Folk-pop collective Ben&Ben joins the elite roster of Abu Dhabi’s inaugural OFFLIMITS Festival. They’re set to take the stage alongside global heavyweights Ed Sheeran, OneRepublic, Sevdaliza, and Kaiser Chiefs on April 26 at Etihad Park. This landmark booking marks both Ben&Ben’s first international festival appearance and their second creative collision with Sheeran, following their supporting turn during his Manila stop last year in March.
The nine-piece ensemble arrives armed with their ambitious new album The Traveller Across Dimensions, poised to test their intricate folk arrangements against OFFLIMITS’ deliberately genre-blurring ethos. Where their previous performances at Expo 2020 Dubai’s Jubilee Stage and Coca-Cola Arena played in front of local and diasporic Filipino crowds, this festival presents a broader challenge: converting uninitiated listeners through the universal language of soaring harmonies and percussive fervor.
The festival’s multicultural audience demands something more nuanced than nostalgia. Their solution? A setlist that recontextualizes their signature sound. Expect Tagalog lyrics to ride atop Sevdaliza-inspired electronic textures and folk cadences to lock into Kaiser Chiefs’ Britrock grooves in the festival.
As the first Philippine act to co-headline a major Middle Eastern festival, Ben&Ben carries more than just their instruments. OFFLIMITS’ bold hybrid of music, art, and lifestyle programming provides the ideal stage for this evolution.
