Ephemera Returns to Warsaw, June 8–14

This June, around the summer solstice, Ephemera festival once again transforms Warsaw into a landscape of sound, performance, and ritual. Blurring the boundaries between concert, dance, installation, and urban wandering, the festival invites audiences into immersive, communal encounters with art. From June 8–14, music and performance will flow through the city’s architecture as clubs, theaters, and hidden spaces beyond Warsaw’s everyday rhythm become sites of trance, reflection, and collective experience.

A new event has been added to the program. On June 11, together with Lado w Mieście and the Poise collective, Ephemera presents a free gathering on Barka by the Vistula River, featuring domizako, ALLG, DiV4, larissa, and monka.

This late night event follows Young Boy Dancing Group’s intimate performance at Mińska 65, shaped by the venue’s monumental industrial architecture, and leads into Friday’s program at Komuna Warszawa, where hypnotic sound collides with uncompromising rap and emotionally charged electronics. On June 12, the venue will host performances by Armand Hammer, Microplastics, and a new project from 2K88 + Bianca Scout + Lauren Duffus + Rainy Miller, supported by the British Council.

Tickets for Young Boy Dancing Group at Mińska 65 and Komuna Warszawa are still available.

Ephemera opens on June 8 with a spectacular evening at the Polish National Opera featuring Hania Rani and Arooj Aftab, two artists whose music balances intimacy, melancholy, and hypnotic intensity. Presented in partnership with BMW Polska, the event sold out well ahead of the festival, but you can still see the show by snapping up one of the last remaining festival passes.

As always, Ephemera unfolds across Warsaw through both cultural institutions and unexpected locations that reshape the city’s atmosphere for a few days each June. This year’s venues also include Teatr Studio, Palladium, Kino MSN, The Laboratory at CSW Ujazdowski Castle, and the garden of Abakanowicz’s former studio in Mokotów — home to the Magdalena Abakanowicz Foundation.

Now a tradition, the festival concludes with W Brzask, Ephemera’s annual summer solstice gathering welcoming the first light of day through music and collective ritual. Created with the Centre for Contemporary Art, this year’s edition takes place at sunrise for the first time in the park in front of Ujazdowski Castle. The morning wil open with the breathy sounds of Natan Kryszk, a woodwind ace and avant-jazz performer who disrupts his horn sounds with samples, synths and effects. Then Martyna Basta will tap in with a live presentation of her stunning new album, 'Winged in Collapse', a dark and sensual ambient pop experiment that cuts dreamy vocals and earworm melodies with celestial textures. London-based Italian engineer and producer Marta Salogni will follow with a set of psychedelic synth soundscapes made with her estimable collection of vintage instruments, and the mighty Nídia, one of the Príncipe label's core artists, will close out the event with a DJ set that's sure to coax out any remaining energy. Admission is free.

The full program of this year’s Ephemera is available on the festival’s official website. Get a taste of the atmosphere now and check out our Instagram. Once again, only a small number of festival passes remain on sale.