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«Backslash Festival 2026»

MusicDancePerformanceParty

Two nights in which the boundaries between performances, live electronic acts and club culture are blurred.

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  • Fri 02/1020:00 – 01:00

    Nordflügel, Südbühne, Halle Ost, Halle West, Stall 6

  • Sat 03/1020:00 – 06:00

    Nordflügel, Südbühne, Halle Ost, Halle West, Stall 6

The Backslash Festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a curated programme of live acts, performance art, DJ sets and visual interventions on Gessnerallee. Copyright: Backslash, Festival Design: Moritz Furger & Romain Salomon

The Backslash Festival presents a carefully curated selection of live electronic acts, performances, DJ sets and visual interventions. Over the course of two long evenings, 25 artists from the international, national and local scenes will take over the spaces at Gessnerallee and bring them to life in a variety of ways. The result is a captivating atmosphere that invites you to stay until dawn.

Since 2016, the Backslash Festival has been presenting artistic projects at the intersection of performing arts, club culture and visual arts. The focus is on works that transcend disciplines and create aesthetic and formal synergies.

Information on accessibility and language

  • Step-free Access

  • Age: For ages 18 and up

  • Awareness: An awareness team will be on site throughout the whole event. A safe space is provided as a place of retreat.

  • Sound: Up to 100 decibel. Earplugs are available at the ticket office.

  • Other sensory stimuli: Haze is used in Halle and Nordflügel.

  • As the festival is still in preparation, more information on the accessibility of the festival will be released closer to the date.

  • For sold-out performances, we reserve a small number of accessible seats (wheelchair spaces and beanbags). We ask that anyone requiring accessibility support contact kasse@gessnerallee.ch.

  • The Backslash Festival has been running since 2016.

    It is a major event.

    The festival lasts for two evenings.

    The festival showcases a variety of art forms.

    There is dance and music, just like in clubs.

    There are DJ sets, live music and performances.

    There are also colourful visuals and lights.

    25 artists are showcasing their work.

    They come from different countries and cities.

    Some of them are also from Zurich.

  • Artistic Direction & Concept, Co-Curation Programme:
    Alexandre Gaeng
    Production & Co-Curation Programme:
    Emmanuel Küng
    Residency & Co-Curation Programme:
    Stella Cristiana
    Residency & Co-Curation Programme, Communication:
    Laura-Maria Drage
    Management & Co-Curation Programme:
    Jonatan Niedrig
    Technical Director:
    Emiliano Larrea
    Scenography:
    Yu ɛŋɬɛཞ & Jehane

  • Backslash Festival is rooted in contemporary practices across live and experimental electronic music, performing arts and club culture. It approaches sound not as an isolated medium, but as something entangled with bodies, images, codes, and spatial conditions. Performance unfolds as a situation, constructed, unstable, and shared.

    Curatorially, the festival follows a process-oriented approach. Categories such as club music, composition, performance or audiovisual art function as points of departure rather than definitions. They offer temporary orientation, while remaining open to distortion and overlap. Genres gradually erode through shifts in duration, intensity, spatial arrangement, and performative presence.

    Each edition gathers artists working across formats, from live sets and performances to installations and collaborative projects. Some works appear for the first time, others take shape specifically in relation to the festival’s context.

    Backslash Festival exists in a liminal space between a club night, a contemporary theatre and a niche concert program, without fully settling into any of them. It pays attention not only to how creations are made, but also to how they are experienced — physically, collectively, and in relation to its surroundings.

    For two nights, the festival builds a temporary environment for encounter and transformation. A space where practices intersect, expectations shift, and where people move, lose focus and find it again. Nothing fully locks into place, and that’s kind of the point.

    Since 2016, the transdisciplinary Backslash Festival has been presenting works that move between and beyond performing arts, club culture and visual arts. The festival is organised by the non-profit association Tokyo Data Collective, in co-production with the Theater Gessnerallee.

More Shows

To the programme overview