They are always one of the most anticipated 50 hours of the Serralves Foundation’s annual program, in Porto: a free marathon of music, dance, contemporary circus, street theater and more, in an institution that, for three days, opens up entirely to the city, bringing together a multiplicity of audiences. Serralves em Festa reaches its 20th edition this year, which will take place between 6pm on the 29th, Friday, and 10pm on the 31st, Sunday. The extensive program was announced this Monday, at a press conference held in the foundation’s library.
There are, in total, around 160 projects, involving 650 artists from 34 nationalities, according to Serralves. In music, highlight, for example, Conan Osiris (finally returned, even in the last days of 2025, with the album XENONEXO) and for the Minho Dead Handa historic band led by Adolfo Luxúria Canibal who, in Serralves, will collaborate not only with accordionist João Barradas, but also with visual artist Mariana Vilanova.
As always, the musical program of this twentieth Serralves em Festa presents itself as a “non-homogeneous block” ready to oscillate “between the historic and the emerging, between the national and the international”; experimentation, instead of being “treated as a musical genre in itself, is seen as something transversal”, as programmer Pedro Rocha said. Among the national bets are also the “ferocious noise rock” of bbb hairdryerthe experimental duo formed by João Pedro Dias and Inês Malheiro, two names at the “intersection between composition and improvisation”, or even the “uncatalogable music” of Rack of the Apocalypsea group made up of people with mental health problems and intellectual disabilities to whom the Centro Social de Soutelo, in Rio Tinto, Gondomar, provides social assistance.
Regarding the international part of the program, highlights include Stephen O’Malley, half of the influential duo Sunn O))) which, in collaboration with the ensemble Swiss Alponom, will present You Origina concert for ten alpine horns — this focus is part of a focus that Serralves dedicates to O’Malley and which will culminate in a concert by Sunn O))) on the 10th of July.
Pedro Rocha also highlighted the North-American Cybotron and the British The Sabers of Paradise, “foundational names in electronics”, as well as Konono N.º1, a historic Congolese group that, making use of improvised instruments and, crucially, electrified versions of the liquembe, a traditional instrument, makes hypnotic dance music, intensely physical, close to trance.
Ricardo Lopes
In terms of performing arts, emphasis on Caravanseráa parade by Gustavo Cirático that brings together around 80 elements and that celebrates the mother of the Brazilian choreographer — Maria José Cirático, who was “a visionary and irreverent artist, poet, writer and pedagogue from Rio de Janeiro”, said programmer Cristina Grande. Caravanseráwhich already occupied the gardens of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in Lisbon, at the time of Carnival, will mark the “warming up” of Serralves em Festa, spreading through the streets of Baixa do Porto on the 28th.
Cristina Grande also drew attention to Karaoke (ART)a curatorial project by Davis Freeman whose concept revolves around the idea of inviting an artist to make a video to accompany a pop song. At the presentation in Serralves, videos of names such as Tiago Rodrigues, Claudia Varejão, Tania Carvalho, Gaya de Medeiros and the duos Von Calhau and Mariana Caló & Francisco Queimadela — and, as the rules of the karaokethere will be the lyrics of the various songs, phrase by phrase for the audience to sing.
Returning to Serralves em Festa is Diana Niepcewhich, this time, will present The Other Side of Dancea show focused on “the study and analysis of the physicality and movement” of non-normative bodies like that of the choreographer, an essential name in Portuguese contemporary dance. Falling Reverselya work by Isaac Chong Wai that was curated in 2024 by Venice Art Biennaleis, in turn, a piece of “resistance, protest and solidarity” that focuses on “anti-Asian racism and systemic violence”, described Cristina Grande.
The programmer also highlighted, for example, Breathe La Grand Traversea show by the contemporary circus company Cie Les Filles du Renard Pâle whose central scenic element is a 75-meter-long tightrope, suspended 11 meters from the ground. One performance virtuoso performance that will feature music by Ana Deus and Alexandre Soares, from Three Sad Tigers — and which helps to build a performing arts program that, in Cristina Grande’s words, is simultaneously “hopeful and restless”.
Philippe Vergne, director of the Serralves Museum, repeated a description he likes to use often, saying that Serralves em Festa, in this celebratory edition and since the beginning, is “a festival avant-garde that is accessible to everyone.” Typically playful, he said that all artists this year will wear a t-shirtwhich is why it will not be possible to bring Iggy Pop.
