Until 2011 (2014 for the Australian edition) the festival ran for 12 hours, from 11:00 am to 11:00 pm, and ended with a firework display.

Each edition also has an anthem, an official song that is played in conjunction with the festival.

[6] Shane Rattenbury, the Greens leader in the ACT, has invited Defqon.1 to take place in Canberra where pill testing could be carried out after a successful trial with Groovin the Moo.

[7] On 29 May 2019, Q-dance announced on its official Facebook profiles that Defqon.1 Australia, after a decade being held at the Sydney International Regatta Centre (Penrith),[8] would be indefinitely suspended, since they were "unable to secure a suitable replacement venue for the event to take place [...]"[9] 2020 did not see Defqon.1 held after the Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte declared that all events in the Netherlands were cancelled until September 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Defqon.1 was held virtually in 2021, with sets from participating performers streamed from the Defqon.1 website.