From 3 to 6 September, contemporary city festival AUDRA will sweep through Kaunas for the fifth time. Part of its programme will be a gift to residents and visitors alike: on Thursday, the festival will open with free music and an exhibition launch, while on Saturday the area around the Pergalė factory will host free concerts by ba., Garbanotas, shishi and other artists, alongside daytime dancing.

“The free programme is our gift to Kaunas and an invitation for the whole city to step into a different rhythm of everyday life. We want everyone to be able to experience AUDRA – even if they drop by spontaneously, without a ticket or a plan,” say the festival organisers.

The free festival route begins on Thursday, 3 September, in two Kaunas locations at once. From 6 pm until late, electronic music will fill the courtyard of the M. Žilinskas Art Gallery, with the spotlight on the festival’s friends from Berlin – community radio station Refuge Worldwide.

The programme will feature eioo, Pletnev, Fundamental and Lithuanian duo Monika Seta x Interiors. One of the evening’s highlights will be a joint live performance by Dominican artist Paul St. Hilaire, better known as Tikiman, and Refuge Worldwide founder Richard Akingbehin.

On Thursday at 6 pm, the Pergalė factory will also host a free opening event for an international exhibition. Curated by the Berlin-based collective MOLT, the exhibition will spread works by Lithuanian and international artists across the floors, corridors and rooms of the former metal factory. There will be no predetermined route – visitors will have to find their own way through the exhibition.

Later that evening, at 8.30 pm, the programme will continue with a screening of a work by Italian interdisciplinary artist Valentina Parati, followed at 9 pm by Lithuanian artist Paulius Janušonis, whose practice explores consciousness, mortality and human identity shaped by technology.

Music around the Pergalė factory

The second major part of the free programme arrives on Saturday, 5 September. During the day, the festival will spill out of the enclosed spaces of the Pergalė factory into its courtyard and crane track, where the LRT Opus live music stage will operate, while part of the action will move to bar Upė teka, home to the DISCO stage.

The live music stage will feature some of the most popular names in Lithuanian alternative music – ba., Garbanotas and shishi. They will be joined by the young group Egzotikka, the musical project of artist and producer Osvaldas Bertašius.

At the DISCO stage, different strands of Lithuanian and international club music will meet behind the decks: Hades x Elboe, Imbrasasm x Eketė, Kikelomo and Youwin Trax x Greta Margo.

In the evening, the festival programme will continue inside the Pergalė factory with performances by Free Finga and kamanių šilelis, while later that night the music programme will close with the limited-capacity party Dresden Takeover.

The contemporary city festival AUDRA will take place in Kaunas from 3 to 6 September. Across four days, the programme will bring together more than 50 Lithuanian and international artists, contemporary art, performances, screenings and other cultural experiences.