Stone Techno Festival 2025 through five key performances

Held at a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Essen, this year’s edition of Stone Techno Festival featured standout sets from Helena Hauff, DVS1, and CCL b2b Priori.

Over three days this July, 75 artists descended on the Ruhr Museum – a former coal washing plant and stunning UNESCO World Heritage Site turned industrial stage – for the 2025 edition of Stone Techno Festival.

For its organisers, the connection between the festival’s ethos and the site’s mining past is multifaceted. Erik Busch, who has been working with Stone Techno Festival for four years now, sees the camaraderie among the rave scene as something which mimics the brotherhood that existed between those who worked on the site when it was still an active plant. It doesn’t stop there; the minerals that these men would have excavated also, amazingly, make their own music. Stone Techno Festival leans into this heritage: its Stone Techno Series uses field recordings of minerals found at the site to create new music, directly linking the region’s geological past with the present day. Attendees can explore the museum, learn about the plant’s history, and even use a seismograph to track the music’s physical impact on the ground.

The festival’s deep respect for its historic site mirrors its organisers’ commitment to honouring and evolving the global techno landscape. Due to their rising popularity, this year Stone Techno Festival has been able to take more risks with its programming, focusing more on the artists who are giving back to the scene and the community. 

This energy, combined with the breathtaking industrial backdrop, created an unforgettable experience. Below are just five of the acts that played a standout role in this year’s edition.

Ogazón

The opening day belonged to Berlin-based DJ and selector Ogazón. Set up on the Kokerei stage, scaffolding with screens projecting images of minerals and a looming rusting coal train provided the backdrop of her set. Each stage at the festival was carefully curated to feel like an outdoor club, utilising different structures which interplayed with the original coal mine to create liminal spaces, an impressive feat considering the absence of sound bleed. When it comes to Kokerei, our guide lovingly told me: “The sky’s not quite the limit, the scaffolding is.” 

Ogazón – who has been known to bemoan DJs who spin tracks at speeds they weren’t produced at – played a highly considered set, her vinyl-only approach slowing down the proceedings to allow the crowd to embark on a sonic journey alongside her. Her method echoed the festival’s own ethos, with the line-up reflecting an intention, as my press liaison stated: “To push back from the idea that a party has to go off from the minute it starts.” The sun was setting as I moved up to the pool area (yes, there’s an outdoor pool) to watch the last of Ogazón’s techno-heavy set, and as she dropped tracks like Sciahri’s Roven, she let the end of her sonic story set everyone up perfectly for the night ahead.

DVS1

To round off the first night of Stone Techno Festival, there was no other place to be than in front of legendary Minneapolis native DVS1. Known for his dedication to preserving club culture, his set encouraged a truly present crowd, echoed by the festival’s ‘no phones on the floor’ policy. Playing at the isolated Sazlager stage in front of what looked like a pulsating Connect 4 board, DVS1 was at the centre of an overhead runway of red light. This, which apart from casting an atmospheric glow on the rust-coloured power plants behind him, acted as a beacon, drawing first night revellers to him to dance until close – unless you had an after-party ticket, that is. 

BASHKKA

On Stone Techno Festival’s sunny Saturday, BASHKKA played at arguably the best stage at the festival. With the decks right on the water, but also semi-under a roof of metal, the Werks-Schwimmbad stage felt like stumbling across an inclusive underground party. This lent itself to one of my favourite moments in her set, when BASHKKA turned around and laughed excitedly while playing High on Acid’ (Original Mix), discovering that the crowd behind her was going just as hard as the one in front. Joyous and full of energy, her set wove together samples of whistles, drums, and, at one point, erotic moans. It was here that the crowd shifted from two-stepping to voguing to the repeated lyrics, “don’t stop”. Sadly, she had to, and with a mix of Jocelyn Brown’s Somebody Else’s Guy in my ears, I went to explore the rest of the festival. 

CCL b2b Priori

Playing at 12am on a Sunday at a festival is never an easy slot – but tell that to CCL and Priori. As festivalgoers slowly filtered in, they welcomed the drowsy lot with an eclectic mix of genres, splicing funkier beats with licks of dub and hip-hop. As the crowd started to swell, the pair switched it up into something grungier that nodded to CCL’s Bristol roots, veering into more psychedelic tones and sampling varied sounds from silken spoken word to robotic overtures.

A four-hour set which was as imaginative as it was far-reaching, you could really feel the mutual joy and love for the music and the atmosphere radiating between the pair and the crowd throughout. 

Helena Hauff

As part of Stone Techno Festival’s commitment to nurturing the wider scene, they invited collectives from across Europe to run different stages for the day. For its final day, London’s very own FOLD got to programme the Werks-Schwimmbad stage. Their choice for the closing slot was Helena Hauff – a final gift from Stone Techno Festival to its dedicated fans. And they certainly made the most of it.