Each year, Le Guess Who? invites guest curators to create their own dedicated programs, highlighting their inspirations, emerging acts and fellow like-minded artists, with an emphasis on discovery and exploration.
The guest curators of Le Guess Who? 2026 are surrelist blues poet aja monet, sound artist KMRU, Los Thuthanaka, founded by siblings Chuquimamani-Condori & Joshua Chuquimia Crampton, and post-apocalyptic acid punk disco scuzzheads Tropical Fuck Storm. In addition to the guest curators' programs, Le Guess Who? presents several special programs as part of its 20th Anniversary edition, including 24 HOUR DUB.
Read more about this year's curated programs & special projects below.
aja monet
aja monet returns to Le Guess Who? after her acclaimed performance in 2024, which was considered a highlight of Arooj Aftab's curation. With her new album the color of rain, she returns both as a performer and curator. A surrealist blues poet, aja monet follows in the footsteps of a long tradition of poets dedicated to social movements for change. For Le Guess Who? 2026, she curates a program that explores themes of resistance, love and the inexhaustible quest for joy.
KMRU presents WAI8
Joseph Kamaru, aka KMRU, is a sound artist whose practice is grounded in the discourse of field recording, noise and sound art. At Le Guess Who? 2026, he presents WAI8, an eight-hour durational performance that examines time and attention through the practice of waiting as an active form of engagement. Through noise, silence, drones, rhythm, voice, and waveform, WAI8 explores how sound can stretch, fracture, loop, or dissolve linear time, establishing a framework for sustained listening and temporal immersion. Since its inception in 2023, it has evolved into an open format for solo and collaborative contributions. Its iteration at Le Guess Who? features nine performers, positioning waiting as a space where sound is allowed to breathe, decay and resonate over time.
Los Thuthanaka
Los Thuthanaka, founded by siblings Chuquimamani-Condori and Joshua Chuquimia Crampton, bridges the past, present and future of the mighty Pakajaqui Nation—an Indigenous group from the Andes. Their music is a powerful blend of Andean rhythms, Aymara composition and psychedelic rock. For Le Guess Who? 2026, they curate a program featuring artists who explore Indigenous Andean culture and translate it into contemporary experimental, electronic and psychedelic forms.
Tropical Fuck Storm
Post-apocalyptic acid punk disco scuzzheads Tropical Fuck Storm return to Le Guess Who? for a guest curation that feels like a homecoming. When asked to select artists for this year's edition, they went, as they put it, "a little wild". They've curated a sonically diverse mix featuring longtime musical inspirations, friends and collaborators; artists that they've met on the road, and acts that they've been eager to see live.
24 HOUR DUB
24 HOUR DUB is a 24-hour session of continuous dub sounds from 4PM on Saturday 7, November, through 4PM on Sunday 8, November, at Utrecht's KABUL à GoGo. The program brings together pioneers, poets, engineers, sound system architects and a new generation of bass explorers. 24 HOUR DUB presents a global overview of dub music: traversing dub’s evolution across continents and scenes, and tracing its history while opening space for its future.
Sounds of Cabo Verde
Sounds of Cabo Verde is a program dedicated to the diversity of Cabo Verde music culture, its traditions and the Cabo Verdean diaspora in the Netherlands on Saturday, 7 November, from 3PM - 10PM, at Utrecht's De Helling. Combining traditional and contemporary sounds, the program brings together internationally renowned legendary artists with local acts and a new generation of musicians.
The program is curated in collaboration with Tabanka Records, a record store and label that serves as a bridge between the past and present of African music, with a strong focus on Lusophone cultures, particularly those of Cabo Verde; and FAROFFA, an organization that keeps the cultures of Cabo Verde and Brasil alive through events centered on rhythm, remembrance and connection.
Curated by WAS.
On Saturday, 7 November, we're joining forces with WAS. for another special club night. Bringing together some of the most adventurous voices in contemporary dance music, the night unfolds across euphoric house, acid, electro and deep psychedelic club sounds.
The program during Le Guess Who? 2026 features Eris Drew & Octo Octa, Hervé and jannah, four artists whose distinct approaches to DJing are rooted in curiosity, adventurous selection and a deep commitment to the dancefloor.
Baltic Rehearsals
Le Guess Who?'s hybrid platform COSMOS presents Baltic Rehearsals, a residency project that celebrates new music from Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn. Initiated by COSMOS Embassy ICRN (Independent Community Radio Network), alongside two of its member stations, Tīrkultūra and IDA, the project brings together four pairs of artists to produce new music; all of whom are deeply connected to the local experimental music scenes of these cities.
The collaborations will unfold as summer residencies, featuring rehearsals, broadcasts and local concerts in each Baltic capital. At the festival, the results can be experienced daily as part of the COSMOS program, through solo and collaborative performances broadcast live via Refuge Worldwide. A compilation album and physical release will follow early next year.
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totally wired
Le Guess Who? and U? team up to present totally wired. Built on shared knowledge and collective energy, this program celebrates DIY culture, the communities that shape it, and the connections forged across borders through local scenes, diasporas and intersections. It features a collective zine launch, a workshop, an exhibition, screenings, a market of local artists and distros, and a line-up connecting different shades of punk and bringing together exciting and loud voices.
totally wired is curated in collaboration with Antipode, Girls to the Front, OCCII and ZALZALA. It takes place on Saturday, 7 November, at dB's in Utrecht and is freely accessible.