blurred edges – Festival for Current Music

Festival as a City Map

blurred edges, organized by the Verband für aktuelle Musik Hamburg (Association for Current Music Hamburg), is an anomaly in the German festival calendar: a completely decentralized festival that takes place not in one central location, but simultaneously at 50 venues throughout Hamburg. The festival is based on the premise that the city itself is the content: opening on the floating industrial ship MS Stubnitz, concerts at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater (University of Music and Theatre), in Linker Laden, at the Teehaus Wallanlagen, in churches, clubs, cultural centers, and galleries across the city districts.

What is Played

96 concerts over 30 days, performed by over 300 musicians. The spectrum includes experimental music, improvisation, new music, reinterpreted classics, electronic works, sound installations, and audiovisual performances. Unlike central festivals, the curation here is not driven by a motto, but serves as a workshop for the entire Hamburg scene – concerts are submitted by the participating ensembles, composers, and solo projects themselves and programmed by a jury.

Verband für aktuelle Musik Hamburg

The association has existed since the 2000s as a loose network of Hamburg's contemporary music scene. blurred edges is its main annual event. Ticket prices are deliberately kept low; many concerts are free or donation-based.