Insomniac’s Halloween festival adds two rap legends to Saturday, October 31, sharing the night with Zedd, Richie Hawtin and Nina Kraviz at the NOS Events Center.
Written by Eric B. Thornton
For Insomniac, Halloween has a home address, and it’s the NOS Events Center in San Bernardino. That’s where Insomniac stages Escape Psycho Circus, its flagship Halloween festival, and this year’s poster says everything about the mood: a bald, pale head with the entire lineup tattooed across the scalp and a bloody tattoo gun at the ready. With less than three weeks to go, that scalp just got two more names.
Insomniac has added West Coast hip-hop pioneer Too $hort and New York rapper and singer Ja Rule to the 2026 lineup, both performing on Saturday, October 31. The news comes about two weeks after Insomniac announced that Ice Cube would no longer be able to join this year’s edition, the festival’s sixteenth. Hip-hop still gets its Halloween night, now with one name from each coast. On a night when everyone is pretending to be someone else, it fits.
The newly released day-by-day schedule splits the rest of the 80-plus-act bill across Friday, October 30, and Saturday, October 31. Friday belongs to bass titan Excision, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Steve Aoki, Benny Benassi, Morten and NERVO. Saturday, the Halloween night itself, stacks Too $hort and Ja Rule next to Zedd, techno pioneer Richie Hawtin, Galantis and Alok.
If you want it heavier, pick your night. Friday brings AZYR, Clara Cuvé, Darren Styles, a Showtek hardstyle set and Frontliner’s Journey Set, while Saturday has 999999999, Nina Kraviz and Indira Paganotto. House heads get Cloonee plus back-to-backs that would headline a club night on their own, Jamie Jones b2b Franky Rizardo and Joseph Capriati b2b SOSA, on Friday, then “No Broke Boys” producer Disco Lines, OMNOM and San Pacho on Saturday. And Eurodance icon Cascada brings the anthems to Friday for anyone who came for the nostalgia.
The stages tell you who’s hosting the haunted house. Basscon brings hardstyle and hardcore, Bassrush handles bass and dubstep, the Factory 93 Experience carries the techno and house, Night Trip x Insomniac Records covers the late-night club side, and Mutate, Insomniac’s new hard dance imprint, makes its Escape debut.
Hip-hop, hardstyle, Eurodance and warehouse techno, all in one Halloween weekend. Pick your stage, pick your scare, and maybe save your voice for Saturday.
Escape Psycho Circus 2026, October 30 and 31, NOS Events Center, San Bernardino, 18+. Two-day and single-day passes at escapehalloween.com.