SQUARE 2027 announces first speakers for conference exploring the future of music, memory and community

The Northern Portuguese festival-convention returns 27–30 January, bringing together Refuge Worldwide, Oroko Radio, KCRW, Príncipe and Nyege Nyege for a programme centred on continuity, collaboration and the communities keeping music moving.

What keeps music alive? Not just the next big release or the latest scene making international headlines, but the people, places, archives and independent networks that allow sounds to travel across generations. That’s the question at the heart of SQUARE 2027, which has unveiled its first speakers for a conference exploring the power of continuity in music.

Returning for its second edition from 27–30 January 2027, SQUARE will take over Braga, Guimarães, Famalicão and Viana do Castelo in northern Portugal, with its conference programme running in Braga from 27–29 January. Expect conversations, performances, radio broadcasts, guided tours and public assemblies that look beyond the usual industry playbook to examine how musical cultures evolve, survive and connect.

Among the first confirmed speakers are Leona Ojake of Berlin community radio station Refuge Worldwide, Jinan Vyent of Ghana’s Oroko Radio and Alejandro “Ale” Cohen, Music Director at KCRW, who will explore community radio as a space for experimentation, discovery and long-term creative relationships. It’s a timely conversation about the platforms nurturing music beyond commercial pressure, and the everyday work that turns independent broadcasting into a lasting cultural force.

Elsewhere, SQUARE turns its attention to the relationship between sound, memory and the future. British writer and BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction presenter Jennifer Lucy Allan will moderate Archives and Memory: Exploring the Unfamiliar, examining how sound archives, catalogues and intergenerational collaborations can be reactivated as tools for new creative possibilities. Portuguese singer-songwriter Bia Maria is also confirmed for a multigenerational conversation exploring the country's diverse musical landscape.

Building sustainable independent music ecosystems is another central theme. In How Do We Map Continuity?, Emma Thompson, Creative Director of From the Other, and Arlen Dilsizian, co-founder of Nyege Nyege Tapes and co-director of Uganda’s Nyege Nyege Festival, will join a discussion moderated by Margaret Munchheimer, whose work spans projects including Le Guess Who? and Current Obsession. Together, they’ll examine how artists, venues, agents and cultural organisations can better support one another, with the session feeding into a practical continuity toolkit designed to outlive the conference itself.

There’s also a milestone worth celebrating: 15 years of Príncipe, the Lisbon label that has helped propel the city's batida sound from its peripheral neighbourhoods onto dancefloors around the world. Founding figure DJ Marfox will join producer Helviofox to reflect on the label’s legacy and the next generation carrying its sound forward.

Beyond the panels, SQUARE will head into Braga’s cultural history. A visit to the pipe organ at the Church of São Lázaro will explore how local residents saved the instrument’s components when the former building faced demolition, allowing it to be reassembled in 1976. Composer and visual artist Jonathan Uliel Saldanha will lead a conversation connecting this act of collective preservation with archaeomusicology, sacred-space acoustics and the relationship between sound and place.

The programme will also stretch across borders through a sonic exchange between Luis Alvarado, founder of Peruvian experimental label Buh Records, and Katía Truijen, a researcher, curator and musician associated with Rewire Festival. Exchanging field recordings and sonic messages ahead of the gathering, the pair will explore how listening can connect different territories and cultural experiences, in a session moderated by Lisbon-based cultural producer and radio host Kaitlyn Davies.

And SQUARE’s commitment to the communities surrounding it won’t stop at the conference doors. Public assemblies will return to all four host cities, giving local artists space to share experiences, identify challenges and discuss the conditions needed for creative work to thrive. The findings will come together in a live SQUARE Assembly moderated by Ricardo Baptista.

The first edition earned praise from across the music press, with The Line of Best Fit highlighting its unconventional approach, while Clash praised its inventive connections between music, history, culture, landscape and art. Rather than chasing headliners, SQUARE is building a platform for the ideas, relationships and local scenes that make musical culture possible in the first place.

Tickets for SQUARE 2027 are on sale now, with the first 50 General Passes priced at €35 before rising to €50. Early Bird Pro Passes are available for €75, with weekend passes due to go on sale in December 2026.

SQUARE takes place 27–30 January 2027 across Braga, Guimarães, Famalicão and Viana do Castelo, with the conference running 27–29 January in Braga. The full conference programme is due to be announced at the end of November.

Tickets and further information: squarefestival.pt/tickets