What is a good life? And how do we create societies where both people and the planet can thrive?
With its third programme release, GRASP Festival turns its attention to some of the defining questions of our time. How do we measure value? What role do care and community play? And how can we create hope and quality of life within planetary boundaries?
Among the new programme highlights, you can experience author and public intellectual Emma Holten and French economist Timothée Parrique, both of whom challenge our assumptions about economics, growth and the good life. The programme also features concerts, art and conversations exploring the role of culture in shaping our shared future.
How do we value the things that cannot easily be measured in economic terms?
That question lies at the heart of Emma Holten’s opening keynote on Saturday, where she explores sensitivity, care and an economic system that often overlooks some of the most fundamental values in our lives.
Drawing on her internationally acclaimed book Underskud, Emma Holten examines what happens when care and caregiving fall outside traditional economic calculations – and what this reveals about the values we, as a society, choose to prioritise.
Can we create prosperity and quality of life without endless economic growth?
That question is at the heart of a conversation between one of Europe’s leading voices in ecological economics, French economist Timothée Parrique, and Zetland journalist Hakon Mosbech on the future of the economy.
Parrique is the author of Slow Down or Die: The Economics of Degrowth and explores new ways of understanding progress and prosperity. Together, they examine how societies can develop within planetary boundaries and which new measures of wellbeing and prosperity are gaining ground in international debates.
How do we build strong communities in times of profound change?
That question runs through several of this year’s new programme highlights. In the session Community as Counterforce, musicians and professionals explore how collective ways of working and creative communities can foster more sustainable working lives.
At the same time, Culture’s Prepping List invites participants into a conversation about the role of culture in future preparedness. Because if we prepare with water, batteries and canned food, how do we prepare ourselves culturally, mentally and as human beings?
This year’s programme also features two special concert experiences. Bisse and Dreamers’ Circus come together for a joint performance where contemporary Nordic folk music meets poetic everyday surrealism. And in collaboration with Sonic College, døtre invites audiences into an immersive concert experience in which sound, space and technology become part of the work itself.
How can art, research and storytelling open up new perspectives on the future?
In the session Art, Quantum Physics and Queer Theory, visual artist Noah Holtegaard and quantum physicist Esben Rohan Christensen come together to explore how queer theory challenges fixed categories and offers new ways of understanding identity, relationships and society.
The power of storytelling is also at the centre of the session New Narratives for a Hopeful Future?, where researchers and artists examine how stories about development, sustainability and climate change shape our understanding of the world – and how new narratives can foster hope and inspire action.
The programme for GRASP Festival 2026 continues to take shape ahead of October, with more talks, art projects, concerts, workshops and experimental formats set to be announced.
From 1–3 October, the festival will bring together artists, researchers, musicians, activists and participants in Musicon, Roskilde, for three days of new ideas, communities and conversations about the future.
