5th AżTak Festival in Warsaw

The summer celebration of contemporary music in Warsaw—the 5th AżTak Festival, hosted by Hashtag Ensemble—will take place from June 25 to July 4, 2026, under the theme "Obsession." The program will feature concerts, an installation, performances, an opera premiere, a film screening, artist talks, and an initiative for children. Admission to most events will be free.

"As both observers and participants, we will experience the process that affects us all today, more or less consciously: we experience fascinations, becoming addicted, overstimulated, and attempting to excessively control ourselves and others. The vicious cycle: IMPULSE – AMOK – EXHAUSTION forms the backbone of this year's festival," announce the organizers.

The festival will open with the exhibition vernissage of Mat Kubaj—a visual artist, painter, and performer—entitled "Rooms of Obsession" at the B383 micro-gallery. Following the opening at Hashtag Lab, the music of the festival’s composer-in-residence, Tomasz Prasqual, will be heard for the first time. In his String Quartet "Udaya"—an ascetic performance—sound, movement, and words will intertwine into a symbolic tale of relationships and their gradual erosion. The first festival evening will conclude with an extraordinary "three-composer" premiere: Tymoteusz Bies, Jacek Bies, and Adam Jędrysik, together with Hashtag Ensemble, will perform the world premiere of Recursions.

During the second day of the festival, the vernissage of Aleksandra Ołdak's installation titled Noise for Burnout will take place at the Stroboskop ArtSpace gallery.

On June 27, Hashtag Ensemble will present pieces in which obsession can be viewed from various perspectives—both as a driving force for action and as a source of isolation from the world. Wojtek Błażejczyk's Network Music addresses the alienation of seemingly interconnected people. Meanwhile, three distinct models of the relationship between the human body, technology, matter, and the environment will be observed in composer Asmati Chibalashvili's piece Protocols of coexistence, which will be presented to the audience for the first time. That same evening, we will learn the cost of musical obsession in the documentary film Bloody Daughter by Stéphanie Argerich, daughter of the brilliant pianist.

The premiere of Tomasz Prasqual's chamber opera only Love can break your Heart will take place on July 3 at TR Warszawa. The opera centers on the experiences of marginalized individuals and proposes musical theater as a space to rethink intimacy: it blends the poetry of Gaspara Stampa, a 16th-century Venetian poet and one of the first women in European literature, with texts by Logan February, a contemporary poet from Nigeria.

The program will also include an event for children: the world premiere of the nocturne Moths and Us (Ćmy i my) by Przemysław Pacek, based on a libretto by Ania Szawiel, which introduces scientific facts regarding the habits of these delicate creatures. A personified figure of a moth will appear in the form of a theatrical puppet, and the audience, equipped with flashlights, will have a real impact on the soundscape of the event. "The piece will utilize musique concrète, such as recordings of moth wings beating against various surfaces, ultrasounds, and the sounds of bat wings," explains the composer.

Free admission, registration or free passes required. The number of seats is limited. Tickets for the event at TR Warszawa are priced at 60 PLN.

The Hashtag Lab Contemporary Music Space is co-funded by the Capital City of Warsaw.

Co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund as part of the "Music" program, implemented by the National Institute of Music and Dance.

The media patron of the Hashtag Lab Contemporary Music Space is the Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Detailed program: https://hashtaglab.pl/event/5-aztak-festiwal-obsesje/