Overview Groove Cruise is an electronic music festival on a chartered cruise ship out of Miami, where every guest lives aboard for four days and the music runs 24 hours a day for 96 hours across ten-plus stages, from the pool deck to a private island beach. Jason Beukema started it in 2004 with 125 fans. The 2027 sailing, on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas with a beach day at Royal Beach Club on Paradise Island in the Bahamas, had sold out by September 2026. Guests must be 21. DJ Mag named it among its Top 100 Festivals in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Whet Travel, producer of 28-plus full-ship charters, runs it. On site The lineup is sorted into genre brands with their own rooms: Abyss for techno and minimal, Embark for trance with sunrise sets on the pool deck, Rising Tides for house, Siren's Echo for melodic bass, Trench for drum and bass, and Taking Back Emo, which started on the 2022 Cabo sailing. Every day has a day theme and a night theme; the 2027 set included Represent, Lost in Neverland, Cartoons Gone Wild, Flamingle and To The Moon. Between sets there are artist-hosted dinners, excursions and classes, a Virgin Meetup for first-timers, Sober Captains, Military, Speed Friending and LGBTQIA+ meetups, and Groove Games. The island day brings two beaches, three pools and an all-inclusive swim-up bar. Audience Guests call themselves Captains, and dressing for the themes is expected: outfits run from DIY to couture, day and night, for four days. The cruise's deck puts average spend at about $3,500 a person and counts more than 3,000 social posts tagged every day of a sailing, with 100-plus creators on board. Guest reviews on the site mention fourth and sixth cruises. Talent and Influencers Past headliners include Tiesto, Deadmau5, Eric Prydz, Diplo, John Summit, Kaskade, Green Velvet and Claude VonStroke, and a sailing carries 80-plus DJs. The 2027 lineup included Adam Beyer and the New York trance DJ Adam Scott, whose Day 1 eurodance set is a Groove Cruise tradition. Emerging DJs can earn a slot through the Undiscovered DJ Contest or the ambassador program. Track record From 125 fans in 2004 the cruise grew to sail on Wonder of the Seas and Allure of the Seas, with past stops in the Bahamas, Haiti, Mexico, Jamaica, Catalina Island and Grand Turk. Whet Travel has been named Charter Partner of the Year by both Norwegian and Carnival, and the cruise's deck reports a 65% sponsor recall rate after sailing. Brand presence A partner can take over the private island party with its own signage, merch, decor and creators, host artist-led meet-and-greets and backstage hangouts, run the pool deck with branded cocktails, floats and lounge zones, or put a welcome box or product drop in every cabin, which reaches every guest on board. Partners also co-create artist experiences that raise money for the Whet Foundation, which chose Ranfurly Homes for Children in the Bahamas for its 2027 Destination Donation. Partnerships come with category exclusivity.