Sharing the first acts & festival theme
The first artists for the 2026 edition of FIBER Festival have now been announced!
The programme continues FIBER’s focus on experimental and critical practices, presenting emerging and underrepresented artists alongside established international names. New commissions and recent works will be shown in carefully designed settings that invite audiences to encounter unfamiliar perspectives.
The 2026 theme, Fragile Forces, marks a clear shift in tempo. Following the 2025 theme Wildness, which responded to acceleration and technological overload, this year asks what kinds of power emerge when we slow down. The programme centres vulnerability, care, love, cooperation, and uncertainty as active and transformative forces. At a time plagued by optimisation, militarisation, and AI-driven acceleration, the festival turns toward practices that work through attention, attunement, and collective experience.
Programme
On May 28 we gather at murmur, whose stellar soundsystem will house hypnotic bass and textural soundworlds from Trois-QuartsTaxiSystem and Xenia Reaper respectively.
We also head to the emblematic Orgelpark on Friday, May 29, with a live performance by Kara-Lis Coverdale, who has been heralded as “one of the most exciting composers in North America” by The Guardian. Later that evening, the focus moves back to the dance floor for our annual club night at Garage Noord, with LNR, Flore, and Remma joining the bill.
On Saturday, May 30, we will descend upon TILLATEC, for a night of live performances by mesocosm and Slowfoam, followed by forward-thinking electronics until the early morning, provided by Timedance label head Batu, bass maven Formella, and many more to be announced.
Balancing things out, the Context Programme connects the festival’s themes to broader cultural questions. Esteemed media theorist Geert Lovink, technologist Mindy Seu, curator Mariana Berezovska, and artists Louis Braddock Clarke and Bint Mbareh are among the first names confirmed to contribute talks and discussions.
Last-but-not-least: this year’s festival campaign is developed by Parabol Studio in collaboration with audiovisual artist and designer Deborah Mora, building on the theme through a visual language that reflects fragility, transformation, and layered forms. Together, the design elements suggest a language of subtle tension rather than spectacle.
➤ This is only a first taste of what’s to come. We will announce the full programme in the coming weeks. For a limited time, a reduced festival pass is still available.
Keep an eye on our website and social media, as more names, programme details, and open calls will follow.