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[title]When you think of desert festivals – we’re talking famous ones like Coachella and Burning Man – what usually comes to mind are influencers (annoying), drinking that’s confined to small alcohol pens (strange), and the sky-high prices you pay for the privilege (there’s a cost-of-living crisis, actually). So what if we told you there was another party in a desert that was much more unique, nowhere near as extortionate and, for UK travellers, quite a lot closer to home?
We’re talking about Sandbox Festival in Egypt, which should be at the top of every music head’s list for festival season 2025. With 5,000 punters, the party on the Red Sea is the one of the biggest festivals in the Middle East. Celebrating its tenth year in 2024, Sandbox has been bringing some of the best electronic music talent to play in the middle of the desert for the past decade. Over the years, DJs like Peach, Job Jobse, Jayda G and more have taken to the decks, alongside a whole load of homegrown Egyptian talent, who make up 50 percent of the lineup every year.
Founded in 2014, just three years after the Egyptian revolution, Sandbox has become a haven of self-expression – I get the impression Egyptians come here to really let loose. You won’t find many British lads wearing football shirts or American influencers setting up their tripods at this festival: refreshingly, Sandbox cultivates a pretty local crowd, with the majority of punters travelling up from Cairo for the weekend. Lots of attendees tell us they attend every year, and founder Tito El Kachab explains that the crowd is actually curated by the organisers, with regulars invited back every year.
To experience the festival in its tenth year, Time Out travelled to El Gouna on the Red Sea. Here’s everything that went down at Sandbox 2024 – and what to expect in 2025.
We arrive in El Gouna, a purpose-built, gated resort town plonked in a vast stretch of empty desert. It’s full of palm trees, sand-coloured buildings and man-made lakes. It’s not like anywhere I’ve been before – it looks pretty but artificial, and it’s very quiet. Its nearest big town with an airport is Hurghada, which has an estimated 5 million tourists visiting each year.
The hotel we’re staying in, Mosaique, is similarly quiet. It has a lovely big pool, sweet staff and white-washed rooms. It’s far too hot for camping in El Gouna, so Sandbox punters pitch up in hotels and Airbnbs in the town – there are loads to choose from. The festival site is less than a 10-minute drive away, and if you ride by tuk-tuk the cost of the journey is less than the equivalent of 50p.
After a sleep, it’s time for the festival. By day, most people spend their time lounging about in the water that borders the festival site. With it nearing 40C on some days over the weekend, it’s much too warm to be out of the sea for more than 30 minutes. The daytime vibe is more beach club than festival. This year Sandbox introduced the new beach stage, which pumps out gentle house and disco, while activities like aerial lessons, yoga and breathwork classes keep crowds busy during the long, hot days.
On the first night we bundle into a tuk-tuk for the 10-minute drive to the site. It’s a thrill, as the tiny vehicle nips round bends, overtakes cars and toots its little horn. We arrive at Sandbox in the middle of a sandstorm. It’s giving Arrakis, and I wish I brought some kind of face covering. Instead, I strap a bejewelled New York cap to my head and pray it doesn’t blow away.
The site itself is pretty small – you can whip around the whole thing in about 10 minutes. Huge mounds of sand act as dividers between the stages, while art and light installations pepper the site. Immediately, I’m impressed by the stage design. As well as four main stages, each with its own unique identity, there are smaller and more secret arenas too. Like the Selectbox (run by SceneNoise), a box with space for about 50 people, a DJ booth and some really good speakers. Every time we pop in over the three days, everyone in there is going for it. There’s also the tiny record box, which mimics a record store and is always packed. From the outside it looks like a house party with guests spilling out onto the street to smoke.
From the outside it looks like a house party with guests spilling out onto the street to smoke
While the main stage is good – not too busy, impressively big but not gargantuan, with decent sound – the firm favourite is the Groovebox. An entirely wooden structure, from the outside it looks a bit like a massive sauna (thankfully it’s not the temperature of one). The DJ booth sits front and centre inside the wooden cube. The sound is best right in the middle, but there are podiums and raised viewing platforms flanking the dancefloor, so you can feel like a VIP watching on from above. On the first night, a secret stage also reveals itself with a suddenly illuminated tunnel of lights. Only properly noticeable from the small number of punters flowing in and out, the tunnel leads to a circular open-air arena with mirrors all around.
Programming-wise, Sandbox has a well-balanced variation of house, disco, tech house and more leftfield breaks, glitchy techno and basslines. The BPM rarely goes above 130 (gabber and donk heads may wish to look elsewhere), but the music is solid throughout the three-dayer.
Things move at a different pace in Egypt than Europeans might be used to, which is why Sandbox only dropped its lineup a month before they opened their gates to dancers. But this doesn’t much matter – part of the festival’s fun is discovering new sounds, and the well-curated lineup lets you do just that. This year saw big names like Call Super, DJ Tennis and Hunnee in the lineup, alongside a load of excellent Egyptian talent.
Cairo-based duo Gazbee b2b Taiana in the Groovebox, whose feel-good genre-blending electronic set even features a live guitar, is a highlight. I also enjoy the Dutch Suze Ijo, who plays a fun set of groovy tech house, disco, jazz, funk, and a sprinkling of Latin and Caribbean sounds. Legendary Japanese electronic producer Soichi Terada delivers the most euphoric set of the weekend, which bounces between ebullient piano house, melodic electro and groovy disco. He even drops in ‘I Was Made For Lovin’ You’ by Kiss. Grinning from ear to ear, the electro heavyweight wins over the crowd with his pure optimism and joyful performance quirks, which include introducing an origami puppet as a special guest, before making the puppet ‘sing’ into the mic. None of the artists take things too seriously: Call Super opens his set with a Little Simz track, Sweely throws Confidence Man’s ‘Toy Boy’ into the mix, and DJ Holographic drops Daft Punk’s ‘One More Time’.
And the crowd is as happy-go-lucky as the sets. We’re told by founder El Kachab that Sandbox has no VIP sections. There are no fancy green rooms or special access backstage areas. I spot Scottish DJ Eclair Fifi eating at the food court just like all the other punters.
After three days of drinking and late nights, we’re worn out by the final day. But the festival’s loyal fanbase of Egyptian regulars are still still incredibly up for it. I will say this – Egyptians know how to party, and El Kachab agrees. ‘I would recommend that you come and check out a new country and see how the Egyptians party,’ he says. ‘The Sandbox crowd is very hungry and open-minded.’
It’s a good feeling to be partying with local people. We meet a few Brits over the weekend and ask them how they heard about the party. Most say they have Egyptian friends or family who told them about Sandbox, and many claim they loyally return to the knees-up every year. According to El Kachab, roughly 30 percent of the Sandbox crowd comes from abroad, and this number is climbing every year. ‘The hype is growing,’ he says, explaining that Sandbox is expanding its fanbase in Arab countries and Europe too. Despite this, the organisers aren’t planning on upping the festival’s capacity anytime soon. For now, 5,000 dancers is just right.
Time Out travelled as guests of Sandbox Festival. Our reviews and recommendations have been editorially independent since 1968. For more, see our editorial guidelines.
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