What We Heard: Our Favorite Track IDs from Junction 2 (2026)

With 2026 marking its 10th year, Junction 2 returned to Boston Manor Park to celebrate this year's edition over three weekends. The overall site covered a little less ground than more recent additions, with three stages each day rather than the five of the last few years. The smaller footprint certainly didn’t mean less quality, with each stage delivering a more streamlined focus on specific genres each day. 

The festival is instantly recognisable for The Bridge, its iconic mainstage built in the unique setting of the underside of the M4 motorway. The less imposing Woods stage is another regular, more intimate-feeling set up in the surrounding woods. This year also featured Beatport Live's very own stage, The Block, bringing together performances from big names and competition winners.

We used Beatport’s new Track ID feature across the festival to help identify the key tracks from the event, with a look back at six of the best DJ performances below…

Ben Klock

In full-on Techno mode, my day was largely spent at the iconic Bridge stage. There were a few timetable changes on the day, with a last-minute stand-in needed to replace the unavailable Nina Kraviz. Step forward legend of the genre Ben Klock, an extremely high-caliber choice to have on emergency speed dial. As expected, Ben delivered a stand-out set that built to a high-energy crescendo, perfectly taking us past the midpoint of the scheduled five sets on the main stage. It was 90 minutes of hypnotic, impactful Techno, with just the right amount of tension. "Designer Concrete Boots" by dc11 was a notable early selection - a stripped-back, gritty track, typical of the first half of the set. Into the second half, the pace was taken up several notches, culminating in some driving synth-lead grooves like "Crunchy" by Shaun Moses - my personal highlight of a very well put together set.

Marcel Dettmann B2B DJ Hell

Following on from Ben Klock's excellent substitute performance, the penultimate set of the day was served up by two more German icons in the shape of Marcel Dettmann and DJ Hell. There was a palpable buzz from the packed crowd as the duo arrived on stage, quickly sent into overdrive with their opening track, the rave-inspired classic "Sonic Destroyer" by X-101. From this high-energy starting point, the pair built the atmosphere with eerie, tense rollers like "Sienna" by SSTROM, later moving all the way up to full-on electro stompers like the excellent "Sh5b0mbe" by Boys Noize. B2B sets can certainly be hit and miss, but this bringing together of two big names was thoroughly enjoyable throughout.

Jeff Mills

The final set of the day came from Detroit Pioneer Jeff Mills, a name that needs little introduction. Mills took to the stage in a Kraftwerk-esque red shirt and black trousers combo, before unassumingly getting down to work with a hybrid set that leaned in heavily to his love of the Roland TR-909. His largely improvised set was underpinned by the 909’s grit, initially adding extra percussive layers to tracks in the mix, then expertly moving onto full minimal solo patterns. With a raucous crowd firmly in the palm of his hand, Mills then worked his way back up to fuller grooves using tracks like "Ancestral Rhythm" by K’Alexi Shelby and Tony Loveless to build a heightened sense of tension and energy. This was an impressive end to a very solid day.

LO-LOW

Back for another day, the first set I checked out on Friday was an expertly delivered opener from one of London’s finest selectors, LO-LOW. Taking charge of the Woods stage, she served up a blend of styles and influences in the sunshine, ramping the energy up at just the right pace. There were smooth switches from 2-step Garage to 4x4 oriented House and Techno, with a Linkin Park remix even thrown in for good measure. The set had the ever-growing crowds full buy-in at all stages, from the more sparse Garage beats early on to banging Techno as the set came to a close, with a now much larger crowd. My personal stand outs were "Still Sincere" by MJ Cole and PinkPantheress, "Mazda Music" by Kush Jones and "Hamadryas Ampinome" by Polygonia.

Ross From Friends

Over at the Bridge stage, Ross from Friends ran the gamut of House and Garage sub-genres with his set, weaving in Disco, French House and UKG influences to full effect. The shorter set times at the Bridge throughout the day seemed to necessitate a faster pace and, dare I say, a bit more ‘bang for your buck’ – it’s safe to say the bass bins, and crowd, got a proper workout. A quick succession of "Intro" by Alan Braxe and "Doin' Ya Thang" by Oliver Dollar went down a treat.  Towards the end of his slot, a bootleg of Stormzy ‘Shut Up’ and More Fire Crew "Oi" was particularly impactful. Kudos.

Benga B2B Special Request

The penultimate set on the Bridge stage gave us the heavyweight combination of Dubstep legend Benga and Special Request, the more rugged, bass-heavy alias of House and Techno stalwart Paul Woolford. Their two individual styles gelled together very well, with the pair moving seamlessly from anthemic House to gritty, 140bpm face melters. Sam Alfred and Kara Okay’s "Definition Of Love" stood out on the House side of things. The Paul Woolford remix of "Love Story (vs Finally)" is the very definition of an anthem, receiving rapturous approval from the crowd. For me though, the absolute highlight was a switch up to the massive "Heart That (Trends & Boylan Remix)" by Cimm & Youngsta featuring Riko Dan. Any semblance of composure the crowd maintained was lost forever when this one dropped.

Download the Beatport app and use Track ID to uncover the tracks moving dance floors in real time.

Listen to all of our favorite Track IDs from Junction 2 (2026) below: