Festivāls Skaņu mežs 2026

Skaņu mežs un RIGA IFF present: attend both festivals with a 20% discount Music and cinema this October – with a 20% discountTake the opportunity to experience the largest avant-garde music festival in the Baltics and Latvia's leading film event at a discounted price. Purchase a two-day ticket to Skaņu mežs or a RIGA IFF Festival Pass and receive a 20% discount on admission to the other festival. To claim the discount, enter the nine-character code on your ticket or Festival Pass in the discount code field during checkout. More detailed instructions are available here. The number of promotional tickets is limited, and the offer is valid while supplies last. The experimental music festival Skaņu mežs will take place on 9–10 October at Hanzas Perons, featuring two days of contemporary music performances and other special events. Among the most anticipated artists in this year's programme are the Norwegian avant-pop duo Smerz, the American technical black metal band Krallice, free jazz veteran Joe McPhee (this year’s guest of honor), alternative rapper Cities Aviv and many others. Skaņu Mežs has twice been hailed by The Wire Magazine as the biggest experimental music event in the Baltic States. Learn more about the programme and purchase tickets at skanumezs.lv. The Riga International Film Festival (RIGA IFF) will take place from 15 to 25 October. Encouraging audiences to venture beyond the familiar, the festival's 11-day programme will serve as a reliable guide beyond the usual cinema experience, inviting audiences to discover unique stories, vivid emotions, and the highlights of contemporary cinema across more than 100 screenings. The full RIGA IFF programme will be revealed on 15 September, but the first announced films and tickets for selected screenings are already available at rigaiff.lv.See you at Skaņu mežs and RIGA IFF!When purchasing two 2-day tickets in a single order and entering the promo code "PĀRU BIĻETE", the price is EUR 50 per ticket.The price of one 2-day ticket purchased separately is EUR 60. Experimental music festival Skaņu Mežs 2026 Riga’s experimental music festival Skaņu Mežs 2026 will take place on October 9–10 at Hanzas Perons (16A Hanzas Street), featuring such acts as Smerz, Krallice, aya, KMRU, Joe McPhee and many others. About the festival The Wire Magazine, previously having hailed Skaņu Mežs as the biggest avant-garde music festival in the Baltic states, focused the review of its 2025 edition on its informed and open-minded audience: “There is nothing this audience can’t handle,” wrote Daniel Spicer.Last December, British radio station BBC Radio 3 aired a two-hour show, devoted to the festival. Music journalist Tom Service said: “Skaņu Mežs casts its net as generously as possible over the vast and thrilling terrains of new music-making.”Meanwhile, Daryl Worthington of The Quietus described the festival as “a weekend of stunning performances”, “a space of radical sound and vision”, and “a world of deviant and defiant art”.Brief overview of the program Krallice: Krallice is a metal band from New York, USA. They play an experimental, highly technical style of black metal. Krallice was formed by Colin Marston and Mick Barr in 2007. They later recruited Lev Weinstein on drums and Nicholas McMaster on bass and as a second vocalist. "Where there was virtuosity, there was no glibness,” The New York Times wrote of their live performance. Smerz: Smerz is the Norwegian duo of Henriette Motzfeldt and Catharina Stoltenberg, based in Oslo and Copenhagen. Using collages to capture moments of everyday life and dreams, Smerz tell stories lived and imagined – of apathy, loneliness, and internal monologue, love, and friendship. Music criticism website Pitchfork rated their album “Big City Life” 8.6 out of 10, describing it as “so effective that you have to wonder what kind of witchcraft they’re working with”. aya: aya is a human musician from the Pennine region of the North Atlantic. Her work is primarily concerned