COSMO Festival Dortmund

COSMO Festival — Global Pop in the JunkYard

The COSMO Festival is the open-air version of the WDR station COSMO — the North Rhine-Westphalian multicultural station that has provided the soundtrack for the diverse immigrant society of the Ruhr area for decades. On June 13, 2026, the festival moves to the JunkYard Dortmund — a former scrap yard adorned with ship container sculptures, graffiti walls, and DIY charm.

Four Areas — Four Sound Worlds

The festival is spread across four distinct areas:

• Open Air Stage — Main stage under the open sky
• Hall — Concerts and intimate sets indoors
• Club — Electronic sets and dance floor
• Bus Stage — the converted double-decker as a pocket stage

The concept: “Concerts and club sounds between glam and guerrilla” — Big-stage experience meets underground setting.

Line-up 2026 — Global Pop from Around the World

The 2026 line-up brings together acts from Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean:

• Pongo — Portuguese-Angolan singer (Kuduro/Afro-House)
• Shkoon — Syrian-German duo (Oriental-Electronic)
• Myra — British rapper
• Lady Lykez — British-Nigerian rapper
• Tracy de Sá — French rapper with Portuguese roots
• Skuff Barby
• Omar Jatta
• Gîn Bali
• Barulho World
• A-Lo
• Daferwa
• Selecta Adirock

WDR COSMO — Sound of the Immigrant Society

The radio station WDR COSMO (formerly Funkhaus Europa) has been the public broadcasting program for Germany's multicultural listeners since the 1990s. With programs in Turkish, Polish, Russian, Italian, and Arabic, and a music editorial team that brings Global Pop, Afrobeat, and world music into the mainstream, COSMO has played a central role in cultural mediation. The festival translates this programming into real space.

Dortmund and its International Audience

With over 180 nationalities, Dortmund (an independent city in North Rhine-Westphalia) is home to one of Germany's most diverse urban societies. The COSMO Festival finds its natural audience here — a young, urban audience that listens to Global Pop not as exoticism, but as the soundtrack to everyday life.