Istanbul Governorship Blocks Anyma Show on September 12, No Official Reason Made Public

HIGHLIGHTS

• Anyma's ÆDEN show at Ataköy Marina Arena in Istanbul on Saturday, September 12, 2026 has not been allowed to take place. The order came from the Istanbul Governorship.

• No reason for the order has been made public. Neither Anyma nor promoter Only You Live has issued a comment, and there is no official announcement on ticket refunds.

• Before the order, a social media campaign accused the show's visuals of containing satanic symbolism. That is an accusation made by social media users, and there is no evidence the wording forms part of the official reasoning.

Anyma has not been allowed to stage his ÆDEN show at Ataköy Marina Arena in Istanbul, Turkey on Saturday, September 12, 2026, after the Istanbul Governorship ruled that the event could not go ahead, according to several Turkish outlets reporting on September 2 and 3, 2026.

As described by Turkish media, the decision took the form of permission being withheld, not the cancellation of an event that had already been approved. The order came from the Istanbul Governorship, a separate body from the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

No reason for the decision has been released to the public so far. Turkish outlets state that no official explanation has been published.

What happened before the order was a campaign on social media. Users on X in Turkey circulated clips taken from Anyma's tour, read the visuals in the show as satanic rituals or symbols, and called for the event to be cancelled.

Turkish outlets covering the story attached the word accusation throughout, and some stated directly that it has not been confirmed whether that wording forms part of any official reasoning. In short, the satanic label is an accusation made by social media users, and there is no evidence it forms part of the official reasoning.

As for what is actually in the show, media descriptions point to digital human figures and robots, dystopian imagery, and digital animation work. No source has confirmed that any of it represents religious symbolism.

What is Still Unanswered

As of September 3, 2026, neither Anyma nor promoter Only You Live has commented. There has been no explanation and no confirmation of the event's status from either side.

Ticket holders still have no answer. Tickets were sold through Turkish ticketing platform Passo under Anyma Presents ÆDEN, and so far there has been no official refund announcement from the promoter or the ticketing platform.

There is also no information about a postponement, a new venue, or a move to another city, and no new date has been announced.

Meanwhile the official Istanbul show page on Anyma's website at anyma.com/istanbul still lists the event as planned, with Saturday, September 12, 2026, Ataköy Marina Arena, and a ticket button, and carries no cancellation notice. That is the status on September 3, 2026, the day EDM Addicts checked the page.

What ÆDEN Actually Is

ÆDEN is the new audiovisual show from Anyma, the Italian American artist Matteo Milleri. He announced the tour in February 2026 and premiered the show at Coachella 2026. The first weekend slot on April 10 was cancelled because high winds made stage construction unsafe, and he performed the show on the second weekend on April 17, closing the Mainstage.

The show description on Anyma's own official page presents ÆDEN as a new chapter in the world he has built, bringing music, visual design and technology together to take audiences beyond a traditional concert into a fully immersive experience. It also notes that the outdoor setting of Ataköy Marina Arena by the sea would give the night its own character, with new music and a large scale visual production making it a special evening.

On the production side, a feature by The Groove Cartel in which Anyma explains how the show was built describes ÆDEN as resting on the idea of a digital renaissance and a story about a digital afterlife. The production uses Unreal Engine 5 to render CGI in real time, generative art created with AI, and spatial audio.

ÆDEN follows the Genesys era, which drew on the albums Genesys and Genesys II and closed with the Afterlife presents Anyma The End of Genesys residency at Sphere in Las Vegas, the first electronic music residency held at the venue. In August 2026, Anyma also launched his own label, ÆDEN Records, alongside the compilation ÆDEN Digital Renaissance Vol. I.

For readers in Thailand, Anyma performed at 808 Festival at BITEC in Bangkok on December 8, 2024, bringing the Genesys show to this region for the first time.

The Rest of the 2026 Tour

Based on the announced schedule, the ÆDEN tour still has several cities left this year.

• September 19, 2026, Milan

• September 26, 2026, Madrid

• October 17, 2026, Sydney at The Domain

• November 21, 2026, Mumbai at Mahalaxmi Racecourse, his first show in India

• December 12, 2026, Paris, closing the tour

Alongside the tour, Anyma holds an ÆDEN residency at UNVRS in Ibiza every Tuesday from June to September 2026.

The date closest to Southeast Asia is October 10, 2026 at MARQUEE Singapore, part of the Race Weekend 2026 programme and his first show in Singapore. That one is a club show and is not part of the announced ÆDEN tour routing.

Follow the latest electronic music and EDM festival news at EDM Addicts