Sacrum Profanum 2026

The 24th edition of Sacrum Profanum asks what is sacred and what is profane today, and whether it is still possible to distinguish between the two. The Ritual will serve as a foundation for six different worlds, with the canon interpreted by folk and experimental musicians, and concerts taking place within the installation, in the reading room and on the streets of Kraków.

The festival brings contemporary music to life through context, storytelling, interesting venues and links to other art forms. Rather than simplifying the music, it alters the listening conditions: what do we hear when the score is presented in a different space, when traditional instruments are combined with electronics, or when the concert begins before the first note is played? This year, the installation itself becomes a space for music and the centrepiece of the concert series, opening an interplay between music, painting, sculpture and performance.

The main theme, the Ritual, consists of six concerts taking place in a space created by resident artists Si On and Jakub Ziółkowski at Cricoteka. It is not a re-enactment of a specific religious ritual, but a temporary world reminiscent of a ritual tent, a gallery and a ceremonial space. Around an intimate stage, the audience will experience different artists and music each day, linked by Ziółkowski’s musical and ritual interventions as host and master of ceremonies.

Each ritual establishes its own rules, draws on different sources and leads to a different world. The programme brings together newly invented instruments, forgotten traditions, extraordinary ethnographic elements, radical performance art and practices from outside the mainstream. Throughout the edition, Sacrum Profanum focuses on the point where paths intersect: where the canon shifts context, tradition reveals its experimental potential, and what was once on the fringes is placed at the centre of the programme.

The festival also changes according to its venues. The concerts move through Cricoteka, KTO Theater, the Main Reading Room of the Jagiellonian Library, the Museum of the Home Army, Hevre and the streets of Kraków. Each space is not merely a backdrop, but offers guidance on how to listen and weaves its own story into the music. The programme is also shaped by long-term relationships with artists, ensembles and partner institutions, showing that the festival does not end when the final concert in Kraków comes to a close.

Ultimately, the 2026 edition invites audiences to cross the threshold, choose their own path through the programme, and find their own curiosity. There is no single right way to listen to music, nor one level of proficiency at which contemporary music begins. Independent music, like the festival itself, needs a space where different voices can be heard side by side and where people can listen to one another.