United Nations of DJs to invade Aspen | Arts & Entertainment

Australia, Norway and the United Kingdom may sound like an unlikely combination to team up to achieve global dominance, unless it comes to the world of electronic music, then dance halls all over the world best beware.

Belly Up Concerts LLC has announced a veritable United Nations of EDM DJS and bands — Dom Dolla and Fisher from Australia, Kygo from Norway and Franc Moody from the UK — as acts for the third annual Palm Tree Music Festival Aspen. The event is set for Feb. 21-22 at Rio Grande Park.

“We are very excited with our 2025 line up,” said David Goldberg, a partner in Belly Up Concerts. “We’re bringing Dom Dolla to Aspen for the first time. He is on a meteoric rise and the timing couldn’t be better. He is getting bigger by the day. He’s coming off two massive closing sets at Austin City Music Festival a few weeks ago, drawing enormous crowds. He was definitely one of the most-talked-about acts of the two weekends.”

Dom Dolla, whose name is actually Dominic Matheson, is a house music producer, DJ, songwriter and remixer. He is celebrated for his distinct style of house music and high-profile collaborations. He has been nominated eight times for the ARIA Award (Australian Recording Industry Association) for Best Dance Release. His song “San Frandisco” in 2020 won the award. He was nominated for a 2024 Grammy for the song “New Gold,” which features Gorillaz, Tame Impala, and Bootie Brown.

Dom Dolla has performed in festivals such as Coachella and Lollapalooza and has sold out Red Rocks Amphitheatre. He is scheduled to co-headline the Feb. 21 (Friday) show at Palm Tree, along with Norwegian DJ Kygo (Kyrre Gorvell Dahll).

Billboard Magazine has called Kygo “the next EDM superstar.” The Norwegian DJ has established himself as a household name in electronica circles thanks to his smash hit remixes, several of which have topped over 1 billion streams on Spotify (with one track reaching 1 billion streams faster than any song ever).

In 2018, Kygo co-founded the Palm Tree Crew with Myles Shear. It is an artist management and event production company that has collaborated with Live Nation and co-promoted events in The Hamptons, Dana Point, Egypt, Cabo San Lucas, Croatia and Australia. In 2022, Palm Tree Music set its sights on Aspen and teamed with the Belly Up Aspen to produce the inaugural Palm Tree Music Festival Aspen in early 2023.

“Kygo is our dear friend and partner,” Goldberg said. “He just sold out [Dick’s Sporting Goods] in Denver and his career continues to explode. He’s playing arenas and stadiums. He just worked with Imagine Dragons. It’s such a blessing to work with him. Having him and Dom Dolla on the same lineup Friday is a powerful punch.” 

Other Friday acts include LP Giobbi, Forester and Mojave Grey.

The Saturday headliner is an Australian, DJ Fisher. He also is a member of the duo Under Construction, with frequent collaborator Chris Lake. Fisher was nominated for a Grammy in 2018 for Best Dance Recording for his solo single “Losing It.” 

“We’re very fortunate to have Fisher this year,” Goldberg said. “He’s been getting bigger and bigger. He’s cresting right now. He’s played Belly Up in the last year. His energy is unmatched. He’s closing out a great day of music Saturday night [Feb. 22].” 

Before Fisher headlines Saturday, Sofi Tukker, Franc Moody, Victoria Nadine and Balthvs will take the stage at Rio Grande Park. 

The first Palm Tree Music Festival Aspen in 2023 featured Kygo and Jack White as headliners. This past February, the Goldbergs pulled a veritable turntable out of a hat when they brought David Guetta, voted the No. 1 DJ in the world by his peers in 2024, to headline the weekend. The event was completely sold out in 2023 and 2024. 

The Goldbergs appeared before Aspen City Council in May to seek a five-year lease agreement for Rio Grande Park in hope of securing the festival’s future until the end of the decade.

Council members approved the request by a vote of 3-2, giving Palm Tree a secure future in Aspen and the ability to procure talent and crew far in advance.

“I’m so appreciative to the city council that they granted Palm Tree a five-year extension,” Goldberg said. “I am grateful I won’t have to pull an entire festival together in the summer. Putting lineups of this magnitude together in that condensed timeline has been very difficult and I’m looking forward to not having to do it again, it was not sustainable. I want to thank everybody who has been involved, from the city, my partners and all my crew. We never could have pulled it off without their patience and hard work. We’re incredibly thankful and excited to be able to continue Palm Tree in Aspen.”

One of Belly Up’s major points in the May meeting was the fact that in the first two years of Palm Tree, over 10% of tickets have been offered up to locals at a 50% discount, costing the festival over $100,000 in revenue.

“We give those tickets away to locals happily and would never acknowledge how much money that was costing us but we felt it was important in light of the circumstances to point that out,” Michael Goldberg, proprietor of the Belly Up Aspen music venue, told the city council in May. 

The locals discount for Palm Tree Festival tickets continues for the 2025 event. Residents of the Roaring Fork Valley will have access to an exclusive pre-sale starting Wednesday at 10 a.m. using a password to be published in Wednesday’s print edition of the Aspen Daily News.  For easy access to the Palm Tree Music Festival ticketing page, users should click on the homepage pop-up on the bellyupaspen.com website. Discounted ticket purchasers must have an address with a Roaring Fork Valley zip code.

Belly Up Aspen will have its own presale Thursday at 10 a.m. and tickets go on sale to the public on Friday at 10 a.m.

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