10 under-the-radar artists to catch at Electric Forest 2026

Electric Forest’s 2026 headliners don’t need an introduction. The names on the banner are the ones drawing the crowd, and they’ll deliver. But the festival has always rewarded the people willing to move between stages and wander deeper into Sherwood Forest to find something they weren’t expecting.

The Darkroom Music team has compiled 10 artists from across the four-day lineup worth putting on your schedule now. The selection spans many genres, and may even include artists you’ve listened to and didn’t even know it.

1. CHRIS LUNO Sunday, June 28 – Tripolee

When: Sunday, June 28
Where: Tripolee

The Berlin-based German producer launched a YouTube mix series in 2019 that has since crossed 90 million views and 500,000 subscribers, and his touring has taken him from Burning Man to Ultra Miami to headline dates at Sound in Los Angeles and Elsewhere in New York City. His own productions have over 30 million streams, with support from Diplo, Gorgon City, and Adriatique.

Most people at Electric Forest this weekend won’t place the name, because Luno built his audience through long-form mixes, not through singles that show up on your Spotify daylist. His melodic, organic house will be a great transition into the evening at Tripolee.

2. Casey Club

When: Friday June 26
Where The Observatory

Bristol producer Casey Club completed his first North American tour dates earlier this year, moving quickly from the U.K. underground to U.S. festival stages. His sets run on unreleased material, U.K. garage swing and dubstep grit built specifically for each stage he’s playing.

His music was landing on major stages before he’d performed in North America: Four Tet dropped “Brostep Flow” at a sold-out KIA Forum show in Los Angeles, and Blood Oath premiered it at Coachella’s DoLab stage. That level of placement before a debut tour is a meaningful signal about where his work already stands.

3. COSTA

When: Saturday, June 27 / Sunday, June 28
Where: Tripolee / Honeycomb

COSTA is 22 and still enrolled at the University of Maryland. He learned to DJ as a fraternity initiation task, liked it enough to keep going, and spent his high school and early college years throwing underground shows as a promoter, developing an instinct for crowd energy before he had a single original to his name. He only started producing in 2024, after attending his first show in the genre.

One year into it, his flips and originals have over 5 million streams, with support from Excision, Subtronics, Levity, ALLEYCVT, and Zeds Dead. He’s now playing two sets at Forest this weekend. His monthly Spotify listeners sit below 10,000, and that number isn’t going to stay there, so make sure you save some time to catch him at either Tripolee on Saturday or Honeycomb on Sunday.

4. Kaleena Zanders

When: Friday, June 26
Where: Sherwood Court

Kaleena Zanders has sung and co-written for Chris Lake, LP Giobbi, Loud Luxury, Tchami, and Aluna, building more than 300 million streams on vocal performances largely credited to whoever led the track rather than to her.

Her debut solo album, “Anything Goes,” released this spring on Helix Records, is the project where she got to take control of the sound. The seven-track collection blends U.K. garage, stutter house, and melodic anthems in a live format built around gospel-trained vocals over a DJ setup. After years of contributing her voice to other people’s projects, “Anything Goes” positions her as the artist at the center of the room.

5. INIKO Friday

When: Friday, June 26
Where: The Observatory

Brooklyn-based singer INIKO released “Jericho” in 2023, and the track spread rapidly through social media, accumulating 196 million Spotify streams in a way that often separated the song from the name behind it.

INIKO grew up in church music and in their father’s reggae band, Souljahs, and that foundation shows in the range of their recorded work: cinematic, layered songs built on a vocal range that doesn’t settle neatly into a single genre. Their 2025 debut album, “The Awakening,” earned a GLAAD Media Award nomination for Outstanding Breakthrough Music Artist. A late-night set in Sherwood Forest gives that material a context it was made for.

6. MOTIFV

When: Friday, June 26
Where: Ranch Arena

Joseph Kechter grew up in the foothills of Northern Colorado and makes music that reflects it: gospel and soul samples layered over futuristic synthesis and experimental bass. His debut album, “The Path,” came out in 2019, followed by “Dilated Mind” in 2021. In 2024, he released a pair of EPs on Philos Records, “Where the Sun Sets” and “Behind the Moon,” available together on limited-edition vinyl.

The music sits at an interesting crossroads of gospel samples and soul folded into experimental low end and groovy beats. While his sound has changed, his influences clearly have not. He’s been quietly curating a catalog of samples for this unique blend since 2019. This is sure to be a set full of vibes at Ranch Arena on Friday evening.

7. Tiffany Day

When: Saturday June 27
Where: The Observatory

In 2017, Tiffany Ruan was on a high school choir trip to Spoleto, Italy, when she sang “Hallelujah” into a well, someone filmed it, and the video spread far enough to hand her a platform before she was prepared to use it. She spent the following years building toward something worth the attention: bedroom pop EPs through college, steady audience growth, and a working knowledge of production and songwriting that now shows in the material.

Her 2026 album, “HALO,” marks a deliberate move toward hyperpop and dance production from the bedroom pop foundation she built on, and a festival booking follows naturally from that direction.

8. SHIMA

When: Thursday, June 25
Where: The Observatory

SHIMA started performing at 14 as a J-pop singer in Tokyo, in a group under a stage name, with every creative decision made above her head. She left at 18, moved to the U.S. to study music and computer engineering, and spent years producing music while working full-time as a software developer. The pandemic was when she finally made it her whole job, and her debut album, “Welcome to SHIMAJIMA,” arrived in September 2025.

She calls the sound “space disco.” The record blends bilingual lyrics, Japanese folklore, and futurist electronics into something without an obvious reference point. The album is the first project she describes as truly her own. You can catch her “space disco” Saturday night at The Observatory.

9. River Tiber

When: Sunday, June 28
Where: Honeycomb

Toronto-based Tommy Paxton-Beesley grew up playing cello in his high school orchestra and spent part of his childhood near the Tiber River in Italy, the source of his stage name. His production work spans more than a decade of largely behind-the-scenes contributions: Drake’s “No Tellin’,” SZA’s “Broken Clocks,” Travis Scott’s “Astrothunder,” James Blake’s “I Keep Calling,” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Savior.”

His solo project as River Tiber runs in a different direction, based on alternative R&B and shaped by psychedelia with a splash of jazz influence, introspective and patient in a way that doesn’t line up with the size of his production credits. Sunday afternoon at Honeycomb is the perfect setting to vibe to the jazzy grooves.

10. Qrion

When: Sunday, June 28
Where: Tripolee

Momiji Tsukada started making music on her phone in high school in Sapporo, Japan’s northern city with a long-standing electronic music scene, before relocating to San Francisco to develop it full time. Forbes Japan included her on its 30 Under 30 list in 2020, and DJ Mag named her a Future Star in 2021.

Her debut full-length, “I Hope It Lasts Forever,” came out on Anjunadeep that year and appeared on Billboard’s 20 Best Dance Albums list. The sound is melodic house built on emotional pull rather than upfront energy, the perfect setup to another Anjunadeep artist, Chris Luno, who follows Qrion on Tripolee on Sunday night.

While the team here at Darkroom Music is excited about these sets, none of the artists on this list need your full commitment. Most play shorter sets, which means you can catch one, find out you love it, and still make it somewhere else before the night is over. Wander. Cut out early from something familiar to catch 20 minutes of something you’ve never heard.

The music is only part of what’s in there. The art installations run deep into the trees, late-night moments appear in corners of the grounds that won’t show up on any schedule, and Sherwood Forest itself is worth walking through at 2 a.m. with nothing specific to find. Give yourself permission to miss something on purpose and explore. You never know what you’ll find.

Electric Forest 2026 runs June 25-28 and is officially sold out. In less than one week, we’ll be reunited in the forest to experience the magic and music that keep us coming back each year.

Editors Note: Featured photo courtesy of Electric Forest Festival // Alive Coverage