Carl Cox, Dom Dolla and Sara Landry will headline Movement’s Memorial Day weekend festival in Detroit, while a diverse range of national and regional acts will pump up Beaver Island.
Summer Starter: Throngs will return to Detroit’s Hart Plaza for Movement. (Photo/Michael Mastre)
The summer kicks off with an electronic extravaganza in Detroit, starring the likes of Carl Cox, Dom Dolla, Sara Landry, Danny Brown and other superstars who’ll help light up the Movement Electronic Music Festival on Hart Plaza over Memorial Day weekend.
Support our coverage of
West Michigan's music scene
Six weeks later — some 314 miles away in a gorgeous-yet-remote Michigan location — the Beaver Island Music Festival, meanwhile, will revel in rootsier artists, including New York reggae band Aqua Cherry, Cleveland Americana artist Lea Marra, Nashville singer-songwriter Sweet Megg, Brooklyn alt-rock band Gooseberry and diverse Michigan artists such as Tyler Gitchel, G-Snacks & Five, Dave Boutette & Kristi Davis, Joe Bockheim and more.
It represents just the tip of the iceberg and the wide spectrum of artists on board when it comes to Michigan’s summer roster of music festivals, with more than 60 such celebrations taking place from spring through the fall. View the full roster of Michigan festivals in the Local Spins Michigan Music Festivals 2026 Guide here.
This week’s announcement of Movement’s 2026 lineup got a mixed reaction from some fans, but the 115-plus acts on six stages also got rave reviews from others, including cheers for Tinzo & Jojo, Sheefy McFly, Skream, HypeMelo and Jija.
Remote Musical Magic: BIMF returns in July. (Photo/Sean Miller)
Local Spins’ “Looking for the Perfect Beat” columnist Todd Ernst describes it this way: “Looking back, it’s hard to imagine that when the Detroit Electronic Music Festival (DEMF) started over 25 years ago, the all-hands-on-deck, boot-strapped effort would morph into the global festival titan it is regarded as today. Now, as Movement reaches another milestone, in its 20th year since Paxahau has taken over the festival, it shows no signs of slowing down never mind tapping the brakes.
Pulling out all of the stops Movement has secured headliners Carl Cox, Richie Hawtin, Dom Dolla, and the high priestess of techno, Sarah Landry. Bolstering this massive lineup are fan favorites Eli Brown, Green Velvet, The Martinez Brothers, and Mochakk, along with relative newcomers Barry Can’t Swim and Ayybo.”
Scroll down to view the full lineup in the poster below, and check out images from 2025 at Local Spins here.
Tickets for the festival that takes place May 23-25 on Hart Plaza range from $377.70 for a three-day general admission pass to $522 for a three-day VIP pass. Daily GA passes start at $206.73. Get tickets online here.
Movement, which started in 2006 as a continuation of the Detroit Electronic Music Festival that launched in 2000, draws more than 100,000 people over three days.
By comparison, the Beaver Island Music Festival roll out as as intimate, get-up-close-and-personal-with-bands-and-fans celebration set amid the beauty of this far-flung island located in northern Lake Michigan — a two-hour-and-44-minute ferry ride from Charlevoix.
Organized by Carol and Dan Burton and a team of dedicated music lovers, the festival, which began in 2003, this year features an eclectic blend of artists, from Michigan favorites to bands from across the country with 1,500 to 2,000 people attending each year.
“Adventures await on Beaver Island,” organizers proclaimed in a post earlier this month. “Forest vibes, epic music.” That includes the return of New York’s party-starting Aqua Cherry, a festival favorite: “We’ve had so many requests to bring this band back and it’s finally happening,” the festival explained on Facebook.
View the full lineup in the poster below, and check out Local Spins’ coverage of the 2025 festival.
Three-day tickets — $155 adults, $125 students — are available online here, along with $58 ferry roundtrip tickets.
MOVEMENT 2026
BEAVER ISLAND MUSIC FESTIVAL 2026
Copyright 2026, Spins on Music LLC
