Outer Waves 2026: Liverpool’s Experimental Arts Festival Returns — May 23–24, 2026
Following an acclaimed debut in 2025, Outer Waves Festival returns to Liverpool this spring for its second edition, taking place May 23–24, 2026, across Invisible Wind Factory and Make North Docks.
Outer Waves is a weekend of boundary-pushing sound, performance, and art — a gathering for the curious and the sonically adventurous. This year’s programme brings together an international roster of artists exploring ritual, rhythm, and raw emotion in all their forms.
The 2026 lineup features OXN (featuring Radie Peat of Lankum), weaving Irish folk mysticism through droning electronics; Dame Area, the Catalan duo known for their percussive industrial minimalism; Jarboe & Thor Harris (ex-Swans), two legendary figures of transcendent experimental rock; Waq Waq Kingdom from Japan, fusing psychedelic dance and tribal bass; Syrian musician Mohammad Syfkhan, whose euphoric reinterpretations of Dabke music ignite dance floors; Liverpool art collective a.P.A.t.T., masters of genre-defying chaos; the ever-anarchic Unstoppable Sweeties Show; and Domestic Partners, bringing surreal, queer performance pop.
Beyond the performances, Outer Waves 2026 will host workshops, panel discussions, and art installations, with further details to be announced. As the sun sets, the celebration continues with after-parties at Quarry, featuring guest DJs, live collaborations, and immersive late-night experiences.
On the festival, the organisers comment:
“Outer Waves celebrates the wild, the wonderful, and the weird. It’s a meeting point for those who see art as a form of resistance and transformation — a space where sound and performance collide.”
LINE UP 2026 —>
OXN
ØXN exist at the cosmic intersection of its constituent parts, melding Lankum’s experimental doom folk (Radie Peat), the motorik euphoria of Percolator (John ‘Spud’ Murphy’ & Eleanor Myler) & Katie Kim’s glorious Lynchian meta-verse, to create a sound which exists somewhere between the traditional, the future and the eternal. What began as a side project duo between Radie Peat & Katie Kim in 2018, blossomed into a full-on sonic tapestry with the addition of Myler & Murphy during lockdown, resulting in one of the musical streaming highlights of the Covid era with an unforgettable live performance from the Martello Tower in conjunction with visual artist & Lankum collaborator, Vicky Langan.
In October 2023, ØXN released their debut album ‘CYRM’ on the relaunched Claddagh Records to global critical acclaim, including a five star review as The Guardian Folk Album Of The Month, #4 in The Guardian’s Folk Albums Of 2023 & a five star review in The Irish Times. This is a rare chance to catch ØXN in any form.
DAME AREA
Barcelona’s Dame Area are one of Europe’s most electrifying live acts, having played over 300 shows across major festivals like CTM, Atonal and Nuits Sonores, and iconic venues from Berghain to KEXP. Their latest LP Toda la verdad sobre Dame Area (Mannequin Records) captures the raw energy of their performances—earning Pitchfork’s #2 Rock Album of 2024, The Quietus’ “Record of the Week” and BBC6 rotation. Blending industrial percussion, flamenco polyrhythms, and post-punk edge, Dame Area forge a sound that’s primal, experimental, and unmistakably their own.
JARBOE Featuring THOR HARRIS & JOY VON SPAIN
A rare and powerful collaboration sees avant-garde icon Jarboe joined by Thor Harris (Swans, Shearwater) and Joy von Spain (Eye of Nix) for an unforgettable live performance. Drawing from decades of fearless experimentation, Jarboe’s voice and vision have shaped underground music across continents—from Swans and Neurosis collaborations to festival stages like Roskilde and Roadburn. Together, this trio conjures an immersive world of ritual, rhythm, and raw emotion—bridging art, sound, and spirit in true transformative form.
WAQWAQ KINGDOM
Tokyo-meets-Berlin duo WaqWaq Kingdom fuse Japanese folk, dancehall, and hyperactive electronics into a dazzling technicolour world all their own. Their latest release Dokkoisho celebrates perseverance and self-belief through explosive rhythms, euphoric hooks, and boundary-melting sound design. Featuring collaborators like Andrea Belfi and Seefeel’s Iida Kazuhisa, the record channels both carnival energy and meditative calm. With Kiki Hitomi’s hypnotic vocals and DJ Scotch Egg’s genre-defying production, WaqWaq Kingdom radiate joy, chaos and freedom in equal measure.
MOHAMMAD SYFKHAN
Kurdish-Syrian singer and bouzouki player Mohammad Syfkhan channels a lifetime of experience into ecstatic, joy-filled music that blends Middle Eastern and North African traditions. Now based in Ireland, Mohammad’s performances radiate love, resilience and connection — a testament to music’s power to heal and unite. Having shared stages with artists like Martin Hayes, Cormac Begley and Lankum, and collaborated with Cathal Roche and Eimear Reidy, Syfkhan continues to build bridges between cultures with his uplifting sound and unshakable spirit.
https://nyahhrecords.bandcamp….
a.P.A.t.T.
Liverpool’s genre-defying ensemble a.P.A.t.T. have spent over two decades gleefully dismantling musical boundaries with their chaotic live shows, experimental recordings and multimedia art. With seven albums, countless films and collaborations behind them, the collective continue to blur the lines between the sublime and the ridiculous. Their latest album We (2023) earned Album of the Month and Album of the Year nods from The Quietus, who praised their “attention-intensive music which rewards time spent with it.” Equal parts avant-garde, absurd and exhilarating, a.P.A.t.T. remain one of the UK’s most unpredictable and essential sonic experiences.
UNSTOPPABLE SWEETIES SHOW
Liverpool’s Unstoppable Sweeties Show are an avant-garde punk collective blending chaos, humour and virtuosity in equal measure. Their explosive live sets veer between punk, prog, jazz, noise and absurdist theatre, creating a sound that’s as unpredictable as it is compelling. With albums Tuck: A Town with a Cat Mayor and Bring Kath Her Breamcatcher [the musical] on POSTMUSIC, the Sweeties are gleefully tearing up the rulebook — one bewildering banger at a time.
https://unstoppablesweetiessho…
DOMESTIC PARTNERS
Liverpool trio Domestic Partners forge an electrifying collision of post-punk, avant-jazz and noise rock — blending abrasive synths, sweeping piano lines and propulsive drums into an overwhelming, hypnotic rush. Emerging from the Windmill scene, their performances balance chaos and precision, fury and finesse, creating an energy that’s as confrontational as it is transcendent. Fierce, fearless and impossible to categorise, Domestic Partners are a vital new force in experimental music.
https://www.domesticpartners.u…
About Outer Waves
Founded in 2024, Outer Waves is an independent Liverpool-based festival dedicated to experimental sound, art, and performance. Rooted in collaboration and community, it celebrates the edge of the underground — the artists and audiences who thrive beyond the mainstream.
Venue
Invisible Wind Factory
3 Regent Rd
Liverpool L3 7DS
UK
Liverpool L3 7DS
UK