Strasbourg is set to become a laboratory for contemporary European performance as the Festival Premières returns from November 6 to 14, 2026. Eschewing established headliners, the festival focuses exclusively on artists fresh out of arts academies who operate with limited budgets and untried writing methods. Curated by Barbara Engelhardt, director of Le Maillon, the event has championed artists from overlooked regions since its inception in 2005.
“The young generation does not have the same working conditions everywhere,” Engelhardt said. “Each spectacle reflects another socioeconomic and artistic reality. That is what is interesting for a festival on a European scale.” While the program imposes no single theme, recurring motifs emerge around financial precarity, political polarization, and ecological urgency.
The opening weekend kicks off on November 6 with dual performances at 7 p.m. At Le Maillon, the intercultural collective What about: fuego will present Sie wachen über dich (“They are watching you”), blending digital daily routines with the histories of their grandmothers under state surveillance, drawing parallels from East Germany to Pinochet’s Chile. Simultaneously at the Higher Arts School of the Rhine (HEAR), Italian creators Alice and Davide Sinigaglia will stage Concerto fetido su quattro zampe (“Stinking concert on four paws”), using human-canine shifts, slam poetry, drums, and synthesizers to examine society from an animal perspective.
Later that evening at Le Maillon, Chilean author-poet Nicolás Lange presents The Killing of The First Person, invoking 15th-century Florentine bonfires to dissolve the theatrical ego. The opening night concludes with a communal banquet where artists and audiences share brought dishes, followed by a Saturday DJ set by Ananda Jade.
The festival’s second week centers on the theme of legacy. On November 10 and 11, Franco-Haitian artist Mackenzy Bergile explores colonial and familial history through movement, costume, and music in Autothérapie. Bergile will participate in an on-stage discussion on November 11 with director Léa Sery. A graduate of the Strasbourg National Theatre School (TNS), Sery makes her directorial debut with Afropéennes, co-produced by Le Maillon and staged at La Pokop from November 12 to 14. Born to a French mother and an Ivorian father, Sery performs alongside her sister Koïsso, a dancer, accompanied by the marimba in both French and Bété, addressing buried heritage and encounters with racism.
Simultaneously at Le Maillon, Finnish creator Pauli Patinen—who won an award at Germany’s Fast Forward festival in 2025—presents Steal This Performance, examining art history as a practice of borrowing and the stage as a cabinet of curiosities. The festival’s final Saturday on November 14 packs in performances, a roundtable discussion titled “Histories of Inheritances,” and an open-mic closing session.
Festival organizers emphasize the event’s role as a career launchpad, noting that past participants like Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó have gone on to international success. As in previous years, a jury of ten students recruited by the Théâtre de la Cité internationale in Paris will select a laureate to be programmed in the capital next season.
“When we take this little journey as spectators, we sharpen our gaze on the living conditions of these artists: what inspires them, what they oppose, what they resist,” Engelhardt said, offering simple advice to attendees: “A festival is always intense but also festive; you have to let yourself be carried along and surprised.”
