ASEF Culture is delighted to announce the launch of the 8th edition of the Asia-Europe Cultural Festival (AECFest), which will unfold across multiple formats and locations throughout 2026. 

AECFest 2026 will include a Main Festival programme taking place in Utrecht, the Netherlands, from 14 to 23 May 2026, a Closing Curtain event in Singapore, as well as the Residency Programme running throughout the year. Together, these components reflect ASEF’s continued commitment to long-term artistic exchange and collaboration between Asia and Europe. 

Hosted for the first time in the Netherlands, the Main Festival in Utrecht marks a new milestone in AECFest’s journey as a platform for cultural exchange and artistic collaboration between Asia and Europe. Presented in collaboration with SPRING Performing Arts Festival, this edition reinforces ASEF’s commitment to fostering dialogue through contemporary artistic practices. 

Conceived as a festival-in-a-festival, AECFest will be presented as a dedicated focus on Asia–Europe artistic exchange within SPRING’s wider programme. Audiences will experience a curated selection of performances, films, installations, video art, and multidisciplinary works by artists from across Asia and Europe. 

This edition also marks the third consecutive year in which AECFest will be hosted within a prestigious international arts platform, following previous collaborations in Italy in 2024 and China in 2025. 

The full programme of AECFest 2026 will be unveiled in March 2026. 

Main Image @Daniel Kok, “Home Bound” by Daniel Kok and Luke George, generated with MidJourney(AI).