ZAMEK Culture Centre

ETHNO PORT 2025 – 18th EDITION OF THE FESTIVAL

Music that brings worlds together

Dear Friends of Ethno Port!

For eighteen years now, Ethno Port has resounded in the heart of Poznań, creating a space where the sounds transcend boundaries and traditions intertwine with the present day. During the festival, ZAMEK Culture Centre and the neighbouring Adam Mickiewicz Park become filled to the brim with diverse music and colours. The festival celebrates music, but it is also a meeting of cultures, histories and emotions inscribed in the rhythms, melodies and voices of artists from all over the world. Without fail, the Festival’s audience—friendly, faithful, sensitive and eager for musical discoveries—are always there so it may all happen.

This year’s edition brings a kaleidoscope of sounds from across the globe as well as continues the Listen to the World programme. Over the four days of the Festival, we are going to listen to music that both draws on the earliest traditions and goes for bold experimentation, combining ethnic sounds with a contemporary perspective. We will experience the energy of the Balkans and Central Europe, whose elemental rhythms, raw sound and hypnotic power translate into irresistible urge to dance. At the concerts, we will also get the taste of the Nordic soundscapes, with the melancholic, austere and yet incredibly deep tonalities of the north. The mesmerizing sounds of traditional instruments will transport us to the world of Nordic mythology and nature.

This year, we will also host artists from the Middle East and Anatolia, which promises an encounter with mystical melodies, rich ornamentation and unusual harmonies. A truckload of energy is also coming straight from Kinshasa: a consignment of wild, pulsating and extremely colourful music. Trance-like, ritual tunes and modern runaway sounds of the African urban music will fill the centre of Poznań. With subtlety and spellbinding harmony, artists from Japan will give us the Far East experience that blends finesse, vividness of expression and spiritual depth. This music opens up to another dimension, somewhere between meditation and ecstatic daze.

The Festival will not lack Polish music and reinterpretations of its traditions, as the native sounds are given completely new guises. From daring experiments and contemporary arrangements to the raw, primal power of folk music—it will all be there. The bands playing on Ethno Port stages will show us how multidimensional our musical roots can be; we will discover projects which combine traditional instruments with modern sound, minimalist approach to composition and unusual arrangements.

The music of Ethno Port defies categorizations, unfolding thoroughly new and surprising soundscapes where tradition meets the avant-garde.

Next to live performances, the Festival is also a place of encounter and conversation, a venue where experiences may be exchanged. The workshops and meetings with artists will enable you to immerse yourself deeper into the world of sounds, learn about unknown traditions and discover the stories behind the music. Also, film screenings, meetings and discussion panels is how we respond to the current social and cultural issues that our world has to face. As every year, Ethno Port comes with Little Ethno: a range of animations and workshops for children and young people. Meanwhile, in the Grand Hall, you can see an exhibition of photographs recounting the rich history of the Festival.

Over the past eighteen years, Ethno Port has become a space where diversity is valued and music is a living language that brings people together. We are grateful for your trust and hope you will join us on this journey yet again. Let us open ourselves to the sounds that transcend all human-made frontiers and build bridges between cultures!

Bożena Szota

Director, Ethno Port Festival