klub katarakt – Festival for Experimental Music

Twenty Years of Experimental Music in Winterhude

Since 2006, klub katarakt has been the annual meeting point for Hamburg's and the international scene for new, experimental, electroacoustic, and improvised music. The venue is the former machine factory Kampnagel on Jarrestraße – an industrial monument that has served as a stage for the independent scene since the 80s. Three of the large Kampnagel halls are used simultaneously, and the audience moves between them, deciding for themselves which sound space is currently compelling.

Wandering Concerts and Long Night

The central performance format is the Wandelkonzerte (wandering concerts): short pieces, simultaneously in several rooms, easily explorable. Alternating with scheduled solo evenings, retrospectives of individual composers, and the Lange Nacht (Long Night) on Saturday, where premieres, world premieres, and audiovisual works are shown until late. klub katarakt is small in format but consistent in its programming – here you hear pieces that would not be performed in a concert hall.

International Networking

Despite its manageable size, klub katarakt is internationally networked: with the Canadian Quatuor Bozzini, the American composer Sarah Davachi, the Berlin-based composer Alexander Schubert, and guests from Uganda (Afrorack), the 2026 program ranges from string quartet avant-garde to modular synthesis and African polyrhythms. Ticket prices are deliberately kept low; many events are included in a festival pass.