Patrick Topping: ‘Playing a free event on the beach is iconic!’

Widely recognised as one of the leading names in modern house and tech house music, Patrick Topping is known for his energetic performances, innovative productions, and influence on the global electronic dance music scene. 

Since emerging in 2013 he has built a successful international career, performing at major festivals and clubs such as Tomorrowland, Glastonbury, Coachella, and many of Ibiza's most iconic venues - he even played from inside a helicopter hovering above the island, once! 

As the founder of record label and event series Trick, which has become an important platform for both established and emerging electronic music artists, he reigned supreme over Hï Ibiza’s Club room for three consecutive years with his Patrick Topping Presents Trick residency.  

With hit tracks such as Forget, Be Sharp Say Nowt, and collaborations with artists including Green Velvet, Patrick Topping has earned multiple industry awards and continues to shape the sound of contemporary dance music through his creativity, technical skill, and passion for underground club culture.

On July 5th, the multi-talented artist is set to headline the Ibiza Global Festival 2026 on its third and final night. We caught up with the friendly Geordie over the phone before he takes to the huge stage on S’Arenal beach in less than a week…

How has 2026 and the start of summer been for you so far? 

Patrick Topping: It’s been great - really, really good! It’s been really busy, and I’m actually doing more gigs than I was last year. We’re doing 100 this year, but I’m really enjoying travelling about and playing this many shows.

Where have you been so far this year?

I’ve been all over. I’ve been in Ibiza four times so far;  I just played at [UNVRS] there on Monday. That club’s amazing and I was back-to-back with Layton Giordani. He’s a DJ from New York and we’ve just dropped a track together, so we did this b2b around that and, yeah, that was really cool. He plays a little bit more of the darker side, but I like to play dark as well, so it was fun to indulge that side of me.

I also did Hï Ibiza for Eastenderz, and it was my first time back since I was resident there. So it was nice to go back and play as a guest because I had three really good years at Hï.

This year is different for me because instead of doing a residency, this is the first year where I’ve played all over the island and all the different clubs. It’s really fun. I really enjoy doing it this way.

And you’ve got 528 Ibiza coming up?

Yeah, but that’s towards the end of the season. That’s going to be the last one and we’re doing that with my label, Trick. We’re looking forward to that because that venue used to be the Zoo Project. I have a lot of history with them - when I was first coming to Ibiza, that was my favourite spot on the island in 2009. I used to get dressed up, face paint and everything! It was just a really special place and I was kind of gutted when that closed down - but now 528 are doing some really exciting things with the space. 

It feels like the perfect venue because those open-air spaces in Ibiza, there aren’t that many open-air clubbing experiences you can have. That is such a cool memory for me that I had on the island, so I’m really happy to be able to put on a party there and give people that experience.

After having had your residency for three years, is it nice to now play at different venues without the pressure of being the organiser?

Totally. That’s what it is. I did Hï for three years, and before that we had a nine-week Trick residency at DC10 in 2022, which was also amazing.

But with those types of gigs, there’s a lot more than just playing. When you play for other people, you can just turn up and enjoy it without worrying about the production, the line-ups, or filling the clubs. It’s not on you. 

To be honest, I’ve ended up making the most music I’ve ever made. I think because I’ve got time and headspace free to do that.

It’s exciting going around playing these other brands because I’m back to play Paradise for the first time in three years. I’m going to play DC10 for the first time in four years and play places I’ve never played before. Also, it was perfect timing because I changed what I was playing, my style of music really.

For a few years I started mixing in bits of harder techno, bits of hard house, with tech house, and then I stopped doing that last year and refocused back on what I used to do, which was more underground house stuff with a little bit of techno.

As an artist and as a DJ, is there a catalyst for that? Do you feel when the time is coming to shift?

Yeah, I feel like that. I’ve been touring for 13 years now. When I came up it was tech house, but I was always quite eclectic, playing all over the place - but predominantly tech house.

When I was a kid growing up around Newcastle, I was into really fast, hard music. Makina, which is from Valencia, like 160 BPM, happy hardcore. That’s what I was into when I was in school. But then house became my main love.

After about five years of doing that, I started experimenting and putting little bits of Makina and hard stuff in. Then this whole movement towards faster genres came along and I thought, well, I’ve always liked that stuff anyway.

I had fun with it and I think I pushed it as far as I could while remaining in the tech house world. If there was a catalyst, I would say I released a couple of really fast tracks - around 145 BPM - and they didn’t really go down that well and it made me think you know what, people are more interested in hearing me make my house stuff.

Then, I played a back-to-back with Solomun in 2024 and later a back-to-back with John Summit, and it reminded me how much fun and how eclectic you can still be without going super crazy on the BPMs.

Also, the house scene is even bigger and more eclectic than it was.

You’ve got the scene in America with people like Chris Lake and Fisher, then the UK scene has evolved and you’ve got people like Prospa and Josh Baker. You’ve got the Brazilian scene with people like Mochakk and Beltran, and then you’ve got the Dutch style.

I feel like the genre is just in a really exciting place where you can go into all these other genres.

Looking ahead to the festival, what are you most excited about?

Being in San Antonio is really exciting to me because when I first came on holiday, that’s where I always went. I never went anywhere except San Antonio and the nightclubs until I started seeing the wider Ibiza, you know what I mean? Since I started DJing I’ve not really spent that much time there, so whenever I go back it feels really nostalgic.

To go and do a gig there on the beach is so iconic. I’m just excited to see the crowd. And I’ve always wanted to play a free event like that.

Yes, it’s so nice to be able to put on a free event to give back to the island…

That’ll be such an exciting thing for them to stumble across because when I went to Ibiza for the first time, with the boys on a lads’ holiday, on our first night we stayed in San Antonio and we ended up stumbling across a free party on Cala Gració beach.

This was 2010, I think. I’d never seen anything like that before in Ibiza since, and that was our first time. It became legendary between our friend group, this experience of finding this free rave on the beach.

Now I’m going to get to play one of those and help soundtrack other people’s experience of that, so I’m really excited.

You probably change your vibe depending on the setting? What can we expect from your headlining set on the beach?

There are different vibes for different countries, different crowds, different times of day.

To be honest, I like to plan every set as much as I can - but then freestyle it based off the plan.

Some gigs I know inside out and the plan more or less works out and I end up doing less on the fly. But with this one, it’s quite an unusual gig. I don’t really know what to expect, so it’s quite a hard one to plan for.

I think there’ll be a lot of just seeing what it’s like in the moment and taking it from there.

We can’t wait! What else are you excited about for 2026?

I’m really excited about all the music I’m putting out.

I’ve released a lot of music and I’ve just dropped that collaboration with Layton Giodarni a couple of days ago. I’ve got a collaboration coming with the Irish producer Rebūke, which I’m really excited about.

And there’s another remix coming up - it hasn’t been fully approved yet, so I don’t want to jinx it, but it’s of a really big artist who I’ve always really admired. I don’t want to say who it is, but hopefully that’ll come up.

I’ve got so much music that I’m putting out. We’re in the middle of finalising deals with the vocalists and the sample owners and stuff like that.

There’s just a lot of music that I’m really excited to show people.

Do you have any ‘favourites’, or is that impossible to choose?

The one I’m probably most excited about is Pure Power, it’s kind of like a new version of my biggest song that I’ve released - Be Sharp Say Nowt, and that has a gospel sample in it.

Ever since then, which was about eight years ago, I’ve been avoiding working with gospel vocals because I wanted to do other things. But the last couple of years I was like, you know what, I should try and do something with a gospel vocal again.

I’ve been looking for the last couple of years, working on a few songs but none of them really connected properly for me, so I ended up parking them.

But I’ve ended up working on an original gospel vocal with a gospel choir and I’ve put this song together.

I love it so much and I’m really excited to put that out because it almost feels like a Be Sharp Say Nowt part two - but it’s different as well.

As a producer, DJ, and label founder, do you prefer being in the studio or being on the road and playing to incredible crowds?

I used to make all my music in the studio at my house. I very rarely did it on the road. But the last two and a half years my mindset has changed. I make most of my music on trains, planes, airports and hotel rooms.

When I’m away from the house, when I’m not being a dad at home, I’ve got that space. I really enjoy being on the road because being on the road is also gigs and making music combined together, so it really works.

Do you get a lot of inspiration on your travels and then you can just put it down immediately?

Yeah, totally. Something I’m trying to stop doing is making songs on flights on the way to gigs. I’ve got a gig, I know I should go to sleep, but after the gig the idea is fresh in my mind from just trying it out, so then I’m working on a song after the gig too, when I really should be going to bed.

So I need to try and have more balance on that.

Do you have a last shout-out to all the people reading this to come to the beach?

It’s going to be really good.Ibiza Global Radio is iconic for me. It was always something that was on when you’re in the taxis going around the island. So it’s really cool for me to come to the festival.

Patrick Topping will be playing at the Ibiza Global Festival on Sunday, July 5th 2026, from 22:30 until 24:00.