2025
EDITION
The Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) is pleased to announce a new partnership with ACT Shanghai International Theatre Festival for the 7th edition of the Asia-Europe Cultural Festival (AECFest). In 2025, the Festival will take place for the first time in China, in the vibrant city of Shanghai, alongside ACT, in September.
Since its founding in 2005, ACT Shanghai International Theatre Festival — hosted by the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre (SDAC) — has become a landmark event in China’s performing arts scene. Every year, ACT presents cutting-edge productions from both China and around the world, fostering exchange between artists and audiences. Over the past decade, the Festival has welcomed performances from over 50 countries, reaching nearly half a million spectators.
Building on this dynamic platform, the 2025 Asia-Europe Cultural Festival will bring together artists from across Asia and Europe in a programme celebrating creativity, diversity, and cross-cultural dialogue. The partnership marks a significant milestone in AECFest’s mission to create new artistic encounters and strengthen connections between international cultural professionals and local arts communities.
Following the successful “festival within a festival” model piloted in 2024 with Oriente Occidente in Italy, the 2025 edition will feature a rich line-up of contemporary dance, multidisciplinary performances, and theatre. Audiences in Shanghai can look forward to works by artists from China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, and Spain.
Beyond the main event in Shanghai, the 2025 Festival will unfold across three cities over the year. The journey begins in June with a curtain-raiser in Krakow, Poland, presented in collaboration with the Manggha Museum. The year will conclude with a series of closing events in October in Singapore, organised in partnership with local institutions, including the Asian Civilisations Museum.
Through these events, the Asia-Europe Cultural Festival continues to foster artistic exchange and deepen understanding between the two regions, engaging governments, cultural institutions, and the wider public.
The full programme will be announced in July 2025 — stay tuned!
