Something you can talk over
The Pool Stage opens the music with dub, wide low end, and tempos in no hurry. It carries from far off and you can still sort out where your crew sleeps without shouting.
BASS MUSIC · TWO STAGES · PUNTARENAS
BASS MUSIC FESTIVAL IN COSTA RICA.
53, 30 and 17: that is how the people who already filled out the form split their votes between dubstep, drum and bass and everything with no box to tick. That split is what plays on 31 December 2026 at The Park at Ocean Ranch near Jacó, across two stages from 12 pm until 3 am.
53%
Dubstep
More than half tick that box before they read the rest of the form. The bill leans its weight there.
30%
Drum and bass
Almost a third asks for 170 and change. It forced us to rethink how the late hours get divided.
17%
Weird bass
The slice asking for halftime, glitch and things with no fixed name. Small and loud.
The bass music umbrella
"Bass music" is the umbrella, and underneath it sit genres that sound nothing like each other. What they share is one obsession: the low frequency is the subject of the track, not the padding underneath it.
Inside that bag you get dubstep at 140 with the beat at halftime, riddim stripped back to triplets, drum and bass running at 170, halftime that sounds slow on top of that same speed, trap with the low end pushed forward, glitch chopped to pieces and the experimental stuff nobody has labelled yet. They sound nothing alike and they rarely share a full crowd.
What ties them together is where the hit comes from. If you want each one on its own, with examples and tempos, that lives at bass genres.
What stays off the bill
If bass music is what brought you here, you should know what you will not hear anywhere on the site.
- Big-stage EDM with pyro and singalong choruses
- House in any of its versions
- Techno, however hard it hits
- Reggaeton, cumbia and whatever usually rescues a party when it sags
- The midnight countdown with champagne and confetti
None of that is banned anywhere. It just does not fit a bass music festival in Costa Rica built around a single frequency.
The night told by sound
This is how we want the sound to run end to end. The announced lineup is available now; individual set times and running order will be shared separately.
The weight comes up
Once the sun drops, the sound stops being background. The first real drops land there and people start walking toward the middle of the site instead of staying under shade.
Dubstep, undiluted
The filthiest stretch of the night. Riddim, heavy dubstep, things that sound like tearing metal. This is what that 53% came for, and where the sub reaches your chest before your ears.
The small hours get strange
Fewer people are still standing by then, and the ones who are will take anything. Halftime, experiments, tracks that never repeat a section. This is the 17%'s turn.
Light on top of the bass
With the sky going pale, the sound opens up: melodic drum and bass, cleaner low end, nothing that floors you. The official program ends at 3 am; campers can rest and stay until 11 am on January 2.
The poll describes our community’s taste. See the announced lineup for the confirmed artists. If you would rather see all of this from the ground than from the speakers, the open-air festival tells it that way, and the camping festival tells it from the tent.
Questions about the umbrella
Are "bass music" and "dubstep" the same thing?
No. Dubstep is one branch inside bass music, same as drum and bass or halftime. In Costa Rica plenty of people use the two words interchangeably because dubstep is the only one that gets booked regularly, and that is where the confusion starts.
Will there be a commercial EDM block at some point?
No, not even at four in the morning to bring things down. That call was made before the first line of this site got written and it does not depend on how many people ask for it.
I came for drum and bass and I do not like dubstep. Is this for me?
That 30% exists because of people like you, so dnb will play. Straight up though: dubstep runs the bill and you will hear several hours of it back to back. If that ruins your night, better to know today than at two in the morning.
Do I need to know the genres to get in?
No. Half the crowd will be discovering half of what plays. Nobody asks you anything at the gate beyond your name, and whoever turns up not knowing what riddim is leaves knowing.
If the word in your head was "rave", that conversation is at rave in Costa Rica. If your worry is where you will sleep, camping in Jacó compares the town's options against ours. And the wider picture gets sorted at music festivals in Costa Rica.
Now that you know what plays
Two things left on your side: whether you are coming and who with. The date is set, the venue is The Park at Ocean Ranch, and the list costs nothing.
Buy ticketsKeep reading
Dubstep in Costa RicaThe bass scene in Costa Rica exists; the festival did not. A 53% dubstep poll, a genre glossary, and the low-end night near Jacó, Costa Rica.
EDM Festival in Costa Rica, New Year’s 2026Looking for an EDM festival in Costa Rica? Ours is the small end: dubstep and bass only, two stages, open-air camping at The Park at Ocean Ranch near Jacó, and no other genres.
Bass festival in Jacó, Costa RicaIs there a bass festival in Jacó? Yes: dubstep and experimental bass across two stages with camping at The Park at Ocean Ranch.