Sonic Acts Biennial 2026

The ever-cutting-edge Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 unfolds across 80 events at 20 venues in Amsterdam this February and March, featuring boundary pushing performances, spatial sound experiments, workshops and cross-disciplinary exhibitions.

Guided by the theme Melted for Love, the programme explores the power of sound to shape memory, body, land and community in a world marked by ecological and social flux. Melted for Love seeks to animate closeness and friendship. Rather than seeing strangers everywhere, it embraces the world as a mesh of souls. Through interdisciplinary installations, spatial sound performances, talks and presentations, Sonic Acts amplifies communities working in solidarity, exchanging exhaustion for tenderness.

Feeling bedazzled by the expansive programme with nearly 200 artists? We’ve got you. Here’s a roadmap of concerts, talks and exhibitions we can’t wait to visit.

Expanded Experience – 26 February, Muziekgebouw

Dedicated to audiovisual works, Expanded Experience extends Sonic Acts’ legacy of bold experimentation and opens up new dimensions of listening, seeing, and sensory encounter. The six-hour programme features esteemed acts such as Zinc & Copper, bela, Saint Abdullah, Pierce Warnecke, Paul Jebanasam and more. 

Spatial Sound Concerts – 27 & 28 February, Paradiso

Two nights. Thirteen concerts. Ten hours of spatial sound. For the two evenings, Sonic Acts brings over the legendary Acousmonium spatial sound system of INA grm to present immersive sound works by revered sound artists like KMRU and Aho Ssan, Jana Winderen, Sarah Davachi, Mark Fell and Rian Treanor and many more. 

Symposium Weekend – 28 February & 1 March, Stedelijk Museum 

At the heart of the Biennial, the symposium weekend brings together artists and thinkers like Kode9, Margarida Mendes, pantea and Salomé Voegelin to explore how love, technology, and sound shape our sense of belonging.

Exhibition at W139, Framer Framed, Arti et Amicitiae, Rozenstraat

The Sonic Acts exhibition inhabits several key spaces in the city and runs for an extended period in February and March, featuring installations, films, sound works, and performances that attend to how land, bodies and ecosystems are shaped and altered by extractive forces. The exhibition holds space for grieving what has been harmed or lost – human and non-human life – by militarisation, colonialism and dispossession. Artists include the likes of Eglė Budvytytė, Lukas Marxt, Dominique White, Amneh Solati and Noor Abed. 

Listening Room at Zone2Source – Various dates in February and March

Tucked away in Amstelpark, the Listening Room is an exhibition for multichannel sound works in a dedicated listening environment at the beautiful glass pavillion of Zone2Source. The featured works include spatial compositions by Chris Watson, BJ Nilsen, François J. Bonnet, KMRU & Aho Ssan, Tomoko Sauvage, Maria W Horn, Leslie García, Leilehua Lanzilotti, Pierce Warnecke, C. Lavender, Ji Youn Kang and many more. 

Heart Rests Twice Concert Series at murmur, various dates 

This Thursday evenings concert series presents five intimate listening events at the cozy salon of murmur, foregrounding subtle, fragile and detailed sound works by musicians like Nancy Mounir, Leslie García, Kween, Hannah Hajar and many more. Head over to murmur on 12th and 19th of February, or 12th, 19th and 26 of March. 

Gesture and Screech – 13 March, OCCII

Gesture and Screech brings a more physical edge to the Biennial at OCCII. Featuring artists working with repetition, distortion and rhythmic intensity, the night focuses on performance as gesture and sound as force. Lineup: Jiyoung Wi & Tzu Ni, Scott Gordon, Finlay Shakespeare, ROC / MAKINA TRAX and Petronn Sphene. 

As We Tremble – 28 March, Singelkerk

Drone, folk traditions and experimental forms converge at the Singelkerk, highlighting collective sound-making and the relationship between voice, instrument and space. Often silenced, colonised or endangered, these sonic practices preserve memories of communal experience. As We Tremble departs from this sense of collective emotion, inviting audiences into a space where history is transmitted – and reimagined – through sound with artists such as Dylan Kerr, Laura Ortman, and the ten-people ensemble La Nòvia.

For a detailed overview of the Biennial and tickets, head over to the website of Sonic Acts. 

Sonic Acts has kindly gifted a limited amount of free tickets for Subbacultcha members to selected concerts – to be announced soon. Keep an eye on our channels for updates.