FIBER Festival 2026

Audiovisual Art, Digital Culture & Electronic Music

Founded in 2010 by a collective of audiovisual enthusiasts, in 10 editions the FIBER Festival has grown into a vibrant meeting place where experimental audiovisual and multi-sensory art forms can be experienced and celebrated. The programme offers insights, stories and perspectives on urgent developments at the intersection of technology, ecology and sound. We often ask the question: how can the world look, feel and sound different when we perceive it through the eyes and ears of artists?

What started with a first edition in the basement of the now-defunct club TrouwAmsterdam, the festival now finds its way around the city of Amsterdam, spreading to larger theatres and concert halls, to leading clubs and DIY spaces. We offer a four-day packed programme; from concerts, DJ-sets and AV performances in the evening and nights, to inspiring lectures and knowledge exchange during the day.

2026 marks the 16th anniversary of our organisation, which has supported and presented the cross-pollination of interdisciplinary and networked art forms since its inception. Presenting the work of a generation of digital artists - from audiovisual performers, sound artists, DJs and installation makers - and searching for new connections and radical visions on culture and society. We hope to welcome you to this special edition.

LOOK BACK AT ALL OUR PREVIOUS EVENTS

The concept of fragility contains an interesting tension: it is something that can be easily damaged, can crack or shatter into pieces. It is a state of tension, which, once broken, may be impossible to return to. It urges us to treat something with care, in the knowledge that what lies behind it may be difficult to restore or may never return. At the same time, it can be synonymously used for something that possesses material, cultural and ecological beauty and vitality, but is unable to protect itself effectively against brute force.

For the 2026 festival, we will explore the theme Fragile Forces as a source of fragile and collective strength. What does it mean to listen, perform, and play in relation to fragility? And even if something seems beyond repair, are there still forces of resilience that return? Following last year’s theme Wildness, which co-adapted the acceleration and the need for artistic and social rewilding, this edition invites visitors to catch their breath, slow down, drop-out and focus on forms of vulnerable resistance.

Fragile Forces directly responds to the widespread fusing of hard power, colonial and imperial violence, genocide, the growing links between militarisation and culture, ecological extraction and weaponisation of AI and information networks. What are meaningful responses, and how can we find common ground on this? Can art help us with this? Are there resilience skills that we can share with one another?

FESTIVAL THEME:
Fragile Forces

Our theme will act as a guiding principle to counterbalance the current extractive and military zeitgeist, technofeudalism, climate collapse and accelerating global shifts. It gives us a moment to reflect on what may be lost forever, and what to do with this realisation? At a time when it is extraordinarily challenging to imagine a bright future, or to reflect on what a post-apocalyptic reality might hold, recognising the forces of interdependence and mutual support appears to be an essential way to adapt.

Encouraging ecological thinking and collective listening, we’ll examine how seemingly invisible, inaudible and minimal forces and micro-shifts in materials, sounds, ecosystems and more-than-human networks can converge to create something vast and beyond human control. How can we draw strength from attuning and empathising with the invisible agency that lies beyond our own human sensory perception? Artists, from media artists to performing musicians, have always been interested in exploring the vastness of time and powerful fragility of more-than human life. From the geological pace of glaciers and life in the deep sea to the creation of fictional worlds brimming with sonic and audiovisual polyphony.

Festival Impression

Volunteering at the festival

To realise FIBER 2026, we are looking for enthusiastic and motivated volunteers to help us with the exhibition, symposium and music & performance programmes, taking place May 28–31 across multiple venues around Amsterdam. You will be able to select from a variety of roles – from hosting and production assistance to catering and build-up/down.

Would you like to gain work experience and learn more about the production and development of a digital culture festival? Sign up, and become part of a community of like-minded people!

For questions, please contact Annemarijn Bulsink at: volunteers@fiber-space.nl

Contact & Press

To unlock all the important stories of the creators and researchers, FIBER collaborates with professional journalists, writers and students. We welcome you to the festival. Contact us to get access to the programmes:

Lead marketing & communication, press inquiries and accreditations: Anni Nöps | anni@fiber-space.nl