Press Release
Amsterdam, 3 March 2026
True listening, empathy and shifting perspectives at the 79th Holland Festival
The Holland Festival opens on 3 June with City of Floating Sounds by Huang Ruo, a two-part concert experience. The first part takes the form of a musical walk to the Carré theatre, during which visitors use an app to play this orchestral work throughout the city. The full composition is then performed live in the venue by Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen, followed by Shattered Steps by the same composer.
Over the following weeks, the programme once again offers great variety: from the dark And Now I Know What Love Is by British choreographer and producer Blackhaine, staged in the former Bijlmer prison, to LACRIMA, a thrilling performance exploring the harsh reality behind haute couture.
The festival concludes at the end of June with a full and festive closing weekend. Rave-L is a Bolero-inspired concert that takes Ravel's love for jazz as its starting point and culminates in a rave. The closing programme also features A Trial – after An Enemy of the People by Christiane Jatahy (associate artist in 2024) and Golden Globe winner Wagner Moura. A Trial is a special co-production between the Holland Festival, the Edinburgh International Festival and the Festival d’Avignon, the three European festivals established in 1947.
In total, the 79th edition of the Holland Festival will present 30 groundbreaking productions with 104 performances across 23 venues. The programme includes 14 co-productions, 2 Holland Festival productions and no fewer than 11 world premieres. This year, 27 artists will make their Holland Festival debut. Alongside performances, there will be installations, meet-and-greets with artists, workshops, a sound walk, talks, films and an extensive educational programme.
The full programme is available online now at www.hollandfestival.nl
Associate artist Hildur Guðnadóttir: Empathy is what makes us human
'Music can touch our deepest selves. It can change the space we are in, shift our mood, and even transform who we are.'
(Hildur Guðnadóttir, Associate Artist Holland Festival 2026)
Since 2019, the Holland Festival has worked with an associate artist who presents new work and helps to broaden and deepen the programme. For the 2026 edition, this is composer and musician Hildur Guðnadóttir (Reykjavik, 1982), one of today's pioneering and most versatile voices in film music, experimental pop and contemporary composition.
Empathy, listening and transformation are at the heart of Guðnadóttir’s work. She sees art as a powerful means of creating shared, connecting experiences, and will present four projects at the festival that make this palpable. In Chernobyl, her score for the HBO series forms the basis for a live concert with lighting design by Theresa Baumgartner. Where To From is Guðnadóttir's most personal work at the festival in which she performs her new album, born from her musical journal entries. Nærmynd offers a glimpse into her musical universe through a selection of her own (film) music alongside work by composers who inspire her. Guðnadóttir has also composed a new piece on commission from the festival for students from several conservatoires: Passing Remark will be a free open-air concert for dozens of brass players in Amsterdam’s Westerpark.
'My dream scenario for the festival—and really for any performance—is simple," says Guðnadóttir. "I want to be in a space where people are truly present and listening deeply. Perhaps the slogan should be: listening is everything.'
In her wake, this year's festival puts the spotlight on pioneering women in experimental music. Guðnadóttir's great inspiration, Meredith Monk, will come to Amsterdam for a performance, a film screening, a conversation with Guðnadóttir and a book signing in a special collaboration with presentation partner Hartwig Art Foundation. Laurie Anderson has created the installation Your Eyes in My Head especially for the festival and also serves as the narrator in the documentary Sisters with Transistors, about the pioneering women of electronic music.
Empathy
Guðnadóttir believes art helps us think and feel beyond our own frames of reference. This is palpable in When I Saw the Sea by Ali Chahrour, a hopeful portrait of three women fighting to free themselves from the grip of modern slavery in Lebanon. In We Are The House by Tomoko Mukaiyama, the audience wanders freely through a multidisciplinary performance about bodily autonomy. And in A Trial – after An Enemy of the People by Christiane Jatahy and Wagner Moura, Moura plays the lead role in a sharp reinterpretation of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People.
True Listening
True listening is a common thread throughout the programme, not just in Guðnadóttir's own work, but also in pieces like Sada (Echo) by Egyptian artist Oz Oz. Sada (Echo) is a theatrical solo with recordings of Arabic songs, live sound effects and 'audio letters' in which he tells a moving story of loss. Bilderschlachten, with music by Brigitta Muntendorf and Bernd Alois Zimmermann, is a work brimming with quotes from music history—from Bach to Stockhausen—performed by the Residentie Orkest, with choreography by Stephanie Tiersch.
Transformation
From empathy and listening, it is just a small step to transformation. This is neither automatic nor inevitable, but something performances encourage. In Atomic Joy, choreographer Ana Pi transforms joy into a political force. In A Possibility by Germaine Kruip, the transformation is a highly sensory experience achieved through the merging of image and sound. And Mirage, by Damien Jalet in collaboration with Kohei Nawa and the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, shows how sixteen dancers must constantly adapt in a continually changing, shimmering world.
Familiar and new collaborations
Once again this year, the Dutch National Opera & Ballet programme features performances as part of the Holland Festival. At the Dutch National Ballet, three top choreographers come together in Masters of Movement, which features work by David Dawson, Krzysztof Pastor and Alexei Ratmansky. Dutch National Opera presents Giuseppe Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, an opera full of political intrigue, directed by Jetske Mijnssen and performed by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
For the second consecutive year, the festival is co-producing two concerts with NTR ZaterdagMatinee. Voices combines Hans Werner Henze’s protest songs from 1974 with newly commissioned work, performed by the London Sinfonietta conducted by Christian Karlsen.
In Arooj Aftab & Daniel Wohl, Aftab sings songs from her albums Night Reign and Vulture Prince, alongside new compositions co-written with composer Daniel Wohl and performed by the groundbreaking London Contemporary Orchestra.
New in 2026 is a collaboration with PLT Theater Heerlen, where A Possibility will be presented on 25 and 26 June. In Amsterdam, the performance runs from 13 to 15 June.
Practical information
The Holland Festival takes place from 3 to 28 June 2026. Tickets go on sale on 17 March via www.hollandfestival.nl. Friends of the Festival can book from 3 March. The full programme is available on the website.
Please find an interview with Hildur Guðnadóttir for Holland Festival here.
The Holland Festival is supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts, production partner Ammodo, festival partner Fonds 21, presentation partner Hartwig Art Foundation and many other funds, business partners, and private donors.