From 1.–3. October, GRASP Festival brings together artists, researchers, practitioners, and participants at Musicon in Roskilde. Registration is now open for three days of new ideas – and the first programme highlights are ready.
This year, GRASP Festival expands to three days and invites more people into a programme of talks, art, workshops, and experimental formats, where the future is not only discussed, but shaped collectively.
Registration for GRASP Festival 2026 costs 100 DKK and gives access to three days of talks, art, conversations, and participatory formats.
This year’s theme is Future Hope.
In a time marked by crises, uncertainty, and major transformations, we insist on hope as an active force. Not as naive optimism, but as the courage to imagine alternative paths, ask difficult questions, and turn ideas into action.
Across the first programme announcements, a direction is already emerging: hope does not arise in isolation – it is created in communities and becomes action when people engage and insist on creating change together.
How do we create hope? And how do we hold on to it? And what does it take to act on it when the world feels complex? These are some of the questions the festival explores as artists, researchers, and participants come together to shape the future collectively.
The festival programme unfolds across three perspectives that open different pathways into this year’s theme, Future Hope. The perspectives intersect and create connections between art, knowledge, and practice.
How do we create communities where more people can take part – and where engagement can grow over time? In Together for the Future, we explore how new forms of volunteering, participation, and democracy can strengthen our ability to act together – and open communities to more people.
The panel discussion Communities of the future dives into what motivates young people to engage – and what it takes to sustain their involvement. The conversation highlights how volunteering can become a stronger space for learning, wellbeing, and civic participation.
You can also experience BORROWED TIME – a national conversation on the right to the future, where a youth-driven conversation series comes together. The focus is on intergenerational justice and how young voices can gain greater influence over decisions about their future.
How do we imagine a future that does not yet exist – and how do we begin to act on it? In Imagining Tomorrow, we work with imagination as a driving force for change. Through art, storytelling, and sensory experiences, we open up new perspectives on the future.
In Hope-based Storytelling, Thomas Coombes invites you to an interactive keynote and workshop where hope becomes a concrete method. It explores how values can be translated into action, and how new narratives can create momentum.
In the workshop Beyond Darkness, participants enter a space without light, where sensory experience and shared storytelling open up new ways of imagining the future – not only as an idea, but as something that can be felt and shared. You can also experience the artwork I Never Meant to Hurt Anyone by Noah Holtegaard, which raises questions about how guilt and responsibility are shared within communities.
How do we turn hope into action for the planet – both individually and structurally? In Action for the Planet, we turn our attention to the systems we are part of – and how they can be transformed.
In the keynote The Global Live Music Industry in Transition, Shawn Reynaldo explores how monopolisation affects artistic freedom, cultural diversity, and sustainability – and what this means for the future of music and communities.
You can also join a walk from Musicon to GROW Langkærhave, where the conversation moves into the landscape. Here, we explore what it takes to create real alternatives to our food systems – not as utopia, but as practice.
GRASP Festival is a festival for new ideas. It brings together art, knowledge, and people with the desire to act. The festival is for anyone working with or interested in societal change – from culture and education to sustainability, urban development, and civil society.
GRASP Festival 2026 takes place 1.–3. October at Musicon, Roskilde.
Registration costs 100 DKK and gives access to three days of talks, art, conversations, and participatory formats.
