We are diving even deeper into the core of the festival: big questions, everyday hope, and the will to create real change. How do we find hope and agency in a world shaped by crises? What happens when young entrepreneurs speak from the heart – and dare to ask tough questions about business ethics, participatory formats in the arts, and the sustainability of our cities? With these 13 new programme elements, GRASP 2025 expands even further as a knowledge festival where conversations and experiences build bridges – between practice and policy, research and imagination, everyday life and global goals.
Over two days in September, the festival brings together voices from art, research, civil society, and business to explore questions that demand courage, curiosity, and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Tickets are only 100 DKK – because GRASP is co-created with partners and part of Roskilde Festival Group’s non-profit mission.
Explore the new additions and sign up below.
Several new sessions explore the delicate balance between hope and realism. In Green Dreams, three young entrepreneurs openly share their failures, frustrations, and belief in sustainable change – even when the systems around them pull in the opposite direction.
In a related session, When Solutions Have Unintended Consequences, we dig into rebound effects – the unforeseen side effects of well-intentioned green solutions – and explore how we can design our way out of them, rather than further in.
Change is growing elsewhere, too. Together with sociologist and author Rune Baastrup, we explore how small shifts in norms and behaviours can trigger self-reinforcing transformations. In his talk When Society Tips – in the Right Direction, Baastrup delves into the social dynamics behind collective change.
We also zoom out with psychologist and climate researcher Per Stoknes, who in What Could Possibly Go Right? outlines how hope, action, and concrete solutions can fuel societal transformation.
The festival’s critical gaze is just as important as its creative pulse. We ask what it really means to be a responsible business today – and how the Sustainable Development Goals can be translated into real-world legitimacy and impact in Ethics and Responsibility of Business. In another session, we open a critical reflection on the ideals of participation in the cultural sector – asking the fundamental question: If participation is the means, what is the end?
At the same time, we shine a light on music. In A New Era for Music Criticism?, we examine how traditional music criticism is facing a new reality of social media, audience voices, and shifting media platforms. Does music criticism need a reinvention – and could it become widely relevant again?
Art, too, has something to say. The Kenyan art collective The Nest Collective presents Return to Sender – a sensory and direct confrontation with global textile overconsumption. And at GRASP Long Table Dinner, you’re invited to a sensory meal where food and visual art merge in a space that celebrates dyslexia as a strength and explores the lenses through which we view ourselves and each other. At Maker Summit, we gather around do-it-yourself culture and creative solutions that rethink technology, materials, and sustainability from the ground up.
We also spotlight fresh thinking from the world of academia. A lecture and workshop on Creative methods in Academia asks: What if knowledge isn’t just about providing answers – but opening up new ways of imagining?
At GRASP, it’s not about finding the right answer – but about asking the right questions. The 13 new programme elements are diverse, but they share one core principle: they challenge habitual thinking and show how change often begins small – with new perspectives, honest stories, and the will to act.
See the full published programme here and sign up here.
See you at GRASP!
