Medaina Festival review

It’s early in the season but we’ve got a feeling we’re going to be hard pressed to find a festival in a more impressive location than Medaina in 2025.

Organised by the Tithora crew who specialise in hosting unique, one-off events in jaw dropping locations, Medaina took place in Jordan’s Unesco World Heritage site of Petra and the desert of Wadi Rum. Working in conjunction with the Jordan Tourism Board and Royal Jordanian Airlines (RoyalJordanian), the festival organisers were able to offer festivalgoers an incredible taste of not just Medaina Festival but the country and culture of Jordan as a whole.

Hosting a party literally in one of the seven wonders of the world is no mean feat and Medaina faced some initial setbacks. Originally due to take place in 2023, the festival was pushed back to 2025 due to logistical issues and problems in other parts of the region.

But, thanks to the Tithoria crew’s sheer perseverance and determination, the 1,500 festival goers who made the trip to Medaina were treated to a truly unique, one-off experience.

Attendees were able to delve into the local culture, customs and history of Jordan as much as the party and there was a true feeling of cultural exchange going on. Festival goers left Jordan with an enriched appreciation for the country’s rich history and culture while the local population were taken with the first instance of an electronic music festival taking place in their country.

After an initial opening party in Little Petra, day one proper kicked off with Sonja Moonear bringing her unique blend of deep and minimal house and techno to a tiered stage set into the rocks of a valley in Little Petra. Bringing together a truly international crowd, Medaina was a real melting pot of local and global cultures which left everyone in attendance a little bit in love with the people, culture and landscape of Jordan as much as the music.

For day two of the festival, the location shifted to the desert of Wadi Rum. An almost alien landscape, more reminiscent of Mars than Earth, the location has been used as a filming location for Dune, Lawrence of Arabia and The Martian and was the perfect location for Tithora’s mystical and futuristic vision.

Festivalgoers were able to stay in one of Wadi Rum’s unique bubble hotels, including the Suncity Camp, (suncity_camp) an otherworldly set of glamping tents with a desert vista and view of the night sky to die for.

While the stage and set designs by Creative Director Melissa Ouellette paid homage to Jordan’s past at the first event, day two was all about the future and there were definite sci-fi influences as a giant UFO seating area dropped into the desert sands of Wadi Rum and a main stage that looked like it had just dropped to Earth from Space.

Âme and Jimi Jules were on hand to take things from dusk to dawn with a soundtrack that couldn’t have been more perfect for the setting, with the Âme remix of Innervisions classic ‘Howling’ dropping as the sun came up being a definitive highlight of the whole festival.

Few festivals can create as diverse a 360 experience as Medaina, where you leave feeling as enriched by the culture of a country as by the musical experiences. Whatever the Tithora crew do next, we’re excited.