territory the place the road between a real pattern and an elaborate web prank has vanished.

As we put together our champagne countdowns to ring in 2026, let’s have a look again at among the 12 months’s most bizarrely true tales. Learn on to find 25 of probably the most absurd tales that truly occurred in 2025.

Somebody launched a festival-inspired actuality courting present known as Wooking For Love

The producers of a brand new Denver-based actuality present sought out wooks searching for one thing deeper than wubs and kaleidoscope goggles.

Wooking For Love casted 16 contestants to compete in a collection of challenges impressed by the wook subculture discovered inside many Colorado EDM and jam band festivals. This system was created by Denver tattoo artist LaRue Allegretto, who formed its idea across the tradition’s personal rituals after an offhand joke began gaining actual traction.

The present’s challenges embrace circulation artwork choreography, stagehand scrambles and rail-riding endurance assessments that stretch till morning, all in pursuit of affection and connection. Contestants received’t arrive in limos however in dusty Subarus, with eliminations marked by wristband cuts.

Metallica saved Tomorrowland after a fireplace destroyed its mainstage

When a devastating hearth lowered Tomorrowland’s majestic “Orbyz” mainstage to a charred skeleton simply 48 hours earlier than the competition’s 2025 kickoff, the EDM world braced for dangerous information.

Then got here Metallica. The thrash legends airlifted their huge “M72 World Tour” stage elements from an Austrian warehouse to the Belgian city of Increase in a single day. A logistical miracle unfolded in actual time as crews labored by way of the nights to erect a glossy alternative in entrance of the wreckage of “Orbyz,” which had taken two years to construct.

By Friday, Martin Garrix was headlining the brand new Mainstage and delivering one of many 12 months’s greatest performances, proving that EDM has all the time been fluent in loss and constructing short-term kingdoms that vanish by Monday morning. Generally we simply want the assistance of unlikely heroes.

A Jon Hamm meme despatched a 15-year-old dance observe to the highest a Spotify chart

A clip of Jon Hamm blissing out in a nightclub did what most advertising and marketing campaigns can solely dream of, turning a 15-year-old dance observe right into a streaming juggernaut.

Danish DJ and producer Kato teamed up with singer-songwriter Jon Nørgaard to launch “Flip The Lights Off” again in 2010, however it just lately went haywire on social media, propelling it to the highest of Spotify’s Viral 50 chart and pulling over 140,000 streams every day. The observe’s sudden revival stemmed from a TikTok pattern the place customers pair mundane victories with footage of a serotonin-flushing Hamm vibing in his Apple TV+ collection Your Pals & Neighbors.

The meme format is straightforward: describe a microscopic win, like receiving an additional McNugget or plugging in a USB on the primary strive, after which reduce to Hamm swaying beneath blue lights along with his eyes closed, getting misplaced within the music as its home rhythm and euphoric synths kick in. Others throughout social media used the meme format for bittersweet nostalgia, remembering when staying up late felt consequence-free.

1 in 5 folks had intercourse at a music competition

When you had been nervous about your telephone battery lasting, almost half of competition attendees had been planning hookups that may drain their power in fully other ways.

A September research from ZipHealth pulled again the curtain on music competition hookup tradition, surveying over 1,000 US and UK attendees to map the intersection of sound and intercourse on competition grounds. The outcomes painted an image of spontaneous encounters, dangerous habits and surprisingly particular musical preferences with regards to setting the temper.

The information revealed that 19% of attendees have really sealed the deal at festivals, with millennials main the cost at 22%. The preferred hookup location? The gang itself, at a clip of 33%. Tents (28%) and vehicles (16%) rounded out the highest spots whereas doggy-style claimed the title of hottest intercourse place at 31%, although we’re unsure how researchers gathered that exact information level.

An organization performed a research on the highest DJs folks hearken to whereas pooping

In a stunning research that completely nobody requested for, researchers from the toilet product retailer QS Provides mapped out the intersection of BPM and bowel actions by figuring out the highest artists folks hearken to on the bathroom.

The, ahem, explosive research highlighted a trio of influential producers as the most well-liked digital artists folks hearken to whereas going #2. Topping the checklist was the pioneering Aphex Twin, whose advanced rhythms and experimental sounds raised some fascinating questions on pooping habits.

Calvin Harris’ dance anthems and DJ Snake’s bass-heavy bangers spherical out the highest three, proving that even in our most weak moments, we’re nonetheless in search of that excellent “drop.”

The collapse of Brooklyn Mirage

A federal chapter decide authorised the sale of Avant Gardner, the corporate behind the embattled Brooklyn Mirage venue and ill-fated Electrical Zoo competition, to its main lender for $110 million, dealing a dramatic loss of life knell for one among New York Metropolis’s most distinguished EDM venues.

The approval marked a surprising turning level for the 80,000-square-foot East Williamsburg advanced, which had been shuttered since its guardian firm filed for Chapter 11 chapter in August with $155.3 million in debt. Following an formidable $30 million renovation, a monetary disaster unfolded because the Mirage navigated operational setbacks, most notably contentious allow points and security inspection failures. Its proprietors finally ousted beleaguered CEO Josh Wyatt and changed him with storied nightlife entrepreneur Gary Richards, who additionally excursions because the famend DJ and producer Destructo.

Nonetheless, with no clear path to profitability and a rising pile of severely overdue payments, the Mirage’s reopening plans by no means materialized and Avant Gardner cancelled its total season of exhibits. The venue is now set to be razed after its proprietor filed for a demolition allow.

The “Ibiza Closing Boss” launched a crypto memecoin and it tanked

Throughout 15 epic minutes of fame this summer time, you couldn’t escape the “Ibiza Closing Boss.”

Recognized for his Lego bowl reduce and thick gold chains, British influencer Jack Kay grew to become an in a single day web phenomenon after a video of him dancing on the island went viral. He shortly signed with a expertise administration company, launched a debut single and launched a memecoin, the lattermost of which proved controversial in brief order.

As a result of what would 2025 be with out “superstar” memecoin disasters, Kay launched his $BOSS coin on August eighth earlier than it soared to a $50 million market cap. The token’s buying and selling quantity then plummeted, cratering 84% inside simply 72 hours of its debut on the Solana blockchain and wiping out over $40 million in market worth.

Extra troubling had been allegations that Kay pocketed over $100,000 by way of buying and selling charges constructed into the token’s good contract, permitting him to revenue whilst its holders watched their investments evaporate, CoinCentral reported on the time.

The quantity of AI music generated on Suno exceeded Spotify’s total catalog each two weeks

The puppet-masters behind Suno twisted their knife in our descent into AI music dystopia after revealing the platform generates extra tracks than the whole lot of Spotify each two weeks.

With nothing greater than a brief textual content immediate, Suno’s customers can “produce” full-length tracks full with instrumentals and vocals. They did that at a deafening scale this 12 months, producing 7 million tracks every day and surpassing Spotify’s 100 million-song library each 14 days.

These insights got here to mild from Suno’s investor pitch deck, a part of a fundraising effort that netted the corporate $250 million in Collection C funding. Led by Menlo Ventures with backing from NVIDIA’s NVentures and Hallwood Media, the spherical valued the corporate at $2.45 billion, reflecting Silicon Valley’s continued enthusiasm for AI’s disruptive potential within the music business.

T-Ache launched a profession in dubstep

T-Ache, the Auto-Tune king who as soon as by some means made “mansion” rhyme with “Wisconsin,” launched a profession in dubstep this 12 months.

The Grammy-winning artist shared a video on his social media from a studio livestream through which he unveiled a number of authentic dubstep tracks he produced. However it’s the caption that despatched the digital dance music group right into a collective frenzy: “Dubstep profession tender launch?”

After throwing down a shock dubstep set at Misplaced Lands and being confirmed for a b2b set with Shaq at subsequent 12 months’s Electrical Forest, the hip-hop and R&B luminary threw down at ‘T-Ache & Pals Bass Bootcamp,’ his first official digital headline present, in Atlanta on December 18th. It served because the end result of his four-day Twitch collection of the identical identify, through which he produced beats with a spread of established bass artists together with NGHTMRE, San Holo, PEEKABOO and Kompany.

“After years of quietly pursuing a brand new ardour, T-Ache is able to carry his bass music to the world together with a brand new imaginative and prescient to carry bass tradition to the forefront,” his label just lately stated.

Extremely provided a $425,000 bottle service package deal and EDC provided one for $575,000

For individuals who discover common VIP experiences insufficiently unique, Miami’s Extremely Music Pageant provided the chance to spend the equal of 4 years at an Ivy League college on drinks consumed in three days. Its $425,000 bottle service expertise, the aptly named ‘Fuck You Cash’ package deal, proved that some festival-goers favor their bass drops served with monetary devastation.

What does almost half one million {dollars} purchase at a competition the place most attendees are content material with $15 beers and good vibes? A champagne armory that may make a crypto bro blush: 200 bottles of Moet & Chandon Nectar Imperial Rosé (the Pharrell Williams Version, naturally), 100 bottles of Dom Perignon Brut Luminous and 100 Dom Perignon Rosé Luminous.

For individuals who discovered that VIP fantasy only a contact too humble, EDC returned with a jaw-dropping rebuttal. The competition’s menu choices featured ‘The Infamous,’ a bottle service expertise that stretches the definition of “splurge” to a brand new fiscal altitude: $575,000. The package deal included 125 bottles of Dom Pérignon Brut, 125 bottles of Dom Pérignon Rosé and 10 bottles of Clase Azul Extremely Tequila for a 260-bottle flex of economic bravado.

A Miami police officer was arrested after trying to smuggle MDMA aboard Groove Cruise

As festival-goers ready to set sail for Groove Cruise in late-January, authorities arrested a Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Workplace Deputy for allegedly possessing, promoting and trafficking medicine.

Legislation enforcement officers stated they discovered Francisco Melo, a six-year police veteran, had plans to distribute MDMA in the course of the four-day floating EDM competition aboard Royal Caribbean’s Attract of the Seas. Investigators reportedly used a confidential informant to buy MDMA from the deputy a month previous to his arrest as he tried to board.

The undercover officer revealed that Melo tried to carry his illicit stock onto the ship in a Skittles packet, disguising the medicine as sweet to evade detection. Detectives reportedly arrested him at PortMiami, the place they found 60 MDMA tablets in his baggage.

“Bustin Jeiber” duped a serious nightclub’s safety and carried out in Vegas

Some nights in Las Vegas make you query what you noticed, like when a Justin Bieber lookalike crashed Gryffin’s set again in August.

Gryffin humorously recapped on TikTok that he’d been duped by a pretend Bieber throughout his efficiency at XS Nightclub, the place he’s a resident, after the fraudster was mistakenly introduced in shut proximity to the stage throughout his set.

The person wore sun shades and a hoodie, and evidently was convincing sufficient to be allowed to take the stage, the place he carried out Bieber’s 2015 hit “Sorry” in full. He was finally recognized as Dylan Desclos, a infamous Bieber imposter who had been “showing” because the pop star for the final eight years. Desclos was reportedly saddled with a $10k invoice and banned from the membership.

A composer’s thoughts was revived in a lab-grown mind that writes music after his loss of life

Most individuals go away behind a will or a household recipe. Alvin Lucier left behind directions to regrow his mind and let it maintain making music.

It’s not science fiction. It’s “Revivification,” an formidable collaboration that actually introduced a bit of a composer again from the lifeless inside a dimly lit gallery in Perth. 4 years after his loss of life, Lucier is, in a way, nonetheless composing. His residing stays, a cluster of mind matter grown from his personal reprogrammed blood cells, are suspended inside a central plinth, feeding off the sounds of the room and producing haunting improvised compositions in actual time.

The “in-vitro mind” set up was developed by a bunch of artists and neuroscientists utilizing Lucier’s white blood cells, which had been donated previous to his 2021 loss of life and finally remodeled into stem cells at Harvard Medical Faculty. The cells had been then cultivated into neural clusters mimicking a creating mind and embedded on a mesh of electrodes.

The setup captures the organism’s spontaneous electrical impulses and converts them into indicators that activate transducers and mallets behind the brass plates. Every neural spark is rendered into sound, and people sounds bounce again into the mind through microphones, closing a suggestions loop that enables Lucier’s artificial mind to hear and react.

LP Cowl of Alvin Lucier: Music on a Lengthy Skinny Wire, Pretty Music (VR 1011/12), 1980.

A premium steakhouse opened inside the nation’s high dubstep competition, Misplaced Lands

After years of headbangers surviving on nachos and rooster tenders, Misplaced Lands, the prehistoric-themed competition based by dubstep famous person Excision, launched a full-service steakhouse full with A5 Wagyu and caviar toppings.

Chomp Steakhouse debuted on the grounds of the September competition in Ohio, providing what organizers known as an “elevated eating expertise” overlooking its beloved Wompy Woods stage. The menu centered round premium beef cuts and seafood.

The priciest merchandise was the A5 Wagyu steak at $120 for a 6oz portion, whereas a 10oz dry-aged ribeye ran $85 and a 6oz filet mignon for $25. For seafood, the restaurant plated grilled herb salmon for $29 and a $65 seafood tower that includes king crab, jumbo shrimp, oysters and accompaniments.

The decadent sides menu featured lobster twice-baked potato, tacky whipped potatoes, herbed truffle French fries, grilled asparagus and mesquite-charred tomatoes. Premium add-ons had been additionally accessible table-side together with caviar, shaved Urbani truffles and crabmeat.

An ex-cop was charged for stealing $600,000 in incapacity compensation after partying at a music competition

Again in Might, the Orange County District Lawyer’s Workplace issued a press launch introduced {that a} former police officer was dealing with 16 felony costs after she was seen partying at a music competition regardless of claiming a debilitating head harm left her unable to work.

From 2022 to 2023, Nicole Brown allegedly tried to bilk the California’s staff’ compensation system out of $600,000, citing a prognosis of “extreme concussion syndrome” sustained within the line of obligation. She complained of complications, dizziness and an incapacity to work on the pc, amongst different illnesses.

However her dance strikes instructed a special story. Fellow attendees of Goldenvoice’s Stagecoach Pageant, numerous whom knew Brown was off work on Whole Short-term Incapacity (TTD), noticed her consuming and dancing her manner by way of the occasion in April 2023 earlier than reporting their findings to the Westminster Police Division.

Brown was charged with 9 felony counts of creating a fraudulent assertion to acquire compensation, six felony counts of creating a fraudulent insurance coverage profit declare, and one felony enhancement of committing an aggravated white collar crime over $100,000. She faces a most sentence of twenty-two years in state jail.

Spotify hosted a rave for canines

The coffeeshop rave craze emerged as a Gen Z favourite in 2025, bobbing up in all places from LA to Miami. However these caffeine-fueled day events acquired a tail-wagging twist again in Might: canines on the dancefloor.

The Doglateria café in Sydney, Australia teamed up with Spotify to host the inaugural “Woof Doof,” the nation’s first-ever rave organized particularly for canines. The eatery serves what they name “doglato,” an all-natural gelato for canines with no sugar, preservatives or components.

The free occasion ran from 9am to midday, with the primary 50 pups in line receiving Spotify-themed doggie merch and a gelato deal with. After all, no rave is full with out tunes, so it additionally featured a dwell DJ who stored the amount between a dog-friendly 55 and 60 decibels.

Cheez-It opened its personal nightclub

Cheese and nightclubs don’t historically combine, however Cheez-It rewrote the foundations with Studio Cheez, a themed “nightclub expertise” that swapped bottle service for packing containers of crackers.

Opened from October 9–11 in New York Metropolis’s East Village, Studio Cheez invited followers 21 and as much as indulge their midnight cravings on the world’s first Cheez-It-themed nightclub. The pop-up featured a light-up dancefloor beneath a glowing “Cheez-It Disco Dice,” a cracker faucet dishing out contemporary Cheez-Its and a menu of absurdly creative cocktails just like the “Cheez-Tini” and “Smoked Gouda Outdated Customary.”

The celebration within the coronary heart of New York’s East Village by no means acquired bleu as visitors paired their drinks with bites like “Lil Cheez Puffs,” “Buffa-loaded Cheez Dip” and even a “Cheezy Pizza Pocket.” VIPs, recognized right here as VICheez, had the chance to order bottle service full with wine, spirits and a field of Cheez-Its delivered with sparkler fanfare.

A girl celebrated her one hundred and fifth birthday by throwing a rave at her care dwelling

When Hilda Jackson was born, the thought of a “rave” would have been about as overseas an idea as TikTok dances and Boiler Room. Quick-forward 105 years, when the English lady proved that bass and glowsticks are simply as a lot for centenarians as they’re for teenagers exploring their first music competition.

Jackson spent her youthful years touring, working in a materials manufacturing facility and even producing munitions throughout World Battle II. When celebrating her one hundred and fifth birthday on February twenty fifth, she had one request: a full-fledged rave at her Derbyshire care dwelling, full with a dwell DJ, ultraviolet paint and all of the neon equipment required for a correct night time out.

“You’re by no means too previous to rave!” Jackson stated on the time.

Somebody found a brand new dinosaur fossil and named it after Chromeo

In 2025, the one factor funkier than Chromeo’s synth grooves was studying {that a} dinosaur fossil named after them died with 800 stones lodged in its throat.

The newly found species, a sparrow-sized creature named Chromeornis funkyi, belongs to the enantiornithines, a chook group that dominated the Cretaceous interval earlier than being worn out by the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs 66 million years in the past.

The fossil was discovered at China’s Shandong Tianyu Museum of Nature by Jingmai O’Connor. The famend paleontologist stated Chromeo is one among her favourite bands, and the electro-funk duo known as her “a lifelong Chromette.”

Foster The Folks DJed a rave at an deserted warehouse

Mark Foster traded his indie-pop pulpit for a DJ sales space again in February, proving that even “Pumped Up Kicks” sounds higher within the rave.

Collaborating with the beloved digital music occasion organizer DEF, Foster The Folks swapped their sunny competition aesthetic for the laser-swathed partitions of an deserted warehouse in Atlanta. The band grafted their radio-ready hooks onto a skeleton of electrifying bass and home beats, delivering one of many 12 months’s most sudden DJ units.

Somebody broke the Guinness World Report for largest assortment of rave flyers

If you happen to’ve been to an Italian nightclub from 1991 to 2015 there’s a great likelihood the flyer selling the occasion was archived by Marco Brusadelli, whose huge assortment was verified by Guinness World Data as the most important in existence.

Beginning in 1991, the Italian man collected a duplicate of all of the nightclub flyers he may get his arms on. With a objective to protect digital music historical past, he did this for twenty-four years, sorting and organizing them in a room in his dwelling devoted to their preservation.

Apparently sufficient, Brusadelli’s assortment exceeds the 113,012 with which he’s credited. He really has a complete of 119,897 flyers, 5,003 of that are from totally different Italian venues and different occasions “that didn’t match the foundations,” in accordance with Guinness World Data.

Gem-crusted headphones had been launched for $140,000

If for some cause in 2025 you discovered your self mid-commute considering, “What my headphones really want is extra carats,” Jacob & Co. and Loewe revealed an answer with a price ticket exceeding six figures.

There are luxurious headphones, after which there are these collaboration items, which moonlight as crown jewels when not pumping high-fidelity audio straight into your ear canals. The gaudy headphones had been the results of a partnership between Jacob & Co., the infamous purveyor of iced-out horology, and Loewe, the German electronics agency recognized for its upscale audio gear.

Unveiled in Monaco, the ultra-limited drop comprised simply 10 pairs

of headphones, every priced between $120,000 and $140,000, as a result of apparently being rich in 2025 means having the privilege of listening to your music by way of gems.

The gathering included two fashions. The “Noir Rainbow” featured 15.97 carats of rainbow sapphires set in a 14K rose gold ring, and the “Ice Diamond,” which was fitted with 12.47 carats of spherical brilliant-cut diamonds on 14K white gold.

Pope Leo blessed a rave

In a crossover few noticed coming, Pope Leo XIV went viral in November after delivering a digital blessing at a rave in Slovakia.

The occasion, held outdoors a 14th-century cathedral in Košice, was organized to have fun Archbishop Bernard Bober’s seventy fifth birthday. The shock digital sermon introduced new that means to having a “spiritual expertise” on the dancefloor, particularly as a result of he was born in Chicago, the birthplace of home music.

Ravers had been shocked because the sovereign of Vatican Metropolis appeared on the large LED display behind the decks, providing a two-minute sermon that transitioned seamlessly into an EDM drop courtesy of Padre Guilherme, a priest-turned-DJ recognized for mixing religion and digital music. The observe even sampled the Pope’s voice, punctuating the thumping bassline with a divine “amen.”

Alison Wonderland carried out a medieval model of her debut album at a Renaissance Faire

The previous adage “drunk phrases are sober ideas” took on new that means by way of a wild efficiency by Alison Wonderland.

Whereas having fun with a drunken night time at a Renaissance Faire final 12 months, the Australian dance music famous person got here up with an concept for a novel tribute to her breakout debut album Run. On a tremendous night time again in April, she explored a actuality the place she wrote the report in 1515 as a substitute of 2015.

In celebration of the album’s 10-year anniversary, Wonderland carried out on the Maybower Stage at Southern California’s Renaissance Pleasure Faire. She remade Run in medieval kind by taking part in “ye olde variations” of its music on phonographs, delivering one of many 12 months’s most unusual performances.

deadmau5 immortalized his late cat, Meowingtons, in a online game

Again in 2012 inside a Toronto penthouse, a home shorthair cat as soon as gazed out over Yonge–Dundas Sq., his personal face beaming again at him in LED glory from a billboard under. “Do you even fucking know? Do you care?” Joel Zimmerman, higher generally known as deadmau5, remembers asking him of the large album advert that includes his face.

The cat didn’t. Typical. However in true deadmau5 style, the place innovation meets self-deprecation, Meowingtons’ indifference didn’t cease him from turning into a muse. And now, posthumously, a playable one.

Zimmerman in Might unveiled Meowingtons Simulator, a tribute to his late companion, who sadly handed away again within the fall of 2023. Developed beneath his newly launched Oberha5li Studios banner and powered by Epic Video games’ Unreal Engine, it’s a rhythm-based rag doll recreation the place gamers management a digitized, dancing Meowingtons in a digital nightclub.