A State of Trance at 25: Armin van Buuren's Ibiza Residency Hits the Final Night
Twenty-five years ago, Armin van Buuren started a weekly radio show. He called it A State of Trance, or ASOT for short. In 2026, A State of Trance turned 25, and Armin has spent the whole year celebrating. The biggest piece of it: five Monday nights at [UNVRS] Ibiza, each one with a five-hour set. The last of those nights lands on Monday, October 5.
Cover photo: Armin van Buuren performing at Ultra Music Festival in 2014 (a file photo, not from the Ibiza residency). Photo by Rutger Geerling, licensed CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
A State of Trance 25: How It Started
ASOT began in 2001 as a radio show where Armin played the newest trance records every week. Over time it grew into something much bigger. Now it's festivals, albums, and a fan community that spans the globe. Armin also runs Armada Music, one of the biggest dance labels out there. In 2025, he was named the World's No. 1 Trance DJ in DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs awards.
The 25th anniversary year kicked off at Rotterdam Ahoy on Friday, February 27, 2026. About 20,000 fans packed in for the opening night. The lineup was stacked with trance names like Ferry Corsten, Giuseppe Ottaviani, Mauro Picotto, and Ruben de Ronde. Armin played five hours, built as a trip through 25 years of the ASOT sound. In the middle of that set, he announced the Ibiza residency.
ASOT 25 in Ibiza: Five Mondays, Five Hours Each
For years, Armin's Ibiza home was Ushuaïa, the big open-air club. For the 25th, he moved indoors to [UNVRS], a newer club in San Rafael built around massive sound and visuals. The residency runs five Mondays in a row, from September 7 to October 5. Every one of those nights, Armin plays an extended five-hour set, with club listings showing a late start around 11:30 p.m. Ibiza time.
He also built a vinyl-only section into every night. Armin said he was cutting special vinyl for the residency, and that old-school records take away the hot cues and tricks he'd normally lean on. DJ Mag also reported that the final night would see him play all night long.
Why does five hours matter? Trance is all about the journey. Long builds. Big breakdowns, where the beat drops out and the melody takes over. Then the drop back in. Most festival sets only last 60 to 90 minutes, which barely gives a DJ time to get going. Five hours lets a DJ warm up the room, dig into the classics, test new records, and still save something for the peak. That's old-school DJing, and it's good to see it still getting the spotlight.
F2F: Not Your Normal Back-to-Back
The first four nights each featured an F2F set, short for "face to face." Armin's guests were Hannah Laing on September 7, Eli Brown on September 14, Argy on September 21, and Funk Tribu on September 28. The final night, October 5, has no F2F guest listed.
In a normal back-to-back (B2B), two DJs share one mixer and take turns. F2F is different. Each DJ gets a full setup of their own, and they face each other. They have to talk through the mix live, using their ears and hand signals. It's harder, and when it works, it feels like two artists jamming instead of trading tracks.
The guest list says a lot too. Several of those names come from the techno and house side of things. Trance and techno used to act like rivals. Now they're sharing booths in Ibiza.
Why Trance Still Matters
Trance gets clowned sometimes, but it has real roots. It came out of the early-'90s rave scene in Germany and spread fast across Europe, especially the Netherlands. If you came up in the late-'90s and 2000s rave scene, trance was the sound of the main room at a lot of parties. Twenty-five years of ASOT proves that sound never really left. It just kept building.
FAQ: A State of Trance 25 for Newcomers
What is trance music?
Trance is a style of electronic dance music. It usually runs around 130 to 140 beats per minute. It's known for long builds, big melodies, and emotional breakdowns before the beat comes back in.
What is A State of Trance?
A State of Trance (ASOT) is Armin van Buuren's weekly trance radio show. It started in 2001 and has grown into a global brand with festivals, albums, and a worldwide fan base.
Where is Armin van Buuren's 2026 Ibiza residency?
At [UNVRS] Ibiza in San Rafael. It runs five Mondays, from September 7 to October 5, 2026, with an extended five-hour Armin set every night. October 5 is the final night.
What's the difference between F2F and B2B?
In a B2B, two DJs share one setup and take turns. In an F2F, each DJ has their own full setup, they face each other, and they mix together live.
The Panic 39 Take
Our first rave? We didn't even know it was a rave. We were out bombing in Pomona in the late '80s, heard music, checked it out, and found a gymnasium with all the workout equipment pushed to the side, kegs everywhere, and people dressed weirder than anything we'd ever seen. It was free. Music like MC Hammer but remixed and sped up. We had no idea what it was. A girl from school told us there were more parties. We didn't go to another one for a few years, but when we did—Fry for 5 down in Orange County—that was the moment. It clicked.
By the early 2000s, we were everywhere. Fox Theater in Pomona every weekend, then Nocturnal Wonderland out at San Bernardino. We sold every shirt we brought. But here's the thing about the California rave scene back then: almost every large event had a hip hop room. Real room, real stage, real MCs. And that's where Panic started to become Panic. We knew the b-boys and poppers from the underground hip hop circuit—Wave-O-Matic, Tronic, Pandora, B-Boy Psycho from Air Force Crew—and they were at the raves too. So were the Drum n Bass heads. So were the house music people. Our booth became the spot where all those scenes ran into each other. Ciphers in front of our table. Conversations between MCs from different genres. That crossover, that respect between the underground music cultures and dance cultures, that's what made Panic what it is.
So when Armin plays five hours straight, when he's reading the crowd and building something that's not just a set but a journey, we get it. That's the sound we came up in. That's the energy that opened our eyes when we were kids in Pomona. Long sets, real DJs, real respect for the music. ASOT at 25 keeps that alive.
