The Setting: Where Earth Meets Sky

RISE has always been about the tension between stillness and motion. The setting — the open desert with no walls, no trees, no city skyline — serves as both stage and sanctuary. The layout once again featured The Path, guiding visitors inward through sculptures and installations; The Compass, the ceremonial heart where lanterns ascend; and The Horizon, the main stage where sound and light converge in celebration. Each zone encouraged a balance between reflection and connection, inviting guests to find meaning in both solitude and shared energy.

What sets RISE apart is its refusal to be defined by a single form. It’s not merely a music festival or spiritual retreat, but a living intersection of art, mindfulness, and renewal. In 2025, that interplay reached remarkable cohesion — each installation, performance, and ritual seamlessly flowing into the next. What unfolded was an atmosphere of participation rather than observation, where guests became part of the art itself. RISE became less an event to attend than a world to inhabit — a delicate harmony between reflection and release.

The Lanterns: A Collective Breath

Every night, as darkness descended, the wind fell still, and the lake bed shimmered with thousands of biodegradable lanterns taking flight. Each carried a personal message — a wish, a memory, a release — transforming the sky into a constellation of moving light. Attendees called it “beautiful, magical, and meaningful,” words echoed across the official recap and social feeds alike. For many, it was less a spectacle than a meditation, a moment of quiet surrender beneath an infinite desert sky.

There is no better way to describe this event than this one guest shared, "RISE is more than just a music and lantern festival. It's a beautiful celebration of hope, new beginnings, and letting go. As thousands of lanterns rise into the night sky, each one carries personal intentions, dreams, and reflections, creating a powerful collective moment of unity and peace."

The silence before lift-off and the eruption of awe after became the emotional anchor of the weekend — a unifying moment that transcended language and background. Watching thousands of lanterns drift upward, disappearing into the stars, left a sense of connection that outlasted the glow. It was here, amid stillness and shared breath, that RISE revealed its essence: light not as display, but as offering — fleeting, luminous, and profoundly human.

Music Highlights: Three Nights, Three Worlds

The musical heartbeat of RISE 2025 pulsed across three distinct nights, each one telling its own emotional story. The programming was a masterclass in progression — from meditative electronic textures to ecstatic release, and finally, reflective closure. Headliners RÜFÜS DU SOL, Calvin Harris, and John Mayer anchored a lineup that also featured Disclosure, Goose, Ben Böhmer, Elderbrook, Oliver Heldens, LP Giobbi, Patrick Watson, Ry X, Emmit Fenn, Coco & Breezy, RIVO, Forester, City of the Sun, Mascolo, and Carrie Keller.

This is what RISE musical artists shared about their experience:

• Ry X said, "When life itself feels surreal and you're swimming under tens of thousands of intentions and prayers into the sky."
• LP Giobbi said "RISE created a unique experience full of uplifting emotions and incredible music. Everyone there felt in tune with a larger connection steeped in love."
• Forester described RISE as "one of the coolest festival experiences we've ever been a part of and a reminder of the level of beauty we as humans are capable of creating."
• Oliver Heldens called his set "a surreal experience," thanking fans for the energy and atmosphere that made the desert come alive.
• Calvin Harris summed it up with one word, "Wow @risefestival. Thank you."

With no overlapping sets, guests could immerse completely in each performance without distraction or urgency. Every act unfolded like a chapter in a shared story — sound and light weaving fluidly across the desert floor. From dusk to midnight, transitions were smooth, intentional, and emotionally resonant. The result was a rare continuity, a communal rhythm that pulsed through the crowd and echoed in the silence between songs — like the lanterns themselves, rising and glowing into infinity before vanishing into the night.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•  

Friday: Desert Euphoria

Supporting acts Ben Böhmer, LP Giobbi, and Patrick Watson expanded RÜFÜS DU SOL’s night into an emotional odyssey. Böhmer’s textured beats unfolded like waves against the desert stillness, while Giobbi’s radiant energy lifted spirits with kinetic joy. Watson’s cinematic warmth bridged the electronic and the organic, grounding the night in human connection. As thousands gathered beneath the deepening twilight, anticipation built toward the headliner’s arrival. When lanterns finally ascended, their glowing ascent mirrored the music’s crescendo — a luminous dialogue between earth and sky.

Opening night ultimately belonged to RÜFÜS DU SOL, whose cinematic electronica felt inseparable from the desert itself. The trio transformed the Jean Dry Lake Bed into a resonant chamber of sound and emotion, deep basslines rippling through the sand while haunting vocals drifted toward the stars. Despite earlier wind delays, their set unfolded with calm precision and cathartic release. Each beat felt like a heartbeat of the desert — meditative, hopeful, and powerfully alive — setting the emotional tone for everything that followed that weekend.

Saturday: The Spectacle Unleashed

Earlier in the evening, Disclosure, Elderbrook, and Oliver Heldens set a soaring pace with genre-blending performances that moved effortlessly from soulful electronica to driving house. The desert air vibrated with rhythm, lights rippling across the horizon like waves. By the time Calvin Harris took the stage, the energy had built to a fever pitch — dust swirling beneath thousands of feet like mist in a cathedral of sound. Artists themselves reflected on the experience, praising RISE’s rare blend of unity, purpose, and connection between performer and crowd.

Saturday night belonged entirely to Calvin Harris, who transformed RISE into a full-scale celebration without losing its meditative core. His set bridged pop accessibility with desert grandeur, weaving radiant anthems through the dry night air as thousands of lanterns waited to rise. Each beat pulsed in harmony with the crowd’s collective rhythm, building waves of sound that felt both intimate and immense. Fireworks and light ripples cascaded across The Horizon Stage, reflecting Harris’s signature balance of euphoria and restraint — joyful, cinematic, and cathartic.

Sunday: Release — John Mayer and the Closing of the Circle

The night featured evocative performances from Ry X, City of the Sun, and Carrie Keller, each bringing a sense of quiet depth to the desert. Their acoustic and ambient tones drifted through the warm air like a gentle prelude to John Mayer’s finale, offering calm after two nights of vibrant energy. By the time Mayer appeared, the crowd had settled into a serene stillness. The transition felt natural — a shift from movement to meditation, preparing the audience for an ending defined by sincerity and shared emotion beneath the stars.

After the final lantern release, Mayer stepped onto the stage with quiet assurance — just his band, his guitar, and the vast desert sky. His performance unfolded with patience and grace, each note suspended in the open air, resonating with the festival’s spirit of reflection and renewal. The audience, bathed in the lingering glow of lantern light, swayed in collective silence as melodies shimmered like constellations. It was an intimate, unhurried close — a tender moment that gathered RISE’s energy and released it gently back into the night.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•  

Art, Sustainability, and Evolution

RISE 2025 also expanded its artistic footprint, featuring large-scale installations from collectives like HYBYCOZO, interactive sculptures, and projection art that responded to movement and sound. Wellness zones offered meditation, breathwork, and sound healing, grounding the sensory experience. Sustainability remained central — every lantern biodegradable, every material chosen for minimal impact — a vital gesture in an event so intertwined with nature’s rhythms.

Despite logistical challenges and Friday’s windstorm, the 2025 production ran with remarkable precision and calm. Shuttle routes were streamlined, amenities expanded, and crews worked around weather disruptions with professionalism and care. Each adjustment reflected a decade of learning, refinement, and community-minded design. RISE demonstrated that even at a monumental scale, it could preserve the intimacy and mindfulness that defined its origins.

Conclusion: A Decade of Light

After ten years, RISE stands as more than a festival — it’s a ritual of renewal. Its power lies in the seamless union of landscape, art, and intention, creating a shared space for transformation. RÜFÜS DU SOL radiated transcendence, Calvin Harris brought catharsis, and John Mayer provided closure — together forming a triptych that embodied the essence of RISE: reflection, celebration, release.

As the final lanterns vanished into the vast Nevada sky, one truth lingered: RISE isn’t about what we hold onto, but what we choose to release. Each flame, each note, each shared breath becomes part of something larger — fleeting yet eternal. In that quiet afterglow, as the wind carried the last traces of light into darkness, there was a palpable stillness, a collective knowing that every intention set beneath the desert sky had joined something infinite, illuminating the night — and those who witnessed it — long after the lights faded.

ABOUT RISE Festival

Founded in 2014, RISE is the world's largest sky lantern festival—a collective celebration that blends art, music, and light in an unforgettable shared experience in the Mojave Desert south of Las Vegas.

Returning for its 10th anniversary October 3, 4, and 5, 2025, RISE is a luminous celebration of light, sound, and soul, bringing people together in a shared journey of elevation and joy.

As a non-profit charitable event, RISE is a collaborative art project dedicated to advancing the arts through education, appreciation, and financial support for emerging artists around the world.

Follow RISE Festival

• Web RISE Festival
• RISE Festival on Instagram
• RISE Festival on FB
• RISE Festival on YouTube
• RISE Festival on TikTok