Review: Electric Island 2026 at Cottesloe Beach

Electric Island at Cottesloe Beach
w/ Above & Beyond, Jeremy Olander, Cristoph, Eli & Fur and more
Saturday, April 18, 2026

Another summer has rolled by… and everyone’s favourite end-of-season beach party was back to take over Cottesloe for the weekend. Now in its third year since T1000 Events scored a major coup and secured the picturesque shore of WA’s iconic Cottesloe Beach for its annual dance festival, it’s proved to be a winning combination, featuring some of the biggest and best names in house music, such as Sasha, Roger Sanchez, Duke Dumont and Hayden James in previous years.

With two separate events staged over the weekend (some brave rave soldiers making a large weekend of it), the lineup is a well-curated mix of rising stars of the scene and legendary legacy acts that attract a crowd of all ages. While the Sunday featured another stacked lineup of house heavyweights with Armand Van Helden, Flight Facilities and Eats Everything, the Saturday was a huge draw for the progressive house and trance crowd, with the powerhouse legends and mighty Anjuna label heads Above & Beyond headlining, as well as a solid support cast.

It can be a bit of a gamble putting on a beach festival in mid-April, and it was not as hot, summery weather as in previous years, but it ended up holding out and being quite a nice day. It was a little chilly into the evening, but there was no wind, and when dancing in a huge crowd, it didn’t feel too bad at all.

Nico Giovanni started off the day early on, from 3pm. The local stalwart is co-founder of promoters Above All Else, along with his partner in crime, Fifth Day. The duo are often seen playing back-to-back sets supporting some of the quality house DJs we’re lucky they bring to town, regularly putting on top-shelf events down the road in North Freo at Port Beach Brewery. Fifth Day couldn’t join him today, so Nico warmed things up solo nicely with some tasteful selections.

Following on was rising star and fairly new name on the scene, Rromarin, aka Claire Rayner. The multi-talented singer, producer and DJ hailing from Melbourne has been prolific of late with numerous productions, collaborations and remixes with big names like Solomun, Dusky, Budakid and Roy Rosenfeld and featured many of her own tracks, such as her single from last year, Closure; a big tune with Golden Features; Touch; and No Horizons with Braxton, which was released last year on Anjunadeep. Following on from the recent release of her Balance mix, she’s having a moment and embraced the opportunity to play her biggest stage and national tour yet. A name to watch for sure, Rromarin is rrolling.

London DJ/producer duo Eli & Fur have been moving from strength to strength in recent years. They’ve also released music on Anjunabeats, and last year were one of the acts given the honour of putting together a mix to celebrate 25 years of Anjuna. Tonight we just had Eli repping the team. Sadly, Fur wasn’t able to join her on this tour due to health reasons.

The crowd kept flowing in, with numbers on the sand and on the hill growing, filling out the massive, sprawling venue. With so many people, there was a noticeable din from all the talking. On the hill the sound seemed distant, which could be expected, but when you’re right up front near the stage and giant sound system, you don’t expect to be able to hear all the people around talking. Why some people go right up the front and then proceed to talk loudly constantly is a strange behaviour. But at the end of the day, if the sound system is cranking as it should, that shouldn’t matter. The artists playing in the late arvo deserved better. It was simply not loud enough for such a massive festival.

Eli did well though, and obviously had more than a few fans digging her fun, upbeat, energetic set. Dancing and smiling, she seemed to be having as good a time as anyone and worked her way through a crowd-pleasing set, dropping big tunes like Gala’s Freed From Desire – the 90s Eurodance hit for Italian vocalist Gala Rizzatto that has experienced a huge resurgence in recent years, due to football anthems, protests and online trends – as well as mixing in some of their own productions like My Reflection.

Jeremy Olander and Cristoph are two big names in the house scene and could have easily played a couple hours each, but tonight we got them back-to-back for two hours. They took over and quickly raised the vibe another notch with some solid tunes and mixing, weaving a deeper, harder, more atmospheric sound. Though the lack of volume was still noticeable, detracting from the impact they should’ve had. You want to feel that bass! It’s hard to get lost in the music if it’s not hitting you in the face and guts, and you can still hear chatter over the beats.

As their set moved on, the levels did seem to rise a little and the vibe really lifted as the music got more booming and loud. They’re a good pairing, with the tall, dark, lanky Swede Olander having more of a classic, deep, progressive sound, and the stockier Brit Cristoph (who looks like he’s been hitting the gym hard) dishes out a techier, heavier, stomping style of house. The B2B kept it interesting with them working off each other.

“When the day turns to night, the island comes alive” is one of the festival’s tagline, and indeed it rings true. While the daytime is great for enjoying the view and natural beauty of the surroundings, when the darkness falls, the impressive stage and lighting explode to life, complete with smoke, lasers and bursts of fire in a kaleidoscopic rave wonderland.

The 90s revival tunes continued as they dropped Culture Beat’s 1993 classic Mr. Vain, mixing it into more contemporary tunes, like Olander’s own collaboration with Kent, Petroleum, and a wisely chosen track that set the crowd off, the epic We Are Mirage—Eric Prydz mashup of his track Mirage with Empire of the Sun’s We Are The People that’s a match made in heaven. It was a strong final sequence to their set climaxing with the awesome Thin White Duke mix of Royksopp’s huge tune What Else Is There? featuring the unmistakable vocals of Karin Dreijer, of The Knife and Fever Ray fame.

There wasn’t a handover to Above & Beyond, but rather a brief break while they wheeled off the DJ table and brought out their own custom setup. It quickly became apparent that Above & Beyond were very much the headliners, with an immediately noticeable improvement in the sound and volume that had been lacking all day, as the big screen behind them exploded with their custom visuals for each track. Maybe it’s party of their headlining deal, as labelheads, but the difference between their set and the rest was night and day.

It was a big, dramatic intro, fittingly with Stepping In, the opening track of their new (fifth) album Bigger Than All Of Us, and the second track Start A Fire, featuring Richard Bedford on vocals. Being the pros that they are, they didn’t let up from there, building and crafting their set slowly, to bigger and bigger peaks, as the lights and visuals grew in turn. They featured most of the tracks from the new album, mixed in with various other classics and remixes.

Emerging around the turn of the millennium, Above & Beyond are seasoned veterans of the rave scene, who’ve evolved over time. A highly polished production trio comprising Brits Jono Grant and Tony McGuinness and Finnish musician/DJ Paavo Siljamäki; they also head the long-running, prolific, respected labels Anjunabeats, Anjunadeep and Anjunachill, which focus on various flavours of house and trance, and have been stalwarts of the scene since 2000.

Tonight they were just a duo, with Jono seemingly staying home. While they did focus on their own productions, there were some big tunes dropped in the mix – none bigger than Bedrock/John Digweed’s classic ’99 single Heaven Scent, which was epic as always. With heavenly visuals and custom graphics flashing on the big screen behind them, it was another level in terms of the production.

Sticky Fingers featuring Alex Vargas on vocals was another big tune, taken from their 2015 album We Are All We Need, and their remix of the timeless classic Blue Monday by New Order had the crowd going off. They’ve really got the epic, melodic trance build-up down to an art.

One of the cool things about Electric Island is they don’t try to overdo it and have 20 acts across three stages. There’s just one big stage that everyone’s united in watching. You can get amongst it on the sand, up close and personal, or hang further back up on the hill, with an amazing view. But this year there was a new addition with a small Silent Disco stage, further back on the hill near Indiana Teahouse. There were three DJs/channels to choose from on the headsets. Changing hourly, there was a veritable plethora of DJs! It wasn’t really trying to compete with the main stage but just providing a little alternate respite. Like a fun, little tasting platter you could jump into and try out a few options, with so many that you were bound to enjoy one of the channels.

But it was all about Above & Beyond at this point. With a stage show so impressive, it was hard to pull yourself away anywhere else. And the big tunes kept coming. Some of their music can get a little bit cheesy and repetitive at times with the more commercial, vocal tracks, like Quicksand and Sailing Off The End Of The World, and the peak-time trance of Gratitude, in tandem with some ‘motivational’ phrases put up on the big screen: ‘My current mood is gratitude’ and ‘Follow your heart’. But they mixed up the set well, and the unifying themes of peace, love, unity and respect seem more relevant and important to promote now more than ever. Take the positive vibes from the club and manifest them in the real world!

They pulled it back into harder territory with the Eric Prydz remix of the Depeche Mode classic Personal Jesus, with its swinging, stomping beat overset with the catch-cry “Reach out and touch faith!” leading seamlessly, sonically and thematically, into Celestial by Andrew Bayer, a 2015 release on Anjunabeats.

They finished in epic fashion with Chasing Highs, and the club remix of the more downtempo album title track, Bigger Than All Of Us, was one of those unifying, hands-in-the-air, emotive moments as big words flashed on the big screen: “We are family, and that’s how we become bigger, all of us together.”

The younger folks in the crowd really seemed to respond to the escapism of it all—but this has always been an element of rave music: losing yourself in the moment, dancing, reaching for the lasers, celebrating life, together. Because this is our church, and tonight God was a DJ—or two producers anyway…

As the euphoric, inspiring sounds of Thing Called Love rang out into the night, and a big love heart was projected on the big screen, the sky over the ocean suddenly exploded in shimmering colours with a massive fireworks show. It wasn’t just a few brief bangs either—it was impressive and went on for some time, climaxing in a huge one, much to the crowd’s delight, ending the night on the perfect high.

Another great edition of Electric Island. Let’s hope they keep this magnificent venue locked in for years to come, with more world-class talent to bless our beach with their music.

ALFRED GORMAN

Photos by Joker Theory