Audience at a live event, seen from the back, with green and blue stage lights illuminating a sign that reads

Activism on Stage – 3 Case Studies (DE, HU, DK)

How can Festivals take on their responsibility as a platform for hundreds & thousands of their visitors and provide room for activism on the topics of diversity and inclusion? 

In the past years (and in some cases long before), activistic performances, talks and interviews have been more common on festival stages and grounds across Europe. Festivals use their reach and the emotionalised state of their visitors to place societal themes and subjects within their line-ups and activities – be it climate change, political affairs or the perspectives and struggles of marginalised groups. 


Anti-racism on the main stage

Tupoka Ogette held a keynote called “Thinking critically about racism” (German: “Rassismuskritisch denken lernen”) on the main stage of Munich Superbloom Festival. On that day in 2022, she joined a running order with the likes of Zoe Wees, Macklemore, and David Guetta. Before her talk, the speaker and best-selling author of “exit RACISM” explained: “I’m looking forward to participating in Superbloom, because I find the format of bringing music and socially critical topics together extremely interesting.”

Activist Tupoka Ogette wearing a black hoodie and decorative earrings speaking in an indoor setting with a colorful "Super Bloom" graphic border.
© Superbloom | Activist Tupoka Ogette

40,000 festival visitors attended the keynote. For the organisers, it’s important to think of the event as “more than music” – as a space where people can experience and learn about topics beyond just enjoying concerts. In addition to Ogette’s main stage keynote (which was succeeded by a talk from author and journalist Düzen Tekkal in 2023), Superbloom has created an entire area, together with Take a Stand, called “Your Planet.” It is dedicated to NGOs, initiatives, organisations and associations presenting their social and/or green projects and visions of a better future. The only condition: the participating organisations have to bring a fun activity to convey their ideas in an interactive way that is likely to make a lasting impact on the visitors.

Superbloom facts:


Refugees welcome

The Spanish arts collective Kamchàtka was invited to perform at Hungarian Sziget Festival in 2022. Sziget, known for its international headliners and attendees, also focuses on bringing current social events and problems closer to their visitors. Similar to Superbloom, it dedicates areas to activism and offers slots in between musical acts to activists. 

“So many people are currently forced to leave their homes because of war, global warming, famine or lack of opportunities,” their programming director, Jòszef Kardos, said. The organisers wanted to raise awareness of how dangerous it is to abandon your home country to flee to Europe. With the performance “Liberandum,” which took place just before Holly Humberstone’s set on the festival’s main stage, Kamchàtka paid homage to those who had the courage “to leave the familiar behind and move on, striving for a better world […]. Dedicated to all those who lost their lives due to our terrible migration policies in the Mediterranean Sea.” 

Various handwritten notes and letters clipped onto red strings with clothespins.
© Till Petersen / Sziget Festival

Kardos explained that human rights and speaking out against racism, homophobia and xenophobia have been a part of Sziget’s identity since its first edition. The organisers realise the responsibility they have to help build a sustainable and welcoming future for all. A responsibility they take on for their visitors, but also for those following them online.

Sziget facts:


Activism in all its colours

Roskilde Festival has been a frontrunner of promoting activist topics for many years. It has provided platforms for marginalised communities such as LGBTQIA+ at its Flokkr stage (read more about it here), put an interview with whistleblower Chelsea Manning on a prominent stage and let activism and political topics seep through all parts of the festival. 

In between concerts, a message on the screens next to the stages greets the waiting concert crowd: “We welcome all sexualities, ethnicities and genders. We don’t assume genders, pronouns and backgrounds. We build our community together.” These words create awareness on our behaviour in the easiest way possible – by confronting everyone at the festival with these topics at any given time, without judgement, but by building a sense of community within the crowd.

Crowd of people at an event with a sign above that says, "We welcome all sexualities, ethnicities and genders," under colorful stage lights.
© Isabel Roudsarabi / Roskilde Festival

In their press kit, Roskilde describes its approach: “Our goal is to learn and to inspire decision-making and active participation in creating change to further equality in the world. The change that is local, that starts with the individual person and the change that is created in the community and reaching further out.”

They don’t see themselves as party-political, but value-political, meaning they don’t endorse any one political party, but, through working with national and international partners and organisations, the festival merges art and values with differing perspectives.

Get inspired by more stories from Roskilde Festival.

Roskilde facts:


Creating Spaces

What do these examples have in common? Festivals, which are creating room for social themes. And not just behind the scenes, in their production or as a single talk on a 6-day event – but as disruptive or seamlessly inserted performances, works of art and moments, that also reach people not actively looking to engage in topics like this. 

These stories illustrate how easy it is to incorporate values like gender and sexual equality, anti-racism and inclusion into a festival’s identity and communication – simply by making room for activists working with these themes and not putting them on the sidelines, but letting them become a natural part of the programming.