Zaratan - Arte Contemporânea

21 Agosto 2026 16h00

FESTIVAL MÚLTIPLO
August 21-22-23, 2026

Admission: 5€ per day
Schedule: from 16:00 to 21:00

In its eighth edition, Festival Múltiplo proposes 3 days of musical performances and artistic interventions. With this annual event, we celebrate the fighting spirit of independent spaces, where diverse species multiply at a rapid pace, against cultural homogenization and outside of commercial and capitalist logic, exclusive clubs, and conventional circuits. In opposition to the typical mass migration to large summer festivals, we propose a small festival made by local agents, which allows us to inhabit the historic center and keep independent projects of high artistic value alive.

Festival Múltiplo 2026 is characterized by a strong component of DIY creative production and involves, in a sustainable and interdisciplinary way, a selection of some of the most interesting artists and agents in the national artistic landscape. It features 12 concerts, the release of 3 multiple-edition artworks, and the launch of 12 posters. It also includes open studios and informal gatherings.

Similar to previous years, the Festival presents a varied panoply of genres and styles, where one can hear projects proposed by prominent independent record labels and promoters in the Portuguese scene: Variz, Colectivo Casa Amarela, 4DaRecord, and Mantrid Drone. The twelve scheduled concerts showcase a diversity of stylistic approaches, with room for free improvisation, electronics, noise, spoken word, and other expressions of exploratory music. We integrate the proposals of the invited labels with artists programmed by Zaratan itself.

Celebrating the freedom of music through its deconstruction and recomposition in real time, the 4DaRecord label proposes concerts with inescapable names of improvised music and jazz, presenting the trio Open Source 3IO, composed of José Menezes (saxophone), João Lencastre (drums), and Hernâni Faustino (double bass); the Portuguese-American encounter Água Doce, Água de Sal, bringing together Rodrigo Brandão (vocals), Rosita Kèss (vocals and guitar), and Brad Jones (double bass); and the Double Double project, an imposing double bass duet between João Madeira and Michael Formanek.

Variz presents proposals focused on experimentation, with the tweezer-equipped electronics, lateralized melodies, and crustacean beats of Caranguejos (a duo formed by Tam and Miguel Sá), the experimental and unconventional electronics of Pedro PMDS, and the compositions and sound collages with a storytelling tone by Joana de Sá.

Colectivo Casa Amarela proposes an immersive journey with alga, the pseudonym of Cláudia Simões, who leads us through a soundscape haunted by spirits and punctuated by spectral voices, the densely textured electronics of Canadian Rifles, and the dense, abrasive, and contemplative textures of composer Jerome Faria.

Mantrid Drone presents the death industrial and harsh noise of Formidolor.

Zaratan complements the musical program with the audiovisual project that crosses post-rock and art-punk by Musgos, and the indie-rock and spoken word intervention sounds of Llama Virgem.

To cleanse the auditory palate, the concerts are interspersed with the playlists of invited non-DJs, who propose a musical sharing with assorted tastes: Folin Carrell, Sunga Chunga Leopardo, and Xerox.

During the festival, we present 3 new limited-edition artworks, with one launch per day, resulting from collaborations with artists who have exhibited at Zaratan this year and in previous years: Filipa Almeida, Carlota Jardim, and Leal Veileby. In the gallery, we present these unreleased editions, which function as an extension of their solo exhibitions.

The musical program is accompanied by a specific project of graphic editions printed in risography in collaboration with Stolen Prints, where visual artists are invited to create an original artwork inspired by the sound of each band performing during the festival. The 12 posters are created by Sara & André, José Smith Vargas, and João Campolargo Teixeira.

Over the 3 days, we also open the studios upstairs in the gallery to present the research of international artists Nata Chebarkova and Daniel Onofreichk-Demyan, who are part of the international residency program during the month of August.

Festival Múltiplo has a limited capacity of 60 people per day, and admission is 5 euros per day/person, which reverts as a donation to the association. We do not accept pre-reservations, come early!

CONCERT SCHEDULE:

PARTNERS | Colectivo Casa Amarela, 4DaRecord, Variz, Mantrid Drone, Stolen Prints

SUPPORT | República Portuguesa – Cultura, Juventude e Desporto / Direção-Geral das Artes