I went to the very first Project Glow, and I've been to three of the five. So when I tell you this festival has changed, I mean it from the inside.
This year Glow returned to the RFK Festival Grounds on May 30 and 31, and I did both days. Full transparency up front: I reached out for media credentials well in advance and never heard back, so I covered this one the old-fashioned way — on a VIP pass I bought myself. No hard feelings. I'd have been there regardless.
I cover this city's scene as a hobby, and watching Glow grow has been one of the more satisfying arcs to track from the ground.
From DC Institution to East Coast Destination
Here's the context a lot of newer attendees miss. Club Glow has been a fixture of the DC scene basically forever — the longest-running electronic promoter on the East Coast, the team behind Echostage. When Insomniac came in and backed the operation, the festival got the engine it needed to scale. Project Glow is the result, and 2026 marked the fifth edition.
You can feel that scale now. This isn't a regional party anymore. Walking the grounds both days, I clocked crowds from NYC and up and down the eastern seaboard — people who used to skip DC on the festival map are now building a weekend around it. That's new. Each year it gets bigger, and this year it crossed a line from "DC's festival" into "an East Coast destination that happens to live in DC."
For a city that's spent decades being told its scene was an afterthought, that means something.
The Sets That Mattered
Gryffin — Sunset Set — A sunset slot is a gift, and Gryffin knew exactly what to do with it. Melodic, anthemic, perfectly timed to the light dropping over the grounds. The kind of set that turns a field full of strangers into one crowd.
Cloonee — Yes, again. If you've been reading, you know Cloonee just tore up kineticFIELD at EDC, and he carried that same relentless tech-house energy into DC. The man is everywhere this season, and the floor never argued with it.
Max Styler — Max Styler keeps landing on my top-sets lists, and at this point that's not a coincidence — it's a pattern. Precise, high-energy, built for people who came to move. He's quietly one of the most reliable bookings in the game right now.
KREAM — The kind of set that rewards showing up early and committing. Big, clean, and a reminder of how deep this lineup ran beyond the headliners.
Insomniac and Glow Know How to Throw a Festival
Let me be clear about what's working, because almost all of it is. The talent booked is premium top to bottom. The production was excellent. The layout was strong and the whole thing ran like the well-oiled machine you expect when Insomniac is behind it.
My one structural quibble is nostalgic more than anything: I miss the old VIP setup, where Eternal and Pulse sat near each other and you got one large, central VIP section to work from. This year's separation loses a little of that. That said, I completely understand the call — when you put two main stages that close together, the sound bleed is brutal, and clean audio wins. I'd make the same decision. Just noting what was lost.
The Two Things Glow Has to Fix
Now the part that needs saying, because nobody else is going to say it plainly.
The food and beverage situation was genuinely out of control. I paid $21, with tax and tip, for a horchata (Agua Fresca) that tasted like chalk — no sweetness, no cinnamon, nothing. I threw it out. A friend and I then split two rice bowls and a shrimp bao bun and walked away $84 lighter, tax and tip included. I'm fortunate enough to absorb that, but I even found it ridiculous.
Here's what actually worries me about it. Glow is, by festival standards, reasonably priced to get in — that's part of what makes it such a great entry point. So picture a young first-timer, someone for whom this is their introduction to the entire scene, getting hit with $21 for an undrinkable Agua Fresca. That's not a fun story they tell later. That's a reason they don't come back. For a festival doing so much right to grow the next generation of this community, the vending is working against the mission.
And then there was the smell. I don't love writing this, but it was impossible to ignore. The entry area reeked of farm manure both days, with a brown, slushy, mud-like substance oozing up through the temporary flooring near security. It was rough. I genuinely don't know how the staff stationed there tolerated it for hours. The porta-potties across the grounds were worse, clearly leaking, with streams of foul liquid running between them. For an operation this polished everywhere else, the sanitation was a glaring miss.
Neither of these is a talent problem or a production problem. They're operations problems — which means they're fixable. And a festival growing this fast can't afford to let the first impression be a $21 chalk drink and a manure smell at the gate.
Final Thought
Get the basics right and Glow is untouchable on the East Coast. That's the frustrating part — the hard stuff, the booking and the production and the scale, they've already nailed. What's left is the stuff that should be easy.
I was there for the first one, and I keep coming back. I'll be back for year six. And I'll keep telling you the truth about it, because a festival this important to the city I call home deserves honest coverage.
Insomniac and Glow killed it again. Now fix the food and the smell, and let's make year six the best one yet.
See you on the floor.
About the Author: Jimmy is an EDM connoisseur and the editor of DCraver.com. With nearly twenty years of immersion in electronic music culture, he founded The Dip to provide nuanced analysis on the history and evolution of the scene for a millennial audience. You can follow his perspective under the handle PLURtatochip.