10 of the most iconic marathon DJ sets ever

Marco Carola is certainly no stranger to lengthy sets, but to handle one solo for the entirety of a day? Now that’s a feat. And it’s one he accomplished at Sunwaves Festival in Romania in 2015. The Music On boss had his crowd going for a full 24 hours, but unsurprisingly had to take a break and sit for some of the extensive set. We bet he had the best night’s sleep after.

Not to be outdone, two years after Marco Carola completed his record-breaking 2015 set at Sunwaves, Dubfire came in, guns blazing, for a 25-hour set at the same festival. He ended up snatching the crown for longest solo set in the festival’s history right off of Marco Carola’s noggin. According to his website, the only challenge that remains ahead of Dubfire in regards to Sunwaves is tINI and Bill Patrick’s 31-hour b2b set. Say, Marco, what are you up to next year…?

Danny Tenaglia is what one might call an absolute champion of the marathon set. He made 12-hour sets his signature early on, prompting many a curious fan to ask - what's the longest set Danny has ever played? In an interview, he responded that the crown went to a 2004 set called the "closing forever" set for Vinyl, a now defunct club in New York City. "We said it would be a 24 hour marathon Sunday to Monday," Danny explained. "After 24 hours everyone said their goodbyes and all the customers left. We ended up staying three hours longer with just the staff. It got emotional, [and] I was playing music - not really DJing - but just playing songs and going out there and dancing and hugging. I wound up being in that room a little over 30 hours."

If you’ve got nothing to do for, say, the next 10+ days, you could take your shot at trying to break DJ Obi’s world record for longest DJ set. That’s right, the Nigerian DJ completed a 240-hour marathon at Lagos Cafe in 2016, playing a set that extended across 10 full sleepless days.

In order to fully qualify for the title, Obi had to follow strict Guinness World Record guidelines: he was allowed one five minute break every hour, allowed one hour break every 12 hours, had to have at least one person dancing at all times and could not repeat a song within four hours of playing it. He was afforded medical check-ins and was also allowed to take vitamins throughout the week long event, and explained that he survived it by taking “disco naps” (closing his eyes for five seconds) but could not actually fall asleep otherwise he’d be disqualified.

He probably wouldn’t recommend trying to beat his record, though, as he explained afterwards that around the fourth or fifth day, he thought about giving up as he began hallucinating… but somehow, he pulled through.

Though many soloists have championed the art of the marathon set, we couldn't go on without giving a bonus shout out to tINI and Bill Patrick, who have helped solidify Sunwaves Festival in Romania as the go to marathon destination for underground artists with a 31-hour b2b session.

Funny enough, after Marco Carola stole the spotlight in 2015 with his own extended set, tINI (who was originally meant to play the festival too) was cancelled for "unforeseen circumstances". Many speculated that it was because Carola's unplanned marathon rolled over her scheduled set time, so perhaps the massive b2b slot was Sunwaves way of saying sorry and letting her shine, along with fellow talent Bill Patrick. Either way, we're happy that it happened.