Starlight Festival Sells Out Its Debut at the Great Pyramids of Giza
EXIT and P+US sold out the first Starlight Festival at the Great Pyramids of Giza, with Charlotte de Witte playing her first Egyptian show and fans arriving from 114 countries.
Starlight Festival sold out its first edition on 9 and 10 October at a designated site overlooking the Great Pyramids of Giza, pulling in fans from 114 countries. It was the first multi-day, multi-stage electronic music festival ever staged there, and the largest electronic music event at the last surviving Wonder of the Ancient World since Jean-Michel Jarre’s millennium concert in 1999.
The festival is a joint project between EXIT and P+US, the electronic music platform run by Venture Lifestyle, and it closed out EXIT’s international touring year. That tour began after the Serbian festival left its home country following its public support for student-led protests there, and it took in 150,000 people across free festivals in Montenegro over the summer.
Charlotte de Witte’s first Egyptian show
Charlotte de Witte led the bill with her first ever performance in Egypt, joined by Michael Bibi, Adriatique, Indira Paganotto, Enrico Sangiuliano, Vintage Culture, Pete Tong and WhoMadeWho, among more than 60 international and regional artists across several stages.
After the main stage, the busiest room was EXIT’s No Sleep stage, with Charlie Sparks, BIIA, Layla Benitez, Paolo Ferrara and Olympe. The standout live sets came from WhoMadeWho and Satori, and Gioli & Assia closed the weekend in Cairo on the Sunday.
Floating pyramids and a 114 country crowd
Production came from Sila Sveta, the multimedia design studio behind a long list of global ceremonies and concerts. Its light show used optical illusions to make the pyramids appear to float above the main stage, and that is the image most people took home.
Several artists treated the weekend as a holiday alongside the crowd. Michael Bibi brought his parents along and, after his main stage set, slipped into the No Sleep crowd to dance unnoticed. Charlotte de Witte stayed three days with her father and friends, riding camels and working through the local food. Indira Paganotto landed with her 13 strong ARTCORE crew straight from the Ibiza closing at UNVRS and stayed on to cruise the Nile.
Back in November 2027
Starlight returns on 5 and 6 November 2027 and pre-registration is already open on the festival website. The debut was announced in June and sold out, so the second edition is unlikely to wait around for buyers.
Where we stand on it
Giza has become a regular stop for electronic music over the past two years, from Keinemusik to Anyma, but those were single shows built around one name. A two day festival with multiple stages is far harder to land at a protected heritage site, and EXIT managed it in a year when it had no home base to fall back on. If 2027 holds its size without the novelty doing the selling, other promoters will start looking at heritage sites the same way.
