Groove Biennale Festival: Behind this Celebration of Sound and Culture

In April of 2026, Groove Biennale presented its third festival edition, celebrating alternative nightlife scenes with a strong focus on inclusivity in identity and music.

The festival, presented by DORMANTYOUTH, has become a haven for queer creatives, partygoers and their allies, revitalising Joburg’s vibrant energy by showcasing diverse sounds and cultures.

Following a successful week-long celebration, What’s on in Joburg spoke to the minds behind the festival about what they’ve achieved and what’s next for them:

Groove Biennale behind the scenes

© Groove Biennale | What's on in Joburg — © Groove Biennale

1. This year’s edition of Groove Biennale leaned into a residency-style format with workshops, panels and performances. Looking back, how did this shift deepen the sense of community and collaboration that the festival aims to build?

The week-long residency format with free public activities this year being supported by Pro Helvetia opened up prolonged and repeated engagement with a lot of interesting creatives/artists who would otherwise only see and chat to each other in passing on the dancefloor, at the bar, or in the bathrooms.
Knowing the vastness of Joburg you would maybe never see each other again, unless by chance in a similar setting. It was really encouraging to see some of the same faces from the panel discussion engaging with each other during the workshops and/or the performances.
One of our main goals this year was repeated exposure as a basis for familiarity; in hopes of that familiarity growing into tangible future funded collaborations in music projects or interdisciplinary outputs sparked by the networking and exchange activities.

2. Groove Biennale is physically placed in Johannesburg, mostly in the inner city. Can you speak a bit more about the decision to host in Johannesburg?

The city is always described as a place in flux; constantly moving and everchanging physical and social conditions to us as a music and architecture festival is an attractive context to experiment with. Groove Biennale as a project stems from Thelma Ndebele’s architecture masters research on prototyping temporary event places for ‘Other’ness (GSA, UJ, 2020) that respond to material conditions that aren’t yet set or aren’t always accommodating for very specific types of happenings or demographics.
Joburg is also such a big city – you can literally find room for anything/one here, especially subcultures that are rich in (self)expression as well as artistic experimentation and collaboration beyond what is ‘permissible’ or ‘mainstream’. The festival aims to design experiences based on, championing, and platforming those movements and communities, especially expressed through music, dance, visual installations and interesting/Queered spatial configurations.

3. Groove Biennale continues to centre alternative nightlife, with a strong focus on queer identity, inclusivity and experimental sound. How do you think this year’s programme contributed to reshaping what nightlife in Johannesburg can look and feel like? What was the response and attendance like?

As always our main event is a Ball in collaboration with hauses, organisers or comminities that make up our Ballroom and Kiki scenes. We were honoured to have collaborated with the iconic VNJ Ball to gather Hauses, 007s, Haus Mothers and the wider LGBTQ+ community in the city who participated in our Sc-Fi themed ball.
The creativity was honestly unmatched and Joburg really came to show out. We packed out the main indoor space at Carfax in Newtown, where DORMANTYOUTH presented the Post-Eco (Sound)System installation as decor that explored the Sci-Fi theme architecturally, through surfaces and temporary structures.
Programmers and officers from Pro Helvetia’s Swiss, Indian and Johannesburg offices were also present throughout the weekend in Newtown along with the curators from the other festivals involved in this year’s Circuit Mixers programme (Z!RO Festival in India and Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland), meeting with Joburg’s most creative and alternative queer artists. This aligned with the festival’s second goal of triggering some mobility or collaborative projects between the regions.
Artistic workshops during the festival are always [our] most attended activities, highlighting the city’s willingness to connect, commune and create. The overall response is always humbling in its positivity, reinforcing how important and urgent spaces like Groove Biennale are, for alternative and experimental outputs, processes and people. We were honoured to have collaborated with the 011 Kiki Scene and Q the Social at Luxee Lounge in Maboneng for co-hosting our other networking and exchange activities.

4. With initiatives like Circuit Mixers and the focus on emerging artists, what do you think the next generation of creatives working across music, space and culture took away from the festival?

Groove Biennale saw an influx of younger Joburgers applying for and also attending the beat-making workshops this year (aged between 18-24) which encourages us as the team to make sure that free exchange and skills sharing opportunities are available alongside the ticketed performance showcases.
Circuit Mixers being a programme that highlights femme musicians who primarily produce and/or perform electronic music specifically also encouraged these talented individuals to expand their horizons; encouraging them to not only share their art publicly, but demonstrating how electronic music can support and sustain their practices through project specific funding or mobility/touring initiatives.
Programmes like this also validate and highlight this specific artform , especially with the support of an institution such as Pro Helvetia who primarily provide tangible support opportunities for creativity and experimentation in its many many forms.
We were also delightedly grateful to have experienced older queer people (above age 35) during the Sci-Fi Ball who had expressed themselves by walking/performing on the runway. That comfort and sense of belonging provided another diverse layer of community that needs to be highlighted more often – you are never too old for the club!

5. What’s next for you and the team?

We are planning on another engagement this year when the weather starts to warm up again. We revisit the past April events, reflecting on our journey so far, of experimentation and collaboration in championing queer and alternative nightlife through architecture and music. Watch this space! We’ll share more info on the Groove Biennale instagram page as we draw closer to the final 2026 installment of the festival.