Festival Imminent in 2026 at a school closed 15 years ago

The Iminente Festival returns in 2026 with an edition that marks ten years of “artistic intervention, collective creation and cultural activation of spaces with history” and which will take place in a school in Marvila, Lisbon, closed 15 years ago.

According to the organization, in a statement now released, the 2026 edition will take place between September 17 and 20 at the former Afonso Domingues Industrial School, which “will be the new home of the festival until 2027”.

The school was officially closed in 2010 because it is located in the path of the Third Crossing over the Tagus project, between Chelas and Barreiro, which would allow the passage of the high-speed train.

At the time of its closure, the school, which opened in 1956 and was attended by Nobel Prize winner José Saramago, former PCP leader Jerónimo de Sousa, and football coach Fernando Santos, had 290 students and 80 teachers.

"Festival Iminente now takes on the challenge of symbolically reopening this space to the public, reinscribing it in the present as a place of living culture, civic participation and artistic experimentation," says the organization, highlighting that "the choice of this new location is also aligned with one of Iminente's main missions: to occupy disused urban spaces or those with historical connotations of exclusivity, and return them to the city and its community as stages of creation and encounter."

The Iminente Festival, which combines music and visual arts, was first held at the Oeiras Municipal Garden in 2016, returning to the city the following year. After two editions in Oeiras, in 2018, Iminente moved to Lisbon, to the Panorâmico de Monsanto, where it returned in 2019.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic transformed the festival into Oficina Iminente, an artistic residency held at Panorâmico de Monsanto, with the public taking part in the creative process.

In 2021 and 2022, the festival returned to its original format, held in an open-air space in the Matinha area. In 2023, it hosted a re-opening of Terreiro do Paço, and last year, the gardens of Palácio Pimenta — Museu de Lisboa, both with free admission.

The 2026 edition lineup and ticket sales start date will be announced soon.

The celebration of the festival's 10th anniversary “will be marked by several initiatives over the coming months”, the first of which will be this month, on the 21st, at Praça do Carvão — MAAT Central, in the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT) complex.

At the Bairros event, an initiative by Iminente in partnership with the EDP Foundation, the results of artistic work developed by artists and the community in Lisbon neighborhoods will be presented, as part of the Bairros project – Iminente Community Artistic Workshops.

The event, with free admission, includes exhibitions, music, films, performances and fashion, workshops and gastronomy.