GabberGirl's Rave Report - Even Furthur Festival 2026

After a six-year hiatus, the legendary Even Furthur festival returned to Somewhere, Wisconsin the first weekend in September. Four days of fantastic electronic music, interesting activities, endless art, & freak flags flying.

Even Furthur 2026 featured a main stage, the Lumiadome (a geodesic dome light and sound show), three independent DIY music stages, a live ambient silent disco Yoga class, the Disco Chicken food truck, a Saturday night “rave cave”, and of course, Hardcore Breakfast. Crews traveled from all points in the Midwest to build their camps together, hanging psychedelic tapestries, blow-up aliens, and blacklight art on their tents and pop-ups, lining paths with glo sticks and phasing string lights. While Burning Man was going hard in the desert, the Midwesterners were having their own art and music fest, sans dust and nudity.



The early Furthurs marked the start of spring, and tended to be a mud fest. At some point, Furthur switched its timing to the end of summer with drier, hotter results. America’s Labor Day weekend usually presents Midwest weather at its finest, but it is the Midwest, so you never know. This Furthur tested the hardcore-ness of Midwesterners with extreme heat and humidity, and a bunch of aggravated stinging insects; apparently wasps and yellow jackets don’t jam with the bassy vibrations and frequencies of Furthur.

Since the start of Furthur, way back in 1994, and the first Even Furthur in 1995, Drop Bass Network record label head and festival promoter, Kurt Eckes, has been curating a well-rounded roster of electronic musicians and DJs, embracing fresh-faced young artists as well as the originators. One of the first promoters to regularly book female and LGBTQ+ performers, Kurt has maintained Even Furthur as an all-inclusive event; whatever your cuppa is, as long as it is respectful, you are welcome.

The first time my own DJ name GabberGirl appeared in print was on the 1996 Even Furthur flier. After an entire year of lugging around my crate of records to every party, begging every promoter to let me open or close or fill in the missing DJ’s slot, DJing mostly at 4 am for the sweepers, sleepers, and tweakers, someone finally took a chance on me. (Thanks Kurt!) All these years later, he still takes chances on new producers, new DJs; the next generation of electronic musicians are honored and elevated at this event.

Kurt also works closely with other rave crews throughout the Midwest, allowing side stages, and all sorts of shenanigans such as a fire dancers at the Techno Pagan effigy burn, an art-making station, and a traveling rave flier museum display. Collectives from Madison, Milwaukee, and LaCrosse hosted stages this year—when I had asked Kurt if I could host a small hardcore stage, he said that this year’s DIY stages were not about genres, but relationships. Strengthening ties throughout the Midwest; each scene might be small, but when celebrating together, the Midwest is *massive*.

Beyond the amazing performers booked by Drop Bass, the DIY stages book their own local talent, bringing a strong mix of different genres and styles, so there is music for everyone. Not just techno, not just house, not just drum n bass, but all of it, some trance, footwork/juke, dub, booty house, jungle, acid, and of course, HARDCORE. Even Furthur wouldn’t be Even Furthur without hardcore, and that tradition is still honored.

It was 2017 when Hardcore Breakfast was a regular feature added to the EF fest. Two hours of hardcore and gabber on a Saturday morning, served up with hot pancakes and cold shitty keg beer. The last two Hardcore Breakfasts were still being talked about years later—in 2018, Delta 9 (Chicago) found his way back to the stage, with local support from The Demix (Milwaukee) and in 2019, “the most famous unknown” Marc Acardipane (aka The Mover; Frankfurt, DE) was the star of the show, followed by Canadian vinyl precision mixmaster Fishead (Winnepeg). The first Hardcore Breakfast in ’17 featured Uptempo artist Tim Shopp. Other hardcore DJs featured in 2017, 2018 & 2019 on a variety of side stages and the main stage included Otto von Schirach, Bombardier, Mr. Bill, Piledriver, Elekid, Idiom, Flinx, WigWam, Julian Rivera, Gabber Jihad, Stunt Rock, Brentkore, and myself, GabberGirl. Also, the limited edition Even Furthur 2019 double-7” record set released by DBN featured a hardcore track by Baseck.

I spent some time doing detective work, trying to track down the origins of Hardcore Breakfast, and it is quite convoluted, starting in 1997 with pancakes being served at Even Furthur by the Solus Fuse crew and/or the MadLove crew, breakfast beer bongs by a different crew in ‘99, and the actual two words of Hardcore and Breakfast coming together for the first time in 1999 on a flier for a completely different Midwest electronic music fest, Rave’em & Bail-E 3.

The most recent Hardcore Breakfast was served at A Kult/Space 7 stage on Saturday morning, and started with scrambled eggs while Kilbourne scrambled feet on the dance floor. Someone had brought waffle mix instead of pancake mix! So, after some scrambling around, hotcakes dominated the last half of Kilbourne’s hardcore and gabber DJ set, along with fist shaking, boot stomping, and a very athletic Dan Doormouse dancing right in front of the stage for the two-hour set. Kilbourne wore a soccer jersey, her hair in a cute skater cut, and a secret smile the entirety of her set; it was obvious she was enjoying herself as much as we enjoyed her sweet mixing skills and the hardest set I have heard her play. One thing I can say about Drop Bass Network events is that all DJs bring not only their A-game to the decks, but also their hardest sets.

Besides Hardcore Breakfast’s Kilbourne, other hardcore DJ’s and producers featured at this past Even Furthur included Joey Berrios (spinning an old school vinyl set!), Bad Acid Cult, John F Ketamine (JFK), Dr. Kumm, and Softcore Mikey.