ARC Music Festival 2025 Revisited: Firing on all cylinders for Year 5 in Chicago

Local Spins’ ‘Looking for the Perfect Beat’ columnist Todd Ernst provides bonus coverage of the recent ARC Music Festival held in Chicago. (Eric Prydz photo above by Blaze J. Zalewski)

Sometimes the stars align, and Labor Day Weekend in Chicago was one of those moments as Auris celebrated the fifth anniversary of their flagship festival called ARC.

Amid nearly perfect weather, with just enough sun and cloud cover to keep things comfortable, the weekend (Aug. 29-31) allowed attendees to don their summer festival attire and revel in ARC’s offerings.

What attendees experienced at a nearly sold-out Union Park has lit up platforms such as Instagram, Reddit and TikTok for the better part of a week, and it’s clear that ARC has cemented itself as a global destination festival for the foreseeable future.

ARC upped the ante with production on The GRID main stage, featuring one of the best-designed lighting and video packages I have experienced in recent years; where closing headliners Eric Prydz, Fisher, and John Summit took full advantage of the assets available to them.

One major topic of conversation in previous years has been whether the sound at ELROW had enough horsepower. Again, it was clear the ARC team was listening, as the audio deployment had exemplary auditory assaults.

Ranger Trucco (Photo/Jordan Landwehr)

While every set at a festival of this magnitude is worth writing about, two in particular stood out, and it just so happens each has a Michigan connection.

Traverse City native Ranger Trucco has been on a tear in recent years with his forward-thinking bass-heavy house sound, and his 4 p.m. Saturday set at Expansions was the perfect vibe for a sun-drenched afternoon. There was this cyclical energy feedback loop of sorts, as the harder the crowd danced, Trucco followed suit.

Immediately following at Area 909 was a performance for the ages with Detroit legend Carl Craig going b2b with Chicago’s native-son Cajmere (aka Green Velvet). It’s hard to put into words the love that Area 909 was immersed in during this set, but watching these two artists who cut their teeth in the 90s, and now quite literally in the prime of their respective careers, was a treasure for those that packed into ARC’s most petite stage.

2025 was a banner year for ARC and its parent entity Auris after 2024 marked the 40-year anniversary of house music’s inception in Chicago. It’s amazing to see a team of seasoned professionals leading the charge, while simultaneously incubating the next generation of more discerning festival attendees moving forward.

ARC Music Festival returns to Chicago’s Union Park Sept. 4-6, 2026.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Todd Ernst has been an electronic music DJ and promoter for 30+ years, and performs as the artist TELLURIUM. While his days are spent as the owner of an indie real estate brokerage; he also owns EXSIGN, which is an experiential entity that designs and manages corporate, non-profit and nightlife events like Irish On Ionia and TEDxGrandRapids. He regularly provides insights into the electronic music world with his ‘Looking for the Perfect Beat’ columns at Local Spins.

ARC Crowd during Fisher’s Set (Photo/Blaze J. Zalewski)

Copyright 2025, Spins on Music LLC