Breakaway plays five more cities this year, and they are five different festivals
A festival brand in a dozen cities sounds like a tour. We counted the bills, and it looks more like five separate festivals sharing a name.
Breakaway announced its Houston bill last week, closing out the biggest year the brand has had. One name, a stadium lot in city after city, the same logo on the shirt.
That sounds like a tour. It isn't one.
Five Breakaway dates are still to come: Worcester tonight and tomorrow, then Philadelphia on 11 September, Carolina on the 25th, Utah on 2 October and Houston on 13 November. Between them they book 142 slots. Those slots go to 125 different artists.
Which means almost nobody does two.
109 of 125 play exactly one date
Fifteen artists play two of the five. One plays three: Tiësto, in Philadelphia, Carolina and Utah. Everyone else — all 109 of them — shows up in one city and nowhere else on the run.
Take any two of the five dates and count the names they have in common. The best you get is three. Worcester and Houston share three. Philadelphia and Carolina share three. Carolina and Utah share three. Every other pairing shares one or two.
The headliners are the clearest version of it. Zedd and Excision play Worcester and no other Breakaway. Marshmello and ISOxo are Philadelphia only. KETTAMA and San Holo, Carolina only. John Summit and Kaskade, Utah only. Dom Dolla and GRiZ, Houston only. The two who come closest to touring it are Chris Lake, who plays Carolina and Utah, and Cloonee, who plays Carolina and Houston.
Nothing is forcing this. The five dates never collide — there are 20 days between Worcester and Philadelphia, 13 to Carolina, 6 to Utah and 41 to Houston. An artist could physically do all five. Tiësto did three.
It is not just Breakaway
Six festival brands have more than one date left this season with no clash between them, so anyone on one bill was free to take another.
Artists on a brand's remaining bills, and how many turn up in a second city
Across all six that is 17 dates and 502 different artists, and 63 of them play a second date of the same brand. The other 439 play one and go home.
What we cannot tell you yet
Last year looks different, and we are not going to pretend we can call it.
Our archive holds eight 2025 Breakaway dates, and on those, Disco Lines turns up on six. That reads like a roadshow. But those archive bills carry 13 to 20 names each where this year's carry 24 to 38, and a short bill is a bill with the openers missing — the openers being exactly the people who only ever play one date. Eight dates also give an artist more chances to repeat than five do.
So the honest answer is that we hold enough to describe this year and not enough to call it a change. Ask us again when the season is over and every bill is complete.
What to do with it
Read the lineup, not the name. If a friend told you Breakaway was great, that is a review of one night in one city, and the night in yours is a different show — a different 25 or 30 people, mostly.
And if there is one artist you are actually going for, follow them in the app rather than following the festival. We already hold four Breakaway dates for 2027. On this year's evidence, your DJ will be on one of them.
Tickets
Ticket links below are affiliate links.
- Breakaway Massachusetts, tonight — tickets via Universe
- Breakaway Philadelphia, 11–12 September — tickets via Universe
- Breakaway Carolina, 25–26 September — tickets via Universe
- Breakaway Utah, 2–3 October — tickets via Universe
- Breakaway Houston, 13–14 November — tickets via Universe
Every count here comes from the lineups in our own catalog, and you can check any of them: open a festival page and read the bill, or open an artist page and see how many dates they actually play.
Electric State is free on the App Store, on Google Play, and at electricstate.app — lineups, set times and the boards this post is counted from.
Make music as well as go to hear it? Bounce is our pocket studio for iPhone and iPad. A session, not a song.