Saudi Arabia’s MDL Beast Festival Wins Guinness World Record

The Kingdom held its largest music festival in its history last month, garnering rave reviews and now, a Guinness World Record

On Thursday 19 December 2019, Riyadh was host to the opening night of Saudi Arabia’s inaugural three-day festival, MDL Beast, which saw over 70 world-renowned DJs and artists take the Saudi stage by storm. From Tiesto and David Guetta to Amr Diab and Peggy Gou, house music’s finest all touched down in the Kingdom to perform at its biggest music festival to date, with an unprecedented 400,000 festival-goers.

​Without a doubt it has launched Saudi Arabia onto the international festival scene in spectacular style. The Main Stage, ‘Big Beast’, was awarded a Guinness World Record certificate for the world’s  tallest temporary stage. Festival-goers were entertained across five unique districts, including Art Beast (performances), MDL Town (food and beverages), and Retail Therapy (fashion and style).

Danah Alghuneim, owner of lifestyle concept store Number Nine that was present as the festival, observed that “MDL Beast wasn’t just a music festival – it was a social, cultural and artistic event that we were proud to be part of. We’re looking forward to more events where we can show the real Saudi talent, and show the world that Saudis really know how to party.”

Similarly, founder and head designer of 4AG Clothing, Fawaz Al Fraiji, noted that for the 4AG brand, MDL Beast was “a great introduction to Saudi.”

“We started in Los Angeles and have been popular in the UAE, but it’s our first real physical presence here,” he continued. “The crowd was amazing – the vibes, the staff, the music, the atmosphere… it was all worth it.”

Dutch-Moroccan DJ, R3hab, said of the monumental event: “What I like about this festival is that it’s very different – it’s a complete fusion,  some Arab artists and a lot of international DJ’s and it all works really well. I think that’s very special and I’ve never seen that before.”

Since the opening up of Riyadh’s entertainment industry, there hasn’t been anything quite like the  MDL Beast Festival in the Kingdom. There is no doubt that the success of the festival will continue to promote a new wave of revolutionary cultural shifts in Saudi Arabia as we know it. 

Images courtesy of MDL Beast Festival