Phyoe Thaung
Alesso, deadmau5, GRiZ and Martin Garrix led more than 50 artists back to Rawhide Western Town for two nights of electronic music in Chandler.
Goldrush Music Festival returned to Rawhide Western Town & Event Center in Chandler, Arizona, on September 11 and 12, bringing its Western-themed festival grounds back to life for another weekend in the desert.
Presented by Relentless Beats, the 2026 edition — dubbed Goldrush: Midnight Riders — spread more than 50 artists across multiple stages, with Alesso, deadmau5, GRiZ and Martin Garrix at the top of the lineup. The four headliners were joined by artists spanning house, bass, dubstep and other corners of electronic music, including Green Velvet, Sullivan King, Ray Volpe, AC Slater, Boogie T, DJ Pauly D, It’s Murph, Valentino Khan, Surf Mesa, Alleycvt and MitiS.
Back at Rawhide
Few Arizona venues fit Goldrush quite like Rawhide. The Western town already comes with the saloons, wooden storefronts and dusty pathways that match the festival’s long-running frontier theme. Once the sun went down, those surroundings shifted beneath stage lighting, lasers and festival production as crowds moved between sets throughout the property.
That setting gave Goldrush plenty of room to feel different depending on where the night went. Larger sets pulled crowds toward the festival’s biggest stages, while other areas offered a chance to move away from the busiest parts of the grounds and catch artists working in different corners of electronic music.
The result was a festival that encouraged wandering. A trip across Rawhide could mean leaving one style of electronic music behind and walking into something entirely different a few minutes later.
Friday Brings Alesso and deadmau5
Friday's lineup put Alesso and deadmau5 at the center of Goldrush's opening night. The two artists brought very different approaches to the festival's biggest stage. Alesso leaned into the melodic, large-scale dance music that has followed him onto festival stages around the world, while deadmau5 brought one of electronic music's most recognizable live identities back to Rawhide.
The rest of Friday gave festivalgoers plenty of decisions to make before the headliners arrived. AC Slater, Green Velvet, Sullivan King, Boogie T, CID, MitiS, Kaivon, Midnight Tyrannosaurus, Alleycvt and Rossy were among the artists spread across the first night.
There were also connections hiding throughout the lineup. GRiZ and Boogie T have previously collaborated on “Supa Fly,” while Sullivan King and Ray Volpe share both “The Dead March” and “REWIND.” CID and AC Slater have also remixed each other's work, adding some crossover between artists appearing throughout the weekend.
GRiZ and Martin Garrix Close Out Saturday
Saturday shifted the top of the lineup to GRiZ and Martin Garrix, giving the second night another pair of distinctly different headliners.
Their sets capped a day that also included DJ Pauly D, It’s Murph, Deathpact, Delta Heavy, Ray Volpe, Riordan, Surf Mesa, Valentino Khan, Lady Faith, and Silva Bumpa, among others.
The range of the lineup meant Saturday could move quickly between sounds. Bass-heavy sets sat alongside house and more melodic dance music, while DJ Pauly D brought one of the weekend's most recognizable personalities to Rawhide.
Goldrush also extended beyond the festival gates earlier Saturday. DJ Pauly D was part of the weekend's pool-party programming at Gila River Resorts & Casinos – Wild Horse Pass before the second night at Rawhide began.
More Than the Main Stages
Much like the Tape B event at Rawhide only weeks earlier, Goldrush made use of the venue beyond the performances themselves.
At the Tape B show, vendors, food options, and spaces away from the stage gave attendees places to move around between sets, while amenities such as water stations, seating areas, and cooling options were positioned throughout the property. Goldrush expanded that type of experience across a full festival weekend.
The Western setting remained part of the event rather than simply functioning as its backdrop. Festival fashion mixed with Rawhide's frontier aesthetic as attendees moved between stages and through the town throughout both nights.
With so many artists playing across the weekend, those spaces also mattered between sets. Goldrush wasn't a night built around standing at a single stage from beginning to end; much of the experience came from moving through Rawhide and deciding where to go next.
Keeping the Weekend Going
For anyone who wasn't ready to call it a night when the festival ended, Goldrush stretched into additional events surrounding the main weekend.
Boogie T was tapped for an official Goldrush afterparty at Rawhide Event Center following the first night, while Valentino Khan took over after the second. The weekend also included the Goldrush Oasis Pool Party at Gila River Resorts & Casinos – Wild Horse Pass.
Those events extended Goldrush beyond its two nights inside Western Town, turning the festival into a broader weekend of electronic music across Chandler.
Two Nights in the West
Goldrush has always leaned heavily into its setting, and Midnight Riders brought the festival back to the venue where that identity makes the most sense.
Across two nights, Rawhide moved between the melodic builds of Alesso and Martin Garrix, the unmistakable production of deadmau5, the bass and saxophone-driven sound of GRiZ and dozens of sets happening elsewhere across the grounds.
By the time the final sets wrapped Saturday night, Goldrush had packed two days of electronic music into the streets and stages of Rawhide — with enough variation across the lineup that no two trips through the festival had to look quite the same.