GRIDLIFE Midwest Celebrates 12 Years of Motorsports and Music

GRIDLIFE Midwest Festival returned to GingerMan Raceway in South Haven, Michigan, for its 12th consecutive year, drawing more than 20,000 fans to an event that refuses to fit into traditional categories.

The festival served as a perfect finale for racing fans following the Indy 500 and the Detroit Grand Prix in the two weeks leading up to the Midwest Festival. The 2025 expansion to three days proved there’s a serious appetite for events that dare to be different.

“GRIDLIFE Midwest has grown into something truly unique, it’s part music festival, part motorsport and part community gathering,” said Chris Stewart, GRIDLIFE co-founder. 

“We’ve created a space where people come for the racing and stay for the music, or come for the music and fall in love with the cars.”

Racing Drives the Weekend

The on-track action is the core of the GRIDLIFE experience. Across GingerMan Raceway’s 2.14-mile, 11-turn layout, GRIDLIFE brought together five distinct forms of competition: the debut of the new high-powered GT series, flagship wheel-to-wheel touring cup racing, individual time attack battles, multi-class RUSH series competition, and the ever-popular drift jams. Each class attracts its own dedicated following while contributing to the weekend’s overall energy.

Designed for high-performance cars producing 350-500 horsepower, GRIDLIFE GT (GLGT) made its inaugural appearance last weekend. GLGT represents a significant evolution in GRIDLIFE’s racing offerings. The series targets drivers seeking faster competition while maintaining the community-focused atmosphere that defines the GRIDLIFE experience.

Building on the momentum, the Eibach GRIDLIFE Touring Cup Championship showcased why it remains GRIDLIFE’s flagship wheel-to-wheel competition. This series puts modified production cars head-to-head in sprint races where driver skill matters more than big budgets. The format creates competitive racing that’s accessible to enthusiasts building cars in their own garages.

While wheel-to-wheel racing provided thrills, TrackBattle Time Attack offered a different kind of intensity. Nearly 100 competitors across seven classes spent the weekend pursuing the ultimate motorsports goal: the perfect lap. This individual time trial format strips away everything except driver, car and stopwatch, creating pure competition where milliseconds matter.

The GRIDLIFE RUSH Series added strategic complexity with its multi-class format. Featuring both 150-horsepower SR cars and 230-horsepower SRX vehicles equipped with DRS and push-to-pass systems, the series rewards tactical thinking alongside speed. Watching drivers time their power deployments during crucial overtaking moments created some of the weekend’s most entertaining racing.

Between the timed track action, the fan favorite, GRIDLIFE Drift, brought tire-destroying action to the track. Professional and enthusiast drivers alike turned the 2.14-mile course into their personal playground, showing off their skills and leaving a cloud of smoke in their paths.

The weekend featured nine full-course drift jam sessions, plus an exclusive “taxi” session combining track cars with drift cars, and allowing festival-goers the opportunity to ride along with their favorite drivers.

Max Mitchell / Darkroom Music (@redsmedia58)

From Racing to Raving

When the track went cold each evening, Festival Hill became the center of the action. The newly expanded hub featured the largest NOS Energy Stage in GRIDLIFE history, hosting nearly 30 electronic acts across Friday and Saturday nights.

Friday brought NGHTMRE headlining with his experimental sound combining future bass and trap. Closing out the festival on Saturday, Sullivan King headlined with his signature “deathstep,” a fusion of heavy metal guitar and dubstep production. The diverse lineup included Levity, Dr. Fresch, Rossy, Super Future and Dennett spanning multiple genres throughout the day.

GRIDLIFE’s crossover culture shined through by allowing artists to experience the track action with ride-alongs. Musicians took hot laps with drivers during the day before hitting the stage at night. This perfectly captures what makes this event special: genuine exchange between two passionate communities.

Max Mitchell / Darkroom Music (@redsmedia58)

The success of GRIDLIFE comes from understanding that authentic community is more important than manufactured experiences every time. The festival creates an environment where car enthusiasts discover electronic music and festival-goers develop genuine appreciation for motorsports.

GRIDLIFE continues to race through the summer with six events remaining in the 2025 season. Next up is GRIDLIFE Mid-Ohio on June 27-29 in Lexington, Ohio, followed by the second edition of the Summer Apex festival at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, from July 25-27. Tickets for Summer Apex are on sale now.

Editors note: Max Mitchell contributed to the reporting of this article.