Before DARK: HAYLA at Breakaway Columbus 2026
- LJ Portnoy
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Article Contributed by LJ Portnoy and Leo Lad
HAYLA played a sun-drenched main stage at one of the country’s loudest EDM festivals.
Loud and Clear
We heard HAYLA before we ever saw her.
We’d left the house around 9:30 a.m. on a rare day off, pointed the car south, and rolled into Columbus a little after 2 p.m. As we walked up to Historic Crew Stadium, her voice came drifting through the festival gates during soundcheck.
No stage in view, no crowd yet, just that voice cutting clean across the lot.
We hadn’t even gotten our wristbands on, and she’d already stopped us in our tracks.
It set the tone for the entire day.
Welcome to the 4-B’s
Breakaway has a particular kind of gravity. There were two stages at the venue, with headliners like KYGO, GRiZ, Disco Lines, and Crankdat, and a sea of people who had very clearly decided that any Friday-night responsibilities were a problem for tomorrow.
The crowd skewed early-twenties to thirties (with the occasional seasoned festival head sprinkled in), quirky for the sake of being quirky, and gloriously committed to the bit. Greasy food-truck everything, alcohol vendors handing out swag, more Breakaway merch than any one person could reasonably carry home.
We started referring to it as the 4-B’s: beats, booze, buttcheeks, and body glitter.
The energy was electric in the most literal sense. It’s impossible not to get swept up when you’re standing in a field with thousands of people who are all, genuinely, thrilled to be exactly where they are.
Backstage in a Shipping Container: Hanging with HAYLA
The day had already taken a turn for us before we arrived. Somewhere on the drive down, word came through that HAYLA’s team could give us a few minutes before her set, so the back half of the trip turned into a crash prep session, mapping out everything we wanted to ask about this current chapter of her artistry.
Backstage, we were escorted to a fully decked-out shipping container Breakaway had built specifically for artist interviews and told she’d be over in 15 or 20 minutes. She arrived right on schedule with her tour manager, and she greeted the whole room and shook every hand. Then she clocked me from our earlier Zoom call and lit up with recognition.
That small moment did something. It’s one thing to be warm to a room of strangers; it’s another to remember the people you’ve already worked with, in the middle of a festival day, an hour out from a main-stage set. It humanized her instantly.
We talked about her latest singles, including “Heal,” which we covered when it dropped, and “Enough,” the new one that leans all the way into the cinematic, emotionally raw storytelling she’s been building toward.
Mostly, we talked about what’s next: her new album DARK, out July 31, an eleven-track collection that marks a real pivot away from the dance-floor anthems that made her name and toward something moodier, more personal, and entirely her own.
She has a captivating way of actually seeing you when she talks; eye contact that tells you she’s present, taking the whole thing in rather than letting the day autoplay around her. You can hear it in her answers. (The full interview is coming soon! Keep an eye out.)
When HAYLA Hit the Stage
By 6:30 p.m., we were about to hit the pit as she took the main stage. The production was good, but I genuinely couldn’t tell you half of what was happening behind her. Between her vocals and her sheer presence, I stopped noticing everything else around me.
This is a singer who has shared stages and tracks with deadmau5, Kx5, John Summit, Sub Focus, and Illenium, who made her EDC Las Vegas main-stage debut just weeks ago, and live, unfiltered, she’s even more than the features suggest.
Here’s the thing that stuck with us: the contrast. HAYLA is as bubbly, as kind, as visibly excited to be there as anyone in that crowd.
But the second she sings, her voice and her presence cut through the beats in this hauntingly beautiful way, a strange, gorgeous juxtaposition between the radiant person and the storm of a voice.
It’s the DARK era in miniature: light and dark holding hands on a festival main stage. Shooting it from the pit, that’s exactly what kept pulling the lens back to her, not the rig, not the lights, just her.
Capture Everything, and Pack SPF
We caught most of Serene Dion that day too, but we tapped out before the night fully ramped up. We were unglamorously defeated by sunburn, having shown up with zero sunscreen and even less foresight. Major reminder for festivals - Capture everything and pack SPF.
Still, we got what we came for the moment that voice came through the gates at 2 p.m. HAYLA is operating on a different frequency right now, and DARK is going to be a moment. We’re glad we got to be there for the moments right before.
Watch out, this next era is all hers.
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