Dissonanze Festival 2026: A New Chapter in Rome Featuring Electronic Music, Art, and Technology
On September 12 and 13, the Ennio Morricone Auditorium Parco della Musica will once again become one of the most exciting hubs for contemporary experimentation. The Dissonanze Festival will inaugurate its New Chapter—two days in which electronic music, digital arts, performance, and new technologies converge to create an experience that goes beyond the traditional concept of a festival.
Founded in Rome in 2000, Dissonanze has, from its very inception, served as a cultural laboratory capable of anticipating new artistic languages and cross-pollinations. Over the years, it has brought some of the most influential figures on the international scene to the capital—from Aphex Twin to Kraftwerk, from Richie Hawtin to Jeff Mills and even Björk—often choosing unconventional venues and transforming them into spaces where music, architecture, and the audience interact.
Following its return in 2025, which celebrated the 25th anniversary of its first edition, the festival is now looking to the future. New Chapter preserves the original spirit of Dissonanze but reinterprets it through a profoundly changed musical and cultural landscape, where the boundary between art, technology, and entertainment is increasingly blurred.
The 2026 lineup confirms this international focus. Headliners include Björk with a DJ set, Peggy Gou, Honey Dijon, Floating Points b2b Daphni, Moodymann b2b Marcellus Pittman, Donato Dozzy, Derrick Carter, Octave One Live, Sama’ Abdulhadi, Skream & Benga, Kelly Lee Owens, Jazzanova Live feat. Wayne Snow, Nubiyan Twist, Paranoid London Live, Session Victim Live, and Tiger & Woods Live, along with numerous other artists from different scenes and generations.
A diverse lineup in which house, techno, experimental electronic music, jazz, club culture, and experimental sound coexist without needing to be confined to a single definition.
When the Festival Becomes an Educational Experience
Among the most interesting new features of the 2026 edition is DissPlay by Dissonanze, a project dedicated to children ages 4 to 12. This initiative introduces an educational and participatory dimension to the festival, based on the idea that creativity can be nurtured from childhood through sound, imagery, and technology.
Through Seeing the Music, led by artist and educator Marco Laudadio, children were invited to imagine and draw their own ideal festival. Their artwork will be featured directly within the festival space, printed and displayed over the course of the two-day event.
The program also includes a masterclass on Ableton Live 12, led by Edoardo Pietrogrande, and an immersive installation created using TouchDesigner by Simone Murtas.
No longer just spectators, then, but active participants: a way to transform the festival experience into an opportunity for discovery and creative production.
Dissonances Between Memory and the Future
The Dissonanze project was recently featured at the MACRO — Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome, which hosted an exhibition from December 2025 to March 2026 dedicated to the relationship between sound, the visual arts, and the exhibition space.
This was a significant milestone, as it illustrates how the festival has, over the years, transcended the boundaries of electronic music to become part of a broader reflection on contemporary culture.
And this is precisely the key to New Chapter: not merely celebrating what Dissonanze has been, but using that history as a starting point.
In an era in which digital technology is constantly reshaping languages, relationships, and perceptions, the festival once again explores how technology and creativity can engage with physical space, the city, and above all, people.
On September 12 and 13, Rome will once again be the setting for this experiment.
Not just two days of music, but a space in which to listen, observe, and perhaps imagine what form electronic culture might take in the near future.
Dissonanze Festival — New Chapter
September 12–13, 2026
Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone, Rome
Tickets available on Xceed.
