PUBLISHED January 8th, 2026 11:37 pm
In a city that has quietly become one of Europe’s most porous cultural meeting points, Parallel Society arrives with a premise that feels considered rather than overstated. Set in Lisbon, Portugal, the two-day festival brings together music, art, and technology not as separate pillars, but as overlapping ways of thinking about how culture is made and shared today.
Rather than positioning itself as another large-scale destination event, Parallel Society reads more like a gathering: one that’s curious about systems, sound, and community, and how these ideas evolve when placed side by side. It’s a format that suits Lisbon well. Long a port city shaped by migration, trade, and diaspora, the city’s contemporary cultural life thrives on hybridity between local and global, analogue and digital, underground and institutional.
Day 1 sets the conceptual tone, focusing on dialogue and exchange across disciplines. The conference programme leans into conversations around emerging technologies, creative practice, and the infrastructures that shape cultural production today. It’s not framed as futurism for its own sake, but as a space to slow down and look critically at how tools, platforms, and networks are influencing the way we live and create. For audiences interested in the intersections of tech, art, and society, this first day functions as a grounding point. Reflective, exploratory, and deliberately human in scale.
Where Day 1 opens the conversation, Day 2 shifts the energy toward sound, anchoring the festival with a music programme that feels both intentional and expansive. The lineup brings together international figures whose work has shaped electronic and experimental music over decades, alongside Portuguese artists who reflect Lisbon’s own evolving sonic identity.
At the centre is Apparat (Live), presenting new material from A Hum of Maybe in its first-ever performance in Portugal. Known for moving fluidly between restrained techno, emotive electronica, and orchestral pop, his live sets tend to reward attention rather than demand it, an approach that aligns closely with the festival’s ethos.
Gilles Peterson brings a different kind of lineage. As a DJ, broadcaster, and curator whose influence stretches back to the 1980s, his presence signals an understanding of dance music as cultural history, shaped by jazz, soul, broken beat, and global rhythms, rather than confined to genre silos.
The programme also includes Calibre, whose rare live appearance will resonate with anyone familiar with the emotional depth he’s brought to drum and bass and downtempo over the years. Kode9, founder of Hyperdub and a key thinker in global bass culture, adds an intellectual edge, while Moses Boyd bridges jazz, grime, and Afrofuturism with a live show built around Songs for Sinner, his latest release. Completing the international roster, Clark (AV) presents a new audiovisual performance that blurs the line between club energy and abstract composition.
Importantly, the festival doesn’t frame international acts as the sole focal point. The Portuguese lineup reflects the texture of Lisbon’s local and diaspora-driven scenes, with artists like Maria Amor & Shcuro (Disco Paraíso), Chima Isaaro, Afrojamslx (live), Nelson Makossa, and Collective Unconscious (AV). Together, they highlight a city where sound is shaped as much by migration and collaboration as by geography.
Parallel Society is also co-curated with a coalition of Lisbon-based cultural organisations, drawing directly from local communities rather than treating the city as a neutral backdrop. This collaborative approach is subtle but significant, reinforcing the idea that festivals can act as platforms for connection, not just consumption.
For those drawn to thoughtful programming across music, art, and technology, Parallel Society Festival offers something refreshing: a cultural moment that values context as much as content.
Learn more or register for tickets, visit ps.logos.co. Parallel Society is happening on 6 and 7 March 2026 at Rua Pereira Henriques 1 Space 11F, 1950-242 Lisbon, Portugal.