Performances by Einstürzende Neubauten, Frankie and the Witch Fingers, and Joshua Idehen. Shows by Babymorocco and Allarme. Ludzie Wschodu peforming the classic Polish post-punk album Nowa Aleksandria. There’s plenty of reasons to come to the OFF Festival August 7–9, including an invitation from us and a recommendation from the BBC!
Previous editions of the OFF Festival have made it onto Time magazine’s list of the world’s best festivals and the Guardian’s list of Europe’s top festivals. OFF lineups have garnered praise from the New Music Express and Clash. And this year’s edition comes recommended by the BBC: “The OFF Festival has made it onto a list of seven festivals around the world that are worth visiting – or in fact experiencing – this summer! As the author of the list correctly notes, the OFF Festival and the UNESCO Music City of Katowice offer an extraordinary experience. We’ll be waiting for you here, along with the latest batch of artists we’re announcing today,” says Artur Rojek, Artistic Director of the OFF Festival.
Einstürzende Neubauten
Industrial rock’s German fathers are no longer in the business of wrecking stages or crafting instruments out of tools and scrap metal, but their music continues to defy audience expectatiions. Einstürzende Neubauten’s uncompromising take on music and performance has made them one of the world’s most influential alternative acts. They were preceded by the likes of Kraftwerk, Neu!, and Can, and followed by Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, and Swans. 46 years on from their founding, they continue to inspire artists and cross one boundary after another. “In another solar system, Einstürzende Neubauten would be as famous as The Beatles are in ours,” says frontman Blixa Bargeld. On their most recent release, 2024’s Rampen: APM (Alien Pop Music), Blixa and the band share their vision of pop for niche listeners. This is one OFF show you can’t miss!
Frankie and the Witch Fingers
Lots of dancing. Lots of sweat. Two things you can expect to see at a Frankie and the Witch Fingers show. Someone once described them as Devo on steroids. Their latest album, Trash Classics, has been called twisted, explosive, and insane. Originally from Bloomington, Indiana, they’ve taken up residence in Los Angeles but have a soft spot for Seattle – home to the legendary radio station KEXP, where they recorded a live show in 2025. It’s perfect fodder to whet your appetite for this August’s show. Frankie and the Witch Fingers have been performing since 2013, but they’re coming to Poland at the top of their game. They broadened their sound, adding keyboards to their guitars and sounding more powerful ever. But what’s even more interesting is their unique vision of the modern world. It’s as if they’re trying to say: come, let’s sit atop our plastic avalanche and celebrate together. You’re not going to say no, are you?
Joshua Idehen
It all started with the Dizzee Rascal track “Vexed.” Joshua Idehen heard it and was left entranced, feeling like he wanted to pour out his emotions in much the same way. He’d spent years on the spoken-word circuit, performing in a series of London-based projects. He’d also ventured beyond the local scene, making appearances on records by Daedalus, Metronomy, and The Comet is Coming, and opening for Baxter Dury. Then, in 2026, he was hailed the new discovery and audience favorite at the Eurosonic showcase festival. Joshua Idehen, whose heart beats as strongly for poetry and the spoken word as it does for dance music, is releasing his debut LP, I Know You’re Hurting, Everyone Is Hurting, Everyone Is Trying, You Have Got to Try, this spring. We can’t wait to hear that new material live at the OFF Festival. The record opens with the titular question: “You Wanna Dance or What?” But we know it’s purely rhetorical, don’t we?
Babymorocco
Hands up if you’re one of those people who like to roll up to the function wearing a tracksuit or a swimsuit. Babymorocco’s going to have a lot of love for you at the OFF Festival. Recording under the musical tutelage of Frost Children, he released the banger-heavy LP Amour in 2024, which he himself describes as an attempt to write the sexiest music in the world. Clash magazine soon hailed him a “future pop innovator.” Long story short: this is an artist you’ll want to explore! A live encounter with Babymorocco is a euphoric trip through a multicolored world pulsing to an insane beat: early 2000s dance, French electro, 2-step, happy hardcore… and only Babymorocco know what else he’ll surprise us with in Katowice.
Allarme
The got together to play chaotic, untamed music, with a love for oddities and noise: post punk, noise, and no wave, with hints of jazz and Afrobeat. They borrowed a phrase from the cult Polish punk band Ewa Braun – “Love, Peace, Noise” – and put it into practice at their live shows, which are excellent, as audiences in Poland and abroad can confirm. They toured Europe in 2025, playing alongside the American act Shearling, and now in 2026 we’ll see them at the OFF Festival. Warsaw’s Allarme is now running experimental sessions with different musicians and instruments, taking a page from the Fire! Orchestra cookbook. Wherever they end up, we’ll be waiting for a “short circuit” – to quote one of their tracks – at the OFF Festival.
Ludzie Wschodu perform Nowa Aleksandria
It’s one of the most celebrated records in Polish music history and in the life of Jurek Sienkiewicz of the band Allarme. 40 years after its release, Siekiera’s Nowa Aleksandria will be performed live at the OFF Festival – just once, and only here, in a unique arrangement. Ludzie Wschodu, which takes its name from a track on the legendary album, features members of Allarme and guests who hear much more on the 1986 LP than meets the ear. “This album is rich in subtlety and tiny details that, to me, are the essence of Siekiera’s music. There have been a few tributes and attempts to showcase this album, but we want to do it justice and really play it,” says Allarme’s frontman. See you August 7–9 at the OFF Festival!
