WATER AND SOUND

23.7.- 1.8.2026 in Augsburg | Festival for global music | art | performance | panels | water

“A powerful rush of water and music that opens Augsburg to the world.” (Süddeutsche Zeitung)

Under the motto “Waterways – Canals, Sea Routes, Empire”, the Water & Sound Festival 2026 is dedicated to the waterways that have shaped cities, industries and empires. In the UNESCO World Heritage City of Augsburg, the festival turns the spotlight from the city’s historic canals, fountains and waterworks to global sea routes, trade routes and cultural interdependencies. The focus is on a diverse program of global music: contemporary positions in which voices, rhythms, languages and timbres combine local musical roots with improvisation, electronics, pop, jazz, rock, songwriting and experimental forms. International artists such as the Indian singer Ganavya, the British saxophonist and producer Laura Misch, Daraa Tribes feat. Lala Tamar, Mari Froes, The Cavemen, MELINA and BCUC meet local positions, special locations and specially developed formats.

The Tea Chariot” is a walk-in installation in the former Dominican church of St. Magdalena that revolves around a living tea plant, colonial trade routes and the history of tea (vernissage on July 23). The music program at Kuhsee starts on 24 July with an open concert evening: Picky Eater from Augsburg and Daraa Tribes feat. Lala Tamar bring local scene and international sounds to the lake. The evening “Waterways Re:Imagined” in the Parktheater on July 30 combines a talk with the British author Sathnam Sanghera with concerts by Laura Misch and Ganavya as well as the Water & Sound Ensemble. Between Ganavya’s haunting voice, Laura Misch’s songs with saxophone, electronics and field recordings and chamber music arrangements, an evening about waterways, memory and the present has been specially developed for the festival.
On July 31 and August 1, Water & Sound will be an open meeting place for music, food, encounters and urban society at Annahof. The program ranges from Mari Froes’ young Música Popular Brasileira to Meral Polat’s sound space between Anatolian folk music, Kurdish poetry, blues and improvisation to The Cavemen’s highlife fusion with powerful grooves, electronic elements and the energy of contemporary Afrobeats. Melina combines oud, voice and rebetiko traces with a sound between tradition and pop, while BCUC bring their ecstatic live energy from Soweto to Augsburg. Panels, tea workshops, guided tours of the World Heritage Site and the waterfowl parade add artistic, historical and participatory formats to the festival. In this way, Water & Sound 2026 will make audible how waterways connect trade, migration, memory, power and music.