We Belong Here Brooklyn Found its Footing on the Waterfront

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We Belong Here’s second Brooklyn edition has come and gone. Here’s how three days at the Brooklyn Army Terminal waterfront played out.

There’s something about arriving at a festival by water. Attendees who took the NYC Ferry to Brooklyn Army Terminal on any of the three days of We Belong Here Brooklyn got to experience it firsthand.

The music grew louder as the boat drew closer to the Sunset Park waterfront, and the 360° floral stage setup slowly came into view. By the time you stepped off the dock and through the gates, you were already in it. That kind of arrival sets a tone that a rideshare dropoff simply can’t match.

We Belong Here Brooklyn’s second edition ran June 19-21 at the Brooklyn Army Terminal waterfront, a significant upgrade from last year’s more intimate Greenpoint installment. The new venue offered a larger footprint, a dedicated second stage, and a setting that leaned hard into the contrast between industrial architecture and natural beauty.

I won’t pretend I didn’t miss the grass underfoot from WBH’s 2024 Governors Island run, but standing on the grandiose pier as the sun dipped behind Lady Liberty felt competitively remarkable. Something about industrial grade architecture set against a waterfront sunset facilitated a uniquely beautiful home for electronic dance music.

We Belong Here Brooklyn 2026 - Friday - Pele Pele

Day One: PELE PELE Steals the Show

Friday began with Shermanology delivering a set that felt purpose-built for a festival opener. The brother-sister duo’s Caribbean-inflected house sound aligned naturally with WBH’s branding: warm, rhythmic, and community-facing. The pair absolutely set the right tone.

Wax Motif followed on the 360° stage with a harder-hitting sonic palette that further invigorated the dancefloor as the first sunset of the weekend introduced herself. Of course, perhaps the most highly anticipated set of the weekend was up next.

Kx5 was the draw that brought the masses, and boy did the masses come. The New York debut of the “Escape” duo — consisting of Kaskade and deadmau5 — packed the 360° stage to a degree that created real congestion issues.

The festival’s single entrance funneled directly toward the main stage, which meant anyone trying to reach the second stage during Kx5’s set had to push through a seemingly unending wall of bodies. An additional GA entry point toward the back of the festival grounds could have alleviated the bottleneck significantly.

The real story of Friday was happening across the grounds. Aqutie‘s PELE PELE stage takeover was undoubtedly the highlight of day one. While the general audience crowded the main stage for Kaskade and deadmau5, Aqutie facilitated a small but mighty group of intentional dancefloor rebels on the second stage. Her label’s sonic identity, rooted in Afro-house, gqom, and amapiano, was wildly appealing — almost hypnotizing. It was exactly the kind of programming that justifies a second stage: a curated alternative that rewards the curious.

We Belong Here Brooklyn 2026 - Lane 8 b2b Sultan + Shepard - Saturday 2

Day Two: Melodic Warmth and Underground Heat

Doors opened on Saturday at 3pm with Stello b2b Coastlines on the 360° stage, easing into the afternoon with the kind of melodic, progressive house toward which WBH’s core audience gravitates. The daytime energy across the festival was noticeably more relaxed than Friday’s headliner rush.

Navigation was seamless, the vendor lines were short, and there was genuine room to breathe and move about without fighting for space. It really does make a difference to have open air around you; you process the music differently.

Over on the second stage, the Raw Cuts takeover offered exceptional DJ sets that served as a groovy counterweight to the main stage programming. Meanwhile, Giola & Assia commanded the 360° stage in the late afternoon before Lane 8 b2b Sultan + Shepard delivered a set that felt tailor-made for the setting: deep, melodic, and perfectly paced for a waterfront golden hour.

Eli Brown closed out the night on the mainstage, bringing a heavier techno energy that shifted the mood and kept the dancefloor packed well past sunset. Hats off to the We Belong Here team for such effective, intentional DJ programming.

Day Three: Eli & Fur Day

Sunday completely validated all my positive feeling about We Belong Here Brooklyn’s new home. The Dance Here Now x Nervous Records takeover on the second stage kept the underground thread alive throughout the afternoon, offering another welcome escape from the mainstage action. But the 360° stage belonged to three acts — one in particular — who delivered in sequence.

Eli & Fur played what I’d call the standout set of the entire festival. As I previously wrote, seeing them billed as support felt like a steal, and their Sunday afternoon performance confirmed it.

The “Carbon” duo’s blend of deep house, dream pop, and vocal-led production paired beautifully with the waterfront backdrop. I found myself wishing I could anchor a boat just outside the fencing and enjoy Eliza Noble and Jennifer Skillman‘s carefully curated track IDs from the water. But then I would be without easy access to the festival’s seemingly limitless supply of delicious Sun Cruiser Iced Teas.

Above & Beyond closed the festival from the 360° stage that evening. The main stage’s audio was strong from the front but felt noticeably faint in the VIP section behind the stage. For a festival that builds itself on intimate, in-the-round production, that is a gap worth addressing. Still, A&B was the perfect cap to an overall incredible weekend of music and community.

With a New Orleans debut already announced for November and its Florida and New York editions continuing to scale, organizers are building something that extends well beyond any single weekend. Brooklyn’s sophomore edition proved that We Belong Here’s no-LED production and community-first programming can hold up across multiple cities and settings. It just needed a second entrance.