Sound Waves Festival launches its aftermovie and announces the return of the Winter Edition in 2026
- Rukh
- Aug 26
- 2 min read
Hard Techno in Portugal has a clear synonym, Sound Waves, the brand held a sublime event on July 5th and celebrated 20 years of existence with two stages, thousands of ravers from all over the world and presented an unparalleled line up.
The Mainstage was the focus of most of the attention with stunning immersive visual effects by the hands of Nima - Visual Studio and a thunderous sound for the 18th edition. Artists such as the two queens of hard techno Fatima Hajji and Rebekah showed their gallantry and talent with elegant but destructive mixes. Following with icons of the genre, we also saw artists like SNTS which received the sun with its dark aura, the sweeping Basswell whose tracks such as “Massive Attack”, “Lunar” or “Bass Down Low” thrilled the audience or Oguz, the Golden Boy, who delighted the ravers with a set halfway between hard techno and trance
Throughout the night, the 2 B2Bs on the Mainstage were unforgettable. First we had the B2B between Joanna Coelho and Miss Sheila with the whole audience devoted to their divas and after one of the best sets of the festival with Luciid and Ornella as protagonists. A B2B where the schranz took the audience by storm with incredible mixes, a brutal synergy between both artists and tracks like “Diggy Sound” or a remix to “Innerbloom”, by Rüfüs Du Sol, that moved the whole audience for a few minutes and then made them dance like there was no tomorrow. Thousands of festival-goers were ecstatic as they welcomed: Onlynumbers with a mix of his new and iconic productions, Parsa Jafari which transitioned perfectly between the headliners and the double performance of the unstoppable Ornella. The sunrise was electrifying with Lorenzo Raganzini and his hard techno with metal which left the public prepared for the final hours in charge of Fantasm, Novah and Jazzy.
The second stage, the Vicious Stage, had a rave theme with an austere but elegant feel and less powerful but more rhythmic sounds. From groovy trance to melodic schranz, the raver community embraced it, as well as the veteran crowd who were attracted to the festival's raver beats by the hands of the line up with emerging artists from Portugal and Spain.
Sound Waves once again delivered an epic edition where thousands of ravers proved that the hard techno scene in Portugal is more alive than ever and left in everyone's memory a unique experience celebrated with the colossal Aftermovie directed by Ruben Alencastre, now available on the Festival’s YouTube channel.
In 2026 Sound Waves Festival will return for its 21st anniversary in July - before that it will be in Lisbon on February 14th at the Carlos Lopes Pavilion for its 3rd Winter Edition. The brand asserts itself as one of the biggest festivals in this genre in Europe and shows its unique strength in its DNA of bringing the best and latest from the world's Techno and Hard Techno scene to Portugal.
