Fort X debuts at a 15th century Slovenian castle with Dixon, Maceo Plex and Âme

Fort X will stage its first edition at Mokrice Castle in Slovenia on Saturday 5 September 2026, with Dixon, Maceo Plex, Âme DJ, Jimi Jules, Butch and Nic Fanciulli booked across a 15th century fortress. The castle sits in woodland near the Croatian border, within reach of both Ljubljana and Zagreb, and capacity has been capped on purpose.

Built around the castle, not on top of it

Most destination festivals arrive with a site plan and impose it on the location. Fort X has worked the other way round. Stages are placed inside hidden courtyards, along woodland paths and against centuries old stone walls, with bespoke lighting and projection mapping reshaping the building once it gets dark. Sunrise sessions then carry the programme through into Sunday morning.

Twelve names, one day

The bill runs to twelve artists. Alongside Dixon, Maceo Plex, Âme DJ, Jimi Jules, Butch and Nic Fanciulli, the organisers have booked Fiona Kraft and Mimi x Fy, plus regional selectors Aney F., Elena Mikac, Joe Quinn and Pablo Panda. With the crowd limited, the schedule leans on longer sets rather than a fast rotation of short slots.

Dixon has spent recent years playing this exact kind of setting, from open air amphitheatres to heritage sites, so a castle courtyard is familiar ground for the Innervisions boss.

Fort X has never been about creating another festival. We wanted to build an experience that feels genuinely different, something hidden, intimate and unforgettable. Mokrice Castle gives us an opportunity to bring together incredible music, incredible people and an extraordinary location unlike anywhere else in Europe. This is about discovering somewhere new, disconnecting from the ordinary and becoming part of something special.

The words are Joe Quinn’s, co founder of Fort X, who also appears on the opening lineup.

Who is behind it

Fort X is a joint effort between BSH Events, the promoter behind a run of site specific shows across the region, and Main Stage Travel, the UK team responsible for Kala on the Albanian Riviera and Snowboxx in the French Alps. BSH is on a run of heritage venue bookings at the moment, including Black Coffee’s 2,000 capacity show at Buda Castle in August. Organisers expect this first Fort X edition to sell out before September.

Our read

Bookings of this weight normally come with a capacity to match, so a capped audience for Dixon and Maceo Plex is the detail worth watching. If the sound holds up inside a stone courtyard, Fort X starts with something newer festivals cannot buy, a venue nobody else can copy. The open question is the one every heritage site faces, which is how far curfews and neighbours will let the night run.

Tickets are on sale now via fortxfestival.com.

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