On July2, experimental music festival Skaņu Mežs will hold an exclusive mini-edition in the city of Liepāja, featuring musical acts and sound artists from Latvia, Japan, Norway, United Kingdom, Sweden and Germany.
Music journalist Tom Service of BBC3 says the following: “Skaņu Mežs casts its net as generously as possible over the vast and thrilling terrains of new musicmaking.”
Skaņu Mežs has twice been hailed by The Wire Magazine as the biggest experimental and avant-garde music festival in the Baltic states.
Seeing as all forms of modern music have an experimental dimension, there is always a wide variety of musical genres represented at the festival – from electro-acoustic music, free improvisation, contemporary composition and noise to interesting shifts in dance music, hip-hop and rock or metal.
“Skaņu Mežs” in Liepāja is being implemented within the framework of the “Liepāja 2027” programme, using funding provided by the Ministry of Culture, the City of Liepāja, and the municipalities of South Kurzeme and Kuldīga. The “Liepāja 2027” programme is supported by its main partner in environmental education and sustainability, “CleanR Group”, its main partner in mobility and international communication, “airBaltic Corporation”, and its mobility partner, the transport operator “Lux Express Latvia”.
More information about tickets, venue and additional artists will be announced in the fall.
On 11 April, Liepāja 2027 will take to the stage at Tallinn Music Week 2026’s City Stage to present the concept of Liepāja – European Capital of Culture 2027: (un)rest.
With this open call for artists to participate in the exhibition and symposium, the association “ASTE. Art, Science, Technology, Education” launches the project “ElektrON – The Future of Amber”, interpreting the heritage of amber—along with the future potential of other fossil materials—through a symbiosis of art and science, within the programme “Liepāja – European Capital of Culture 2027”. Applications to participate in the project can be submitted by 23:59 on 19 April.
The residency “Notes on the Margins” is now open for applications from creative practitioners, inviting them to engage in the exploration and development of the local cultural landscape.. Application period: 1 April to 13 May 2026.