Sven Väth Called Anyma a Clown. Here's Why

On September 17, 2026, an Instagram post from the Ibiza nightlife account @nightlife_in_ibiza marked the close of another summer on the island: "ANOTHER IBIZA RESIDENCY IS OVER... AND SUMMER IS REALLY STARTING TO FEEL LIKE IT'S ENDING." The post, tagged #Anyma #AEDEN #UNVRS, was a send off for the final night of Anyma's ÆDEN residency at UNVRS. Underneath it, Sven Väth's verified account left a comment that has since been screenshotted and reposted across dance music media: "Clowns 🤡!!!"

It picked up more than 1,100 likes before anyone outside the comments section had context for it, and it wasn't an isolated jab. Multiple outlets have since confirmed the same post also tagged Kevin de Vries, Cassian, Colyn, Agents of Time and Innellea, meaning Väth's "clowns" verdict was aimed at a whole cluster of the artists currently dominating melodic and cinematic techno, not just Anyma specifically.

Not a One-Off

Around the same time, Väth left a second, more pointed comment on a clip of Argy performing, twirling his headphone cable at the decks: "the worst and biggest clown wannabe DJ," accompanied by a vomiting emoji. That comment was later deleted, but not before it was widely screenshotted, as We Rave You documented. The two comments, taken together, read less like a personal grudge against any one artist and more like a running verdict on an entire aesthetic, one Väth has been circling in interviews for a while: the CGI backdrops, the synchronized drops, and booth moments that look composed for a phone screen rather than a room full of dancing people.

Neither Anyma nor any of the other tagged artists has publicly responded. Argy hasn't addressed his comment either. As of this writing, it's a one-way exchange, Väth's opinion sitting in public without a reply from the people it's aimed at.

Two Ibiza Residencies, Two Eras

The contrast lands harder because of what each artist actually does with an Ibiza summer. Sven Väth built his reputation on Cocoon, the label and residency he's run in various forms on the island since 1999, first at Amnesia for 18 years and now based mainly at 528 Ibiza. Cocoon's identity has always centered on Väth's own description of the job: "a DJ is part of the audience," playing long, vinyl-driven sets with no screen, no pyrotechnics, nothing standing between the booth and the floor.

Anyma's ÆDEN residency at UNVRS is the opposite production model by design. Matteo Milleri's solo project, which grew out of his work in Tale Of Us and the Afterlife label he co-founded in 2016, has built its identity specifically around large-scale visual production, most visibly at Sphere in Las Vegas, where Anyma became the venue's first electronic headliner and sold more than 130,000 tickets across eight shows in the 20,000-capacity room. A summer residency built on that same audiovisual language, with recurring CGI figures and a stage designed to be filmed as much as danced to, is close to a direct visual answer to everything Väth's comment was complaining about.

Neither approach is new by 2026 standards. What's notable is a 61-year-old DJ whose own credentials as a scene-builder are effectively unchallengeable using them to publicly call out the artists currently defining the genre's most visible, commercially successful wing.

Why This Is Bigger Than One Feud

Strip away the specific names and the comment reads as commentary on a real shift in what a DJ set has become expected to look like. Melodic techno's rise over the past several years has been inseparable from its visual production: vertical video clips built for Instagram Reels and TikTok, synchronized lighting rigs, and increasingly, as with Anyma, purpose-built narrative visuals that function more like a concert film than a DJ set. That shift has real commercial upside, it's part of how the genre crossed over into arenas and venues like Sphere that no purely audio-first DJ set could fill on its own.

It also has real detractors, and Väth's comment landed the way it did specifically because he's not an outsider complaining about a genre he doesn't understand. He built one of techno's actual foundational scenes on the opposite premise: that the music and the room are the show, and that a DJ's job is to disappear into a crowd's experience rather than direct it from a stage. Whether that stance still describes how a majority of paying audiences want to experience a DJ set in 2026, especially audiences who came up watching Anyma at Sphere rather than Väth at Omen in 1988, is the actual question sitting underneath a one-word Instagram comment.

Frequently Asked Questions

What did Sven Väth say about Anyma?

On September 17, 2026, Väth commented "Clowns 🤡!!!" on an Instagram post from @nightlife_in_ibiza marking the end of Anyma's ÆDEN residency at UNVRS. The same post also tagged Kevin de Vries, Cassian, Colyn, Agents of Time and Innellea.

Did Sven Väth call Argy a clown too?

Yes. Around the same period, Väth commented "the worst and biggest clown wannabe DJ" with a vomiting emoji on a clip of Argy performing. He later deleted the comment, but not before it was widely screenshotted and reported.

Has Anyma responded to Sven Väth?

No. As of this writing, neither Anyma nor any of the other artists tagged in the original post has publicly addressed Väth's comments.

Why did Sven Väth call these DJs clowns?

Väth hasn't given a detailed public explanation, but the comments fit a pattern he's discussed in interviews: criticism of DJ sets built around CGI visuals, synchronized drops and choreographed booth moments designed for social media, versus his own preference for long, vinyl-driven sets without screens or stage production.

What is the difference between Cocoon and Anyma's ÆDEN residency?

Cocoon is Sven Väth's Ibiza institution, running since 1999 on a vinyl-first, no-visual-production philosophy. Anyma's ÆDEN residency at UNVRS is built around large-scale CGI stage visuals, the same production language behind his Sphere Las Vegas residency.