Ultra Club, the section of the Romaeuropa Festival devoted to the performing arts, runs until September 27

From September 19 to 27, the Mattatoio once again becomes a pulsing artery of the Romaeuropa Festival's musical fabric, the capital's festival devoted to the performing arts and directed by Fabrizio Grifasi, back for its forty-first edition running through November 16.

Ultra Club is a genuine festival-within-a-festival, curated by Matteo Antonaci, Giulia Di Giovanni and Federica Patti, devoted to sonic experimentation and digital research. Like a cultural radar, the program moves beyond the traditional idea of the concert, unfolding over eight days into an immersive experience in which live sets, audiovisual performances, talks, installations and sound experiments all coexist within a single "club".

Opening Ultra Club is a historic protagonist of Rome's clubbing scene: Agatha, the legendary Roman avant-garde night founded in the Nineties by Andrea Lai and Riccardo Petitti, once again weaves itself into the Romaeuropa Festival programme with Agatha FORWARD, the evolution of an identity that keeps reinventing itself without losing its original force. The event, scheduled for Saturday 19 September, restores to the night its most authentic dimension: that of the party as a collective, artistic and communal practice, capable of setting bodies, spaces, images and sounds in motion. The evening will host the photography exhibition Four To The Dirt by Mirko Ostuni, dedicated to party cultures in Southern Italy; the audiovisual live show Fragmenta by Alessandro Roberti and Carmine Iuvone; plus live sets and DJ sets by Bluemarina, VSC (Reveries), Future Nomadz and DNN (LOBO).

On Sunday 20 September, the baton passes to Italian singer-songwriting. Ultra Club's ongoing journey continues to spotlight the independent realities helping renew the national music landscape. Taking the stage at 6pm, with free admission, is 42 Records, the independent label founded in 2007 that launched, among others, Colapesce, I Cani, Cosmo and Andrea Laszlo De Simone. The afternoon opens with the talk Fare quello che ci piace nel modo in cui ci piace, featuring Emiliano Colasanti, co-founder of the label, in conversation with journalist Patrizio Ruviglioni. Next, 42 Records presents two of its emerging voices: Tutto Piange, one of the most delicate and intense new pens on the Italian scene, and the Turin-based singer-songwriter Marco Fracasia, a crooked, razor-sharp and unpredictable presence: a lo-fi, visceral, instinctive songwriting always on the verge of derailing yet somehow remarkably focused.

Next up is a double bill from the Panico Concerts roster. After appearing at the Romaeuropa Festival in 2023, the Venetian singer-songwriter of Romanian descent Rareș returns with a double live show (at 5pm and 9.30pm). On his latest album, SINCERO!, released in May to widespread acclaim from audiences and critics alike, his familiar melancholic streak opens up to a brighter, more liberating imagery, driven by arrangements rich in saxophones, flutes and clarinets that amplify the emotional power of his songs. Meanwhile, at 8.30pm, Marta Del Grandi takes the stage: the Milanese, jazz-trained singer-songwriter who, with Dream Life, released last January, confirmed a magnetic songwriting style with a strong cinematic breadth.

On Tuesday 22 September, the focus shifts to the dialogue between memory and contemporary languages, with two projects that, through different means, reread and renew the traditions of their respective homelands. Opening the evening is the Istituto Cervantes, presenting for the first time in Rome Fillas de Cassandra, the duo made up of María Pérez and Sara Faro, on tour with their album TERTULIA. Among the most distinctive names of the new Iberian scene, the two artists have built an imagery in which electronic music, traditional Galician sounds, Greek mythology and female identity merge into performances with a strong theatrical dimension. Next, Musicalista and Bass Culture present Davide Ambrogio, a Calabrian singer and multi-instrumentalist who, with Mater Nullius (Mother of No One), released last November, delves into the musical heritage of the Aspromonte to question its meaning in the present day. A work that alternates cries and whispers, giving voice to the ancient language of his homeland in a sonic exploration that turns tradition into a tool for reflecting on modern man's alienation from nature.

Ultra Club continues on 23 September with a new international guest: Kangding Ray, aka David Letellier, one of the most authoritative names on the contemporary electronic scene. The sole headliner of the evening, the French musician and producer honoured for the unforgettable soundtrack of the film Sirāt, presents Superfluid LIVE A/V, the audiovisual experience that enchanted Lyon's Nuits Sonores this past July, in which techno, ambient and experimentation intertwine into hypnotic, dark sonic architectures projected towards the future.

On Thursday 24 September, Ultra Club teams up with KLANG (a curatorial project exploring the most innovative forms of electronic and experimental music) to build an evening dedicated to some of the most compelling trajectories in contemporary European club culture, hosting three protagonists of the new international scene: English musician aya, aka Aya Sinclair, arriving with her second album hexed!, which made several best-of-2025 lists; J. LUDVIG III, a jazz-trained Danish drummer now working across electronic, emo, hardcore and experimental pop, presenting EMOTAN; and EMMA, an artist born in Germany and raised in Ruvo di Puglia, who, following the release of his third album ERA L'INIZIO, continues an intense run of live shows on major festival stages throughout 2025.

On Friday 25 September, Ultra Club's programme continues in collaboration with Parallel Visions, a curatorial project dedicated to audiovisual research and artistic practices that intertwine music, visual arts and new technologies. From this partnership comes an evening that puts songwriting, sound art and experimental electronics into dialogue through two distant yet complementary projects. On one side, the live set from prima stanza a destra, among the most interesting names on the new Italian scene: born in 2004, the artist has quickly won attention for an intimate, generational songwriting style that blends electronic music, pop and singer-songwriter tradition. At Ultra Club he presents la ragazza che suonava il piano, released this year, in which essential melodies, falsetto vocals and refined sonic research shape a personal language.

On the other side, the immersive audiovisual performance H U M I by Riccardo Giovinetto (acoustic physicist, composer and visual artist) reflects on the concept of the border as a space of crossing and transformation: a mobile, permeable and porous threshold, evoked through the image of the ocean front and set against the idea of a boundary understood as a sharp line of separation.

In the spirit of collaboration, on 27 September, Ultra Club comes to a close with a Game Day, a day dedicated to the intersection of artistic creation and gaming, held in collaboration with RE:HUMANISM. Throughout the afternoon, audiences can explore a genuine playground dedicated to independent video game production, featuring students from the Accademia Italiana Videogiochi (AIV). Alongside this, a modding workshop led by the duo 2girls1comp will explore video game modification as an artistic practice and analytical tool, while Ayoung Kim – with the film Delivery Dancer's Sphere – will guide audiences through futuristic, dystopian simulations reflecting on the transformations of contemporary labour, the gamification of capitalism, and the logic of algorithms. Later in the afternoon, the programme continues with a talk by Matteo Lupetti, Federica Di Pietrantonio and Daniela Cotimbo, exploring the relationship between video games, contemporary art and society. Closing out the day will be works by the collective Total Refusal: the live performance Red Redemption, which studies Red Dead Redemption 2 to examine class relations and the mechanics of capitalism; and the film World at Stake, shot entirely within sports video games to read the medium as a tool for political and social reflection.

Rounding off Ultra Club's week, on 26 September, is the eagerly awaited appointment with Design Talks, the project dedicated to contemporary graphic design curated by Stefano Cipolla and Mistaker, with coordination by David Aprea. This year's edition unfolds across a programme of talks and activities including a conversation with Francesco Valtolina, art director of Mousse Magazine; a panel with Due Studio, Tiziana Alocci and Federico Antonini; a focus on design spaces curated by Valerio Di Mario; the Thesis Project, developed in collaboration with IED, ISIA, NABA and RUFA; and workshops for children organised together with Galleria Varsi and Betterpress Lab.

www.romaeuropa.net 

ULTRA CLUB IS PART OF THE ULTRA REF ACTIVITIES; THE ROMAEUROPA FESTIVAL PROGRAMME AT MATTATOIO; PRODUCED IN COLLABORATION WITH AZIENDA SPECIALE PALAEXPO; FONDAZIONE MATTATOIO AND SUPPORTED BY ENI.

SCHEDULE

Saturday 19 September 2026

7:00 PM

ticket price €18

Agatha FORWARD with: 

DNN (LOBO) / Future Nomadz

VSC (Reveries) + Blumarina

Alessandro Roberti (Studio Cliché) + Carmine Iuvone AV LIVE 

find out more at romaeuropa.net/festival-2026/agatha-forward/

Sunday 20 September 2026                                         

Free entry

5:00 pm Rareș

6:00 pm: Talk Fare quello che ci piace nel modo in cui ci piace with Emiliano Colasanti and Patrizio Ruviglioni (42 RECORDS)

Tutto Piange + Marco Fracasia 

find out more at romaeuropa.net/festival-2026/tutto-piange-marco-fracasia/

ticket price €15

Panico Concerts presents:

8:30 pm Marta Del Grandi + Rareș

find out more romaeuropa.net/festival-2026/marta-del-grandi-rares/

Tuesday, September 22, 2025                                         

daily ticket price 20 €

9:00 pm

Fillas de Cassandra (Terlùlia live)

10:00 pm

Davide Ambrogio (Mater Nullius live)

find out more romaeuropa.net/festival-2026/tertulia-live/

romaeuropa.net/festival-2026/mater-nullius-live/ 

Wednesday, September 23, 2026                                         

ticket price 20 €

9:00 pm

Kangding Ray (Superfluid A/V)

find out more romaeuropa.net/festival-2026/superfluid-live-a-v/      

Thursday, September 24, 2026                                         

ticket price 18 €

9:00 pm

KLANG presents: 

aye + J.Ludvig III + EMMA

find out more romaeuropa.net/festival-2026/aya-j-ludwig-iii-special-act-tba/     

Friday 25 September 2026                                         

tickets €18

9:00 pm

Parallel Visions

prima stanza a destra + Riccardo Giovinetto (H U M I)

find out more  romaeuropa.net/festival-2026/prima-stanza-a-destra-riccardo-giovinetto/        

Saturday 26 September 2026                                         

free entry

DESIGN TALKS

find out more https://romaeuropa.net/festival-2026/ultra-club-game-day/

Sunday 27 September 2026                                         

tickets €5

ULTRA/CLUB GAME DAY

2:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Parcours and Showcase 

2:00 PM – 5:00 PM 

Fj Modding Workshop – 2girls1comp h

3:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Ayoung Kim (DELIVERY DANCER SIMULATION)

5:00 PM–6:00 PM

Talk Matteo Lupetti + Federica Di Pietrantonio + Daniela Cotimbo

6:00 PM

Ayoung Kim (DELIVERY DANCER’S SPHERE)

6:30 PM

Total Refusal (RED REDEMPTION live performance/WORLD AT STAKE film)

for more information romaeuropa.net/festival-2026/ultra-club-game-day/ 

INFO AND TICKETS

promozione@romaeuropa.net | 06 45553050

Via Dei Magazzini Generali 20/A, 00154, Rome

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google