Xciting Festival No. 8

The Xciting Festival will take place on September 11 and 12, 2026, at the Projektraum. Now in its eighth edition, the festival is more extensive than ever before and, in times of cultural and political budget cuts, stands as a beacon of artistic diversity and international networking.

xciting-festival.com

Over two days and one night, the program unfolds across club culture, concerts, and sound art. Experimental forms of hip-hop and techno meet noise, electroacoustics, and contemporary music, complemented by historical and traditional instruments such as the spinet, bagpipes, and hurdy-gurdy. Different musical systems overlap to create an open listening space where cultural and stylistic boundaries become permeable. For the first time, compositions of New Music are also part of the festival program. They are by the Swiss musician and composer Alex Buess and mark a programmatic expansion of the festival.

Among the special guests would have been the New York rapper Sensational, a key figure in experimental hip-hop who has radically expanded the genre’s possibilities since the 1990s—had he not died completely unexpectedly a few weeks before the festival. As a tribute, the film *Crooked* by Skiz Fernando will be screened—a unique historical document in which Sensational plays himself.

With Sote & Tarik Barri, electroacoustic composition meets real-time 3D visuals: In their collaborative work, immersive audiovisual spaces emerge that oscillate between beauty, isolation, and controlled overwhelm.

Swiss pianist and composer Jacques Demierre offers an unusual perspective on musical tradition. Under his hands, his amplified 18th-century spinet transforms into a source of delicate sounds, resonances, and percussive structures.

The return of Alex Cortex also promises to be a special festival moment; after years of near-total musical absence, he will present a rare live set blending ambient, IDM, and techno. Featuring artists from the U.S., Iran, and numerous European countries, the festival brings international voices to Stuttgart that are rarely heard here—or are being presented for the very first time. This year’s program features noise, improvisation, experimental club music, and sound art, with performances by Maria Bertel, Lise Barkas, Grischa Lichtenberger & Qba Janicki, Madteo, Psychic Defence, and Liminal Resonatrix ft. Nicola Romanò.

Program

Day 1:
Jacques Demierre
Grischa Lichtenberger&Qba Janicki
Maria Bertel
Alex Buess: SSSSOSCHHHH!!,
Metenfes

Day 2:
Crooked: A Tribute to Sensational
Alex Cortex
Sote & Tarik Barri: Majestic Noise
Liminal Resonatrix feat. Nicola Romanò
Psychic Defence
Lise Barkas
Madteo