No Way Back (2025)

Return to the Source — Day 2 Join us as we celebrate the 30th anniversary of IT. What began as a 12 hour party with a leaky roof has evolved into a 14 hour party with a wholly improved environment, starting at 10pm. Over time, with the experience of every year, the whole party has organically morphed into a new form. It references and learns from history, but it creates a new shape every time it happens. The Tangent too has evolved. You won’t believe how alive it is, and full of surprises and improvements. Interdimensional Transmissions has grown and evolved, as have the transformational immersive installations of Amber Gillen & the Infinite Dimensions crew. So has the sound, listening to and throbbing to the psychedelic rivers of sound emanating from the giant audiophile system enveloping you inside from Jim Gibbons / AVS, to the incredible self built system of Bing Audio for the outside stage. Nothing could prepare you for what you are going to experience. The Outer Space Room continues to grow in both scale of concept and presentation, as the space to unwind to experimental and ambient music means even more to us now. We begin the room with a sound bath from Detroit local Wanjira Makena to allow everyone to begin the session with a clean and refreshed vision — with a complementary Iyengar Yoga Detroit class led by George Rahme starting at 10:30pm, props and mats provided. We feel this will be the perfect way to prepare your body and your mind for the marathon of music to come. Sarah Wreath will continue to set the ritual space for the coming wash of live shows. We have some compelling live music this year, including a live show from Neel, all the way from Rome and a core member of Voices From The Lake, the Detroit debut of The Transcendence Orchestra – a duo featuring Anthony Child (aka Surgeon) and Daniel Bean, and a live show from Cleveland legends Organic Dial, comprised of Andrew Veres and John Elliott of Imaginary Softwoods and Emeralds. At dawn, the magically impossible happens, and Scott Zacharias transforms the room with his own unique self invented genre, something compelling and new, somewhere beyond psychedelic, cosmic and sleaze. In the ever mutating No Way Back Room, we have all the DJs playing 90 minute sets that allow them to flow into each other, in an order that should form the Voltron DJ, an arc of DJs DJing the DJ, for an incredible flow of energy, with the narrative told from many angles in an always invigorating way. We have all of our veteran residents: Carlos Souffront, Patrick Russell, Mike Servito, Erika, Derek Plaslaiko, BMG, Eris Drew and Bryan Kasenic. We are glad to welcome special guest Mozhgan to open the NWB Ballroom again, with her incredibly heavy and heady sound, perfectly casting the spell to begin the night just right. This is a psychedelic safe space, a harassment free zone where you can let go of the form society forces you to hold and be totally free. The you beyond boundaries, beyond the limitations of others perceptions. This is something for your mind, your body and your soul. When you feel this freedom, when you touch what you may have thought was untouchable, you will quickly realize that you are too far gone and there is no way back. This is an eternal concept, we didn’t invent this, and the people who may think they did didn’t either, this is our cultural heritage from a time before history. It has taken many forms from dancing around the fire at a coming of age ceremony, imbibing soma, to losing it on the dance floor of a parking garage to Larry Levan, or in some secret warehouse road under the actual road to the feverish sound of Ron Hardy, or climbing up those stairs to Heaven and seeing Miss Heaven 1 and Miss Heaven 2 jacking on top of the speakers to Ken Collier. We recognize where this music comes from, its original Black, Trans, Queer and Latinx roots, and the serious library of advanced technological thoughts that came from their ecstatic music. Detroit Techno was inevitable when you think about it. This is our generation picking up those threads and making our own new fabric of the space time continuum. This is our generation returning to the source. ––––– Return to the Source 2025 is an organic evolution of the original concept, with careful attention to detail put in at every level. Our weekend at the Tangent includes 4 parties for the price of one weekend wristband, with an outdoor area containing a harm reduction zone, food truck, and an incredible outdoor sound system. Once the music starts at No Way Back on Sunday night, it won't end until Tuesday morning — 32 hours of continuous music. A weekend wristband will allow you to experience this ever changing environment with no interruptions. The Benefactor weekend wristband is simply a donation tier, to support the continuation of events like these, and does not grant any more benefits than a regular weekend wristband. ––––– PSA: Do not purchase tickets outside of Resident Advisor. People selling tickets as PDFs, screenshots, etc are often trying to scam you. Invalid tickets can not be honored at the door. The only way to know that you have purchased a valid ticket is to buy it directly from the RA web site or app. If you have a ticket you can not use, you can sell it through RA's resale queue.