Why Pete Tong is Betting Big on MENA's Dance Music Culture

As a four-decade veteran who played a part in dance music’s original transition from underground subculture to a multi-billion dollar global powerhouse, Pete Tong has never been content with just playing the music - he has spent much of his career acting as a connector, bridging the gap between the DJ booth and the boardroom, inspired by events like the New Music Seminar in New York, where he witnessed firsthand the power of bringing a fractured industry together under one-roof.

In 2007, alongside partners Ben Turner, Danny Whittle, Mark Netto and Simeon Friend, Tong launched the International Music Summit (IMS) in Ibiza, at a time when dance music was still fighting for legitimacy and a place in the mainstream.

He conceived the summit more as a think tank than an event, a space where the industry’s movers and shakers, its most creative minds, to connect, solve the day’s problems and chart a sustainable future for dance culture. Beginning in 2013, the summit began its global expansion, establishing footprints in Los Angeles, Singapore and China. However, the debut of IMS Dubai in 2024 represented a different kind of milestone and move. It came as a response to a continuing shift in the region’s music and entertainment economy. Following decades of rapid infrastructure growth and the emergence of an increasingly sophisticated dance audience, Tong and co. recognised that the region is evolving into its own distinct ecosystem. And while he acknowledges that part of that has been the development of a distinct, contemporary and native culture around dance music, he sees the same promise that he saw in Ibiza all those years ago.

Two years in, the focus of IMS Dubai is firmly set on this new frontier. The conversation has moved beyond intangible potential; the region is now an exporter of culture, with its homegrown stars claiming a space in the international electronic music narrative.