Gaia Beats is a new festival happening at Mae On in Chiang Mai (Thailand) from 23rd to 26th of January 2026, born from one belief – that joy, art, and community can exist in harmony with the planet.
Three days of music and connection in the mountains, building a living model that proves celebration can be regenerative, not extractive.
We explore what makes Gaia Beats unique, and what the festival holds.
Interview by the psybient.org team on 20/12/25.
Hi Tom, how are you? Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us.
Hey, I’m great thanks! Pretty busy with the festival, but everything is going well – so feel inspired. I’ve been following Psybient.org since it started so this is kinda a big deal for me :-).
To begin, let’s look back. What inspired you to start this new festival?
Gaia Beats started from a love of day parties and psychedelic world music. Even though I have been going to psychedelic parties since 2004 I was never really into the night time side of things. In 2005 I went to Goa for the first time, Hilltop New Year festival – and dancing in the daytime totally converted me to this kind of vibe. Being able to connect with people on the dancefloor in the sunshine was a game changer for me. Moving forward 20 years I still love day time psychedelic music, but even less of the night time side of things.
So Gaia Beats Festival is for people who love to party for a purpose but with a wholesome family type thing rather than a dark nighttime style. We wanted headliners to be playing in the evening rather than the middle of the night. So many times I see lineups for events, but when I check the schedule I immediately know it isn’t for me as I like to go to bed at a reasonable time now! The other side of Gaia Beats is love of community connection and sustainability. We also want to answer the question, “Can a festival give back more than it takes, socially and environmentally?”
What core values and guiding principles shape the way of the Gaia Beats team?
We have one main philosophy for everything we do, and that is People & Planet before Profit. An event has to be sustainable financially but not at the expense of people or the planet. I also believe that we as humans have more in common than we think. If we turn on the news we are made to believe that we should hate each other. We should be scared of each other.
At Gaia Beats we want people to come together in community, leave their ego’s at the door, have difficult conversations and beautiful conversations. In a world where the powers in control want us to be disconnected, stay at homes on our screens and basically fight each other. We want Gaia Beats to be a catalyst for positive change in the world. We dream that Gaia Beats could be the starting point for new collaborations between communities who don’t usually connect.
The only way to change this world for the better is power in numbers with a shared positive vision of the future. It might seem a bit ‘hippy’ or idealistic, but we really believe that art and music festivals can be the starting ground for these types of movements. In a world of disconnection we want Gaia Beats to be the connector, the launchpad for change.
How many stages and areas are there, and what experiences does each offer to visitors?
I have a tendency to escalate things by accident, haha. So I was planning on a small weekend event this year as it’s the first Gaia Beats weekender…. but…. I keep saying YES to things! So I guess the easiest way is to list all the areas first:
We have the ‘Synergy Stage’ which is the main electronic dance area, under a canopy of trees, next to a lake with a natural grass hill amphitheatre looking down on it. This stage will be a mix of psydub, world music, progressive house and psytech. In line with our love of day parties, the schedule will be midday to midnight. We are super excited to include Grouch, Symbolico, Kalya Scintilla, and Merkaba on this stage.
We have the ‘Horizon Stage’ for bands and live music. This is a mix of international bands, but mainly Thai indie and Molam Fusion. We are really excited by this as adding a stage of live music creates a totally different vibe at festivals, it’s also situated near our food and drink area, so kinda like one of the communal hubs.
Then we walk up the hill to ‘The Bunker’ which is ‘the other’ electronic music stage. But this one is more eclectic, less psychedelic, think breakbeat, disco, funk, etc. After ‘The Bunker’ you’ll walk into the forest, through tree lined jungle paths you’ll reach ‘The Kindred Caravan’ stage. Here you’ll come across all sorts of weird and wonderful performances from Improvised comedy to spoken word, weird circus stuff and possibly some late night drumming around the chai shop fire.
The festival has a circular design so it’s an ongoing explorative journey. From the Kindred Caravan we take another jungle path and arrive back on the Synergy Stage dancefloor. There’s also a camping and fire performance area on a hill overlooking the Synergy Stage and kids and family area as it’s ‘all ages’. We have a market with handmade crafts, NGO’s who get a free pitch to talk about their organisations in Chiang Mai, a mushroom tea lounge and a Kombucha Cocktail & Mocktail bar. There’s probably loads of other stuff I have forgotten too!
Could you tell us a bit about the music styles featured at the festival? What role do downtempo and chill genres play within the lineup?
There are 3 main areas for music this year. But the music that psybient readers will be most interested in, is on the ‘Synergy Stage’.
The schedule is a beautiful curation from world music and shamanic ceremonial styles, through psybient, psytech and maybe a touch of cheeky psytrance to close.
Who will be headlining the festival?
For the psybient community I think the most exciting names are Kalya Scintilla, Grouch in Dub, Symbolico, and Merkaba.
How do you decide which artists, performers and facilitators will best contribute to Gaia Beat’s diverse program?
As the founder and festival director I hold the overall vision and communicate that to the directors on each of the stages. But I also believe that when you give people more freedom you get better results! We also have 2 workshop areas, split between mind/body/spirit and social/creative. We love bringing in lots of workshops as this changes the feeling at festivals and brings in totally new demographics. People leave the festival feeling transformed.
Will you have many international visitors? What do you believe will motivate people to come to join your event?
We think so, Chiang Mai has a huge tourist and backpacker scene. And the 3rd week of January is still the high season. I think people are looking for something new, they feel a bit disheartened with events that just seem to take and not give. There’s a focus on profit over experience at many events, and this is something that has never been my focus.
We have one life here on planet Earth. We should make the best of it, so I put my whole heart and soul into the experience for everyone. I think this gets communicated effectively and people will come. In the words of Wayne from ‘Wayne’s World 2’… “If you book them, they will come.”
Could you share your journey and experience in organizing events and parties?
I organised my first party when I was 16 years old. My parents left for the weekend. I took all the furniture out of my house, stored it in the garage, booked 2 rock bands for the garden, a DJ crew inside and filled my house with unruly teenagers. Haha!
Since then the events have become more elaborate and better organised… but the feeling is the same.I think some people are able to create a shared vision of the future, I am one of those people.
What are the most significant challenges you are facing when preparing everything?
I love to do outdoor events in new locations that are untested by large scale events. With this a whole host of issues arise. You need to be someone that can roll with the punches and not give up. To list all the set backs, obstacles and problems I have had trying to create something from nothing I could chat to you all day.
But some of the main issues can be when we try to organise a festival in a field with zero infrastructure. This is always a lot of work and expensive. Thankfully the new venue we have partnered with is a Hot Spring water Spa. It’s incredible, 20 x showers, full working toilets, a forest canopy with natural shade everywhere.
And in the mountains near Chiang Mai, the temperature is cool, probably too cool at night. You should bring warm clothes and blankets, we’ll have campfires at night. But it will definitely be chilly at night and almost perfect during the day. If you want to check out the venue online search for Sense Hot Spring Spa.
Could you tell us about the sustainability mission within the event? Does Gaia Beats collaborate with local communities?
We have a long-term goal to be the most sustainable festival in Asia, maybe even globally one day. But for the moment our core belief around sustainability at events is just to try. Everyone knows that our world is not yet designed to be zero-waste, but if we all try and push in the right direction towards it, that would be amazing!
So some things we are doing at Gaia Beats 2026 are, metal cups for drinks, reusable plates, bowls and cutlery with a self-service wash station, when we do have single-use waste we are trying to make it only aluminium cans. Our custom stage builds and decor has the theme this year called ‘Nothing New’. We want to celebrate what already exists. So think upcycling & borrowing over buying new materials for design aspects at the festival.
We are also trying to be as inclusive as possible. Music and art festivals are a bit of an international import, when I first came to Chiang Mai in 2006 there were no festivals like Gaia beats. So although there is an event culture, it can be more of a western thing. To make it more inclusive we have a goal to make everything at least 50% Thai. We also include people living locally to the venue by inviting Thai owned restaurants who have places very close to come and sell food rent free.
How does your festival’s mission respond to the social and environmental shifts happening in the world right now?
So I think I have covered how we are trying to promote sustainable practices at Gaia Beats. Our way to give back to Chiang Mai is through our business model that gives 50% of net profits back to local NGOs and charities. We plan to give half to social projects and half to environmental projects.
Finally, what message would you like to share with people attending this year’s edition?
Come with an open heart, a curious mind, and shoes you are happy to dance in during the daytime Gaia Beats isn’t about escaping the world or pretending everything is perfect. It’s more about remembering what’s possible when people actually come together, off their screens, out in nature, sharing music, conversations, food, and ideas.
Slow down a bit. Talk to strangers. Support local people. Really listen, not just to the music, but to the land you’re standing on and the people around you. If you leave feeling more connected to yourself, to others, and to the planet, then we’ve done what we set out to do. And if you manage to dance in the sunshine and still get to bed at a reasonable hour, then honestly, that’s a big win.
Follow Gaia Beats:
www.gaiabeats.com
https://www.instagram.com/gaia_beats_festival/
https://www.facebook.com/GaiaBeats
