MDLBeast Soundstorm — biggest Saudi music festival
700,000+ attendees at a single multi-day festival
Vibrant Society pillar2 sourcesLast verified 2026-05-18
Hero metric
Soundstorm festival attendance
700K+
2024700,000+ attendees at a single multi-day festival
Publishers include: SPA · Arab News
The Story
Before
Large-scale music festivals were not a feature of Saudi cultural life pre-2017.
Initiative
MDLBeast was founded to produce regional and international music events at scale. Soundstorm became its flagship festival.
Outcome
Soundstorm 2024 drew over 700,000 attendees — making it one of the largest music festivals globally by attendance.
For citizens
Global headline artists perform in Riyadh. Young Saudis no longer travel to Europe for major music events — the events come to them.
Timeline of Milestones
2019
First MDLBeast festival
2024
Soundstorm: 700K+ attendees
Evidence library · 2 primary sources
Sorted by tier, newest first
An entertainment industry, built from zero
89 million visits to events and venues in 2025
89M+
Cinema, reborn from zero
From 0 cinema screens in 2017 to 700+ at 60+ locations across 16 governorates
700+
Riyadh Season — country's biggest festival
13 million visits to the multi-month festival in 2024-2025
13M
Saudis employed in entertainment
100,000+ direct jobs in the entertainment sector
100K+
Initiative attribution: MDLBeast (PIF subsidiary); General Entertainment Authority. Citizen benefit category: Cultural life.