- The spirit of Stereosonic lives on as co-founder and Symbiotic CEO Richie McNeill prepares to launch the fallen EDM festival’s successor: Hypersonic.
- Stereosonic went defunct in 2016 primarily due to the financial collapse of its US-based parent company, SFX Entertainment, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy that year.
- This article on Hypersonic will be updated as details surface (lineup confirmation, ticket prices, set times, etc.).
At a time when Aussie music festivals are dropping like flies, Symbiotic CEO Richie McNeill and fellow director Janette Bishara have made it their mission to birth another.
From the ashes of the much-beloved (and endlessly memed) Stereosonic – which the legendary McNeill co-founded back in 2007 before it famously went defunct circa 2016 – comes Hypersonic: a brand new EDM festival set to take place across two cities on consecutive days this November.
As per an official Instagram post from Hypersonic’s own accounts, it promises to be a “groundbreaking multi-genre” affair that you’ll “need in your life.” Aside from the dates, locations, and ticket prices, at this point, not much else has been officially announced. All we know is that it’ll centre upon the “multi-stage lineup of the year.”
The question on every EDM festival-going individual’s lips, of course, involves the line-up. Who, indeed, will Richie McNeill et al be able to wrangle for this hotly anticipated debut?
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For context, Symbiotic has previously toured such notable acts as MaRLo (who actually commented on the post above), Vini Vici, Paul van Dyk, Maddix, Billy Gillies, as well as Above & Beyond; in addition to presenting the likes of MaRLo Altitude, Festival X, and Transmission. So that’s the ballpark we could be dealing with vis-Ã -vis calibre of talent.
Naturally, the online chatter has compiled a long-shot fantasy of a booking list that currently ranges from Calvin Harris, and Tiësto, to Swedish House Mafia and David Guetta. UPDATE [19/08/25]: Dutch DJ Armin van Buren has been unveiled as the first headliner.
“We’ve brought you HYPERDOME, a 360° visual experience, HYPERAVE, a hard, fast, dirty rave. And now, in collaboration with Hardware, we bring you the gamechanger: HYPERSONIC. The multi-genre music festival with the biggest line-up we’ve ever put together.”
Symbiotic
During its peak, Stereosonic managed to sell over 280,000 tickets across all five of its national shows. Will Hypersonic be able to generate the same level of demand at a time when Australian music festivals are seemingly at the mercy of wider economic conditions and the masses are pretty uniformly feeling jaded about them?
Find out more (and sign up for the tickets presale) via the link below.
Hypersonic Festival Dates (2025)
- Saturday, November 29th
Sydney
Showground - Sunday, November 30th
Melbourne
Showgrounds
Hypersonic Festival Ticket Prices (2025)
The regular ticket presale is scheduled for Thursday, August 21st at 12 PM (AEST), where General Admission will start from $169.95 + fees. Remaining tickets will be up for grabs during the general sale on Friday, August 22nd, also at 12 PM (AEST).
Hit the link above to sign up for the former.
