Tiësto Doubles Down on Trance with Cryptic Cross-Platform Promotion

Tiësto’s return to trance appears to not be a flash in the pan. The Dutch superstar has started an online countdown with themes that hark back to his heyday.

At first, Tiësto‘s return to trance seemed too good to be true. But he delivered on it at EDC Las Vegas — and then kept that same energy for his 2025 PRISMATIC sets — and now, the throwback themes of his newly launched promotional campaign hardly come as a surprise.

A visit to the Tiësto website now reveals a timer counting down to 9pm PT on Thursday, November 25. It doesn’t say what for. But longtime fans noticed that the Dutch superstar has reprised an oddly specific version of his logo at the top of the page: the one that appeared on his 1999 mix album, Live At Innercity – Amsterdam RAI.

In addition to launching the countdown timer, Tiësto (real name Tijs Verwest) has hidden his previous Instagram posts and shared an audio teaser. In it, a mysterious spoken-word vocal momentarily gives way to a few bars of a trance arpeggio before abruptly ending with a cinematic downlift, leaving fans guessing as to what could be in store.

Online commenters have noted that the date and time coincides with the 2025 edition of Dreamstate SoCal, where Verwest is billed to play another trance set for his debut at the Long Beach, California festival. But his performance is scheduled for the following day, November 22, at 11:45pm.

While Verwest broke through to the mainstream as a trance DJ at the turn of the millennium, a deeper dive points to a career defined by remaining at the forefront of dance music trends. He started in hardcore under the alias Da Joker, and in during the EDM boom, he gravitated toward the big room house sound. At the end of 2024, Verwest even dabbled in Afro house.

Whatever Tiësto has in store for Friday, you can sign up to get updates via Vizual.

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