Zedd, Excision and Gryffin headline Breakaway Mass festival return to Worcester

Breakaway Mass is returning to Palladium Outdoors in Worcester for a two-day run on August 21-22, Dancing Astronaut reports, with 24 acts booked for the New England stop. Zedd, Excision and Gryffin top the bill, joined by a Sullivan King sunset set. The Palladium is an unusual stop on the Breakaway circuit, a downtown venue with an outdoor footprint rather than a stadium, and the site says the bill has always felt tuned to that setting.

Excision is described as the booking that defines the festival: two decades into a career that helped build the American bass festival economy, he remains, in Dancing Astronaut's words, "the most reliable draw in heavy dubstep." Sullivan King's sunset slot is timed deliberately, pairing his metal-and-dubstep hybrid with the last light of the day to give the bill a real turning point rather than just another mainstage set.

Zedd and Gryffin cover the more melodic end of the lineup, a contrast sharp enough to function as its own programming statement against the heavier acts. Crankdat sits between the two poles, INZO brings a more psychedelic bass sound, and Wax Motif holds down the house corner largely on his own, an inversion of how most of Breakaway's other 2026 stops have been weighted.

The rest of the bill runs deep, with Devault, Laszewo's indie-electronic songwriting, Jkyl & Hyde, OMNOM and several New England-local acts including BREAKBOMB, BYEU and COWSON rounding things out. Gates open at 4 p.m. both days, with music running through 11 p.m.

Two-day GA, VIP, Terrace and Ultimate VIP passes are available through the Breakaway website starting at $179. Breakaway Mass is one stop in a busy 2026 for the electronic festival brand, which also debuted Breakaway Utah in Salt Lake City the same season, with the full run tracked in the festival tracker.