Christopher BarrettMDLBEAST has called of this year’s edition of its Soundstorm festival in Riyadh.
Soundstorm, which was due to take place on 3-4 December at Banban Grounds in Riyadh, has become one of the biggest events in the international festival calendar.
Last year’s edition saw acts including Cardi B, Post Malone and Pitbull perform at the 14-stage event that organisers said attracted around 500,000 people across the three days.
MDLBEAST said, “With regret, this year’s Soundstorm will not take place as planned. We will turn all our excitement and energy to the 2027 edition, and come back better and stronger.”
The production company has an in-house team of more than 400 employees, and for events including Soundstorm it employees around 15,000 on-site staff members across hospitality, production, crew, security, content and medical.
Overseen by CEO Ramadan Alharatani, MDLBEAST’s other Saudi festivals include Balad Beast, which last took place in January in Jeddah with a line up including Solomun, Shaggy, Playboi Carti, and Don Toliver.
No reason for the cancellation was given by MDLBEAST but with escalating tensions between Iran and the US, recent weeks have seen Saudi Arabian oil facilities targeted in drone attacks understood to be launched by Iranian proxy militias in Iraq.
The cancellation of Soundstorm follows in the footsteps of the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, with the 3-12 December event having also been called off.