20.8 – 24.8.2026

Address: Oil Silo 468 & Kulttuurisauna, Helsinki

Drifts Festival 2026 explores the theme of the oceans as unknown territories. The festival features 42 local and transnational practitioners presenting audiovisual works, live performances, film screenings, talks and an exhibition. The festival is free and open to all.

The ocean is a fluid space of connection and circulation, where bodies, materials, histories, and ecologies continuously transform through relation. Unknown Territories explores how oceans shape cultural imaginaries while critically engaging with histories of trade, extraction, and industrialisation and their lasting impacts on ecological degradation. Across coastlines and the deep sea, memories of migration, struggle, survival, myth, ritual, sonic and oral traditions resonate, revealing the entangled worlds of human and more-than-human life.

Movement. Memory. Entanglement. Sensory encounter.

You can find the full programme of the festival here.

Participants:

Mikko Niemistö, Miia Autio, Lau Rämö, Tomoko Sauvage, Laure Prouvost, Anna Pehrsson, Perila, Anna Torkkel, An Yuri, Nastja Säde Rönkkö, Invisible Flock, Emilija Škarnulytė, TAL & Murrettumeri, Alif Hilal (fka Lyra Pramuk), Maija Hirvanen & Tatu Nenonen, Minnae-Kaisa Kallinen, Maria Ångerman, Grand River, Sonia Levy, Risto-Pekka Blom, Henriikka Himma & Kaisa Karvinen, Evita Manji, K’u’um Collective, Louis Henderson, Saban Ramadani, Ana Vaz, Hezen, KMRU, Milka Luhtaniemi, Sini Silver, Alba Ala-Pietilä, Elena Sulin & f rizzo, Maria Matinmikko & Jari Koho, Marja Ahti and Väinö Karjalainen

From 2025 to 2027, Drifts Festival is presented in collaboration with the Saastamoinen Foundation. 2026 Partners: Kulttuurisauna, Nordic Culture Point, Finnish Institute UK & Ireland, Goethe-Institut Finnland, Finnish Institute Germany, AV-Arkki, Upnode, N.E.R.D.S. Supported by: Finnish Cultural Foundation, City of Helsinki, Oskar Öflund Foundation, Nordic Culture Fund, and 1664.