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Uplifting Trance At ASOT 2026
ASOT (A State of Trance) and John O’Callaghan just uploaded his live set from earlier this year when ASOT 2026 took place in Rotterdam, Netherlands in February. Needless to say, this set was amazing and we highly recommend you check it out! At the same time, this might be a good moment to look back at this year’s ASOT in general as it remains one of the most important – and probably the biggest – trance festival out there.
Watch John O’Callaghan live at A State of Trance 2026 (Friday | Area 2) On YouTube
The full lineup and timetable can be found on the official ASOT instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DUp8iqFjWnc/
As usual, the festival took place over two days and the Saturday (the second day) was the slightly bigger day as Saturday feature five different stages and Friday featured three. Also, as usual, unfortunately the mainstage (area one) barely featured any uplifting trance. Uplifting trance simply doesn’t have huge popularity at the moment. Still, Armin did play his two hours long “25 Years Celebration Set” and featured a lot of uplifting trance in this one. So it was possible to indulge in lots of uplifting trance for two hours on the mainstage on Friday.
Watch Armin van Buuren – 25 Years Celebration Set live at A State of Trance 2026 on YouTube
Friday’s Area Three wasn’t an uplifting trance stage, but it certainly had some nice influences throughout the night if you’re looking for the uplifting sound, as the lineup featured Luvstruck, NRG2000, Mauro Picotto, Will Atkinson, and Matty Ralph.
For uplifting trance fans, Area Two was where it’s at as this area not only featured John O’Callaghan, but also an amazing uplifting set from Aly & Fila.
Watch Aly & Fila live at A State of Trance 2026 (Friday | Area 2) on YouTube
Area Two also provided the uplifting sound mostly throughout the entire night as Estiva began the night with his melodic progressive style before Superstrings took over with their modern take on classic emotional trance and then it was already time for the Aly & Fila set. Then Ferry Corsten and Giuseppe Ottaviani followed and delivered lots of emotional sounds with a particular highlight being when Giuseppe Ottaviani grabbed the mic and said “Welcome to the original Giuseppe Ottaviani sound” before playing his legendary song “Linking People”. Finally, the night was closed by the aforementioned John O’Callaghan set. Overall, as an uplifting trance fan, you could spend the whole night there and would probably go home very happy.
Watch Giuseppe Ottaviani live at A State of Trance 2026 (Friday | Area 2) on YouTube
Watch Ferry Corsten live at A State of Trance 2026 (Friday | Area 2) on YouTube
Night 2
Night 2 followed a similar pattern as area two was the main stage for uplifting trance. But, as mentioned before, now five different stages were open. Stage 5 brought the progressive sound to the festival and, for uplifting trance fans, stage 4 was very appealing. Stage 4 seemed to have kind of a classic trance motto and featured Kyau & Albert, Super8 & Tab, Rank 1, Orjan Nilsen, Jorn van Deynhoven, Push, Sean Tyas, and Signum. Lots of uplifting sounds!
This also meant that, unfortunately, many people reported that it was almost impossible to enter the area for a short while early in the evening as so many people wanted to see Rank 1 and Orjan Nilsen. Area 2 was also shut down briefly, but fortunately, this didn’t last very long.
Area 2 began with Ginchy, Laura Van Dam, Ottagon, and Cosmic Gate – so with a quiet progressive, almost melodic techno-ish trance sound. Then Billy Gillies, MarLo, Andrew Rayel, and Richard Durand brought the typical high uplifting energy while also mixing it up with their own signature sounds. MarLo, for example, also mixed in some very techy and hard sounds, but still delivered some amazing uplifting emotional moments as well. Finally, David Forbes played the closing set and brought some more hard music again to end the night.
Watch Billy Gillies live at A State of Trance 2026 (Saturday | Area 2) on YouTube
Watch MaRLo live at A State of Trance 2026 (Saturday | Area 2) on YouTube
Watch Andrew Rayel presents EXTASIA live at A State of Trance 2026 (Saturday | Area 2) on YouTube
Watch Richard Durand live at A State of Trance 2026 (Saturday | Area 2) on YouTube
So how was ASOT 2026 for uplifting trance fans overall?
Overall, it was an amazing event! Yes, sometimes you wonder why there are so many acts that are rather techno-influenced while super talented uplifting trance acts do not get this big stage. At the same time, this is probably simply a necessary business decision as a huge event like this obviously needs to attract enough people to be a viable business.
At the end of the day, there were many amazing sets for uplifting trance fans and you could basically enjoy the whole night from start to finish if you wanted to hear the uplifting trance sound. And that’s the most important thing at the end of the day. ASOT 2027 can’t come soon enough.