The Rise of Soundstorm: What To Expect From The Region’s Biggest Music Festival
The Saudi festival has become so much more than just one of the biggest music events in the world
Soundstorm will once again be craking things ‘up to eleven’ next month in Banban, Saudi Arabia. Often mistakenly called MDLBEAST because the event is organized by MDLBEAST, the music festival saw over 600,000 people flock to the city last year, which is located just thirty minutes from the centre of Riyadh. This time the three-day-long festivities, which will run from the 14th to the 16th of December, is expected to top that attendance record, making it the biggest multi-genre music festival in the Middle East.
In its fourth edition, in a country that just six years ago limited the playing of certain live music in public, Soundstorm is showcasing to the world how quickly the Kingdom is embracing modernity and musical tastes from around the globe. It is a musical manifestation of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s Vision 2030 initiative and this time the names are even bigger and more diverse than the usual House-Dance music festival offering. Hip Hop, R&B-Pop, Trap, Rap Rock, Cloud Trap, Reggaeton, and Latin are genres that will bring a different energy to this year’s lineup.
“MDLBEAST was created by a bunch of us who either play music or love music and we were all part of the underground music scene before the restriction on live music was lifted in Saudi in 2017,” says Ramadan Alharatan, the CEO of MDLBEAST. “We saw an opportunity to come together to create an artist-centric music company that would cater to the audience we had in the region and promote local/regional artists. We never thought it would reach the scale that Soundstorm has with over 600,000 people, and now it motivates us even more to deliver new, innovative, exciting experiences to our audiences,” he adds.
A music festival is only as good as its acts, and you need big names to draw international attention and entice a large audience to trek out into the Saudi desert. One big draw will be Pharrell Williams, the creative director of menswear for Louis Vuitton who also happens to be a Grammy-award-winning producer and singer, is slated to perform. The Grammy-award-winning singer H.E.R., Post Malone, J Balvin and Chris Brown will also shake things up on one of the multiple Soundstorm stages.
But that list is just the tip of the sonic iceberg.
For those whose soul vibes to Dance Music, David Guetta, Calvin Harris, Martin Garrix, and Black Coffee will also be performing. Other acts include Wizkid, Afrojack, Alan Walker, Alec Monopoly, Anne-Marie, Armin Van Buuren, Axwell and the list goes on. Regional acts will also be represented as well, from Fulana, Tarab Electro and AZM, to Cosmicat, Dorar, Malba, Majid, Mindwhere, Musab, Nomad, Omar Basaad, Outlandish Saoud and Space Music.
“It’s a melting pot of cultures, but as an artist, I see it as an extremely wonderful learning experience”
Fulana
“Soundstorm is currently the biggest sound festival in my home country. It felt like a rite of passage, like reaching a boss level in a video game. In short, pretty cool,” says Saudi singer Fulana talking about when she got the call to join the festival lineup. “It’s a space in time to highlight Saudi as a land with a vision, as well as a presence in the industry. The festival brings together local and regional talents and puts them on the same stages as international acts we have long been used to seeing abroad. So, it’s a melting pot of cultures, but as an artist, I see it as an extremely wonderful learning experience,” she adds.
Fulana is in luck as the Saudi Music Commission has major projects in the works to encourage even more musicians from the Kingdom to express themselves. Already there are plans to establish more than 130 recording studios and rehearsal facilities over the next few years across the country, with the world’s largest flagship recording studio slated to be built in the capital city of Riyadh.
There is also hope that when people come for the festival they will stay for the culture. Anecdotal evidence has shown that a number of Soundstorm visitors end up exploring other parts of the Kingdom while they are in Saudi. Case in point, DJ Khalid who performed at Soundstorm last year and then went on to visit Diriyah and AlUla. All the while documenting the trip to his millions of followers on social media.
“A central aspect of Saudi Arabia, I think, is people only understand when they have actually seen it in the flesh,” says Jerry Inzerillo, the CEO of Diriyah Company, a business focused on bringing growth to the country through events. “As more and more people are visiting the Kingdom and exploring its rich history and heritage, Saudi Arabia is fast becoming one of the world’s leading destinations for anyone who wants to experience its authentic and unique cultures.”
But first… let the music play.
From Harper’s Bazaar Saudi’s Autumn 2023 Issue.