Ja! Festival 2026
PRESENTATION
Welcome, earthlings, replicants, Tralfamadorians, time travellers, androids who keep stumbling into humour, happy consumers of soma, and all other more or less intelligent forms of life in the galaxy, to the seventeenth edition of Ja! Festival.
This year, we have decided to travel into the future. Or perhaps the future has decided to come and visit us. Either way, for a few weeks we will be joined by the finest specimens of the human species to talk about science fiction — that genre which imagines what is yet to come and helps us better understand what is right in front of us.
Michel Houellebecq returns to the festival sixteen years after taking part in our very first edition, to talk about his passion for science fiction. We will also welcome, for the first time, some of the great writers Rosa Montero, Ray Loriga and Mariana Enriquez. Anna Starobinets, Laura Fernández, Agustín Fernández Mallo, Sara Barquinero, Rodrigo Cortés, Fernando Trueba, Maribel Verdú and Iggy Rubín, among many others, will complete a crew ready to explore the most unsettling, hilarious and astonishing territories of the future — and of this increasingly strange present.
Science will play a starring role in this year’s edition, with astronaut Sara García Alonso, neuroscientist Mariano Sigman and mathematician Eduardo Sáenz de Cabezón (Órbita Laika), among other scientists and science communicators, joining writers and artists to discuss imagination, knowledge, creativity and humour. We will also celebrate the centenary of Rafael Azcona, who never needed to travel to Mars to find aliens: all he had to do was look around.
Hidrogenesse will provide the soundtrack to our very own journey through space. There will also be films, exhibitions, comics, magic, workshops and the podcast ¿Te quedas a leer?, produced by El Terrat for PlanetadeLibros, which will be recorded live in front of a festival audience. And a Martian party to bring the mission to a close.
Fasten your seatbelts. Or don’t. At this point, who knows whether we are still travelling in a straight line.
Happy Ja!
Carolina Ontivero
Director of Ja! Festival
PROGRAMME
The programme for the 17th edition of the festival will be held between 14 and 31 October at different venues.
For detailed information on all events, including participants, venues, schedules, access, etc., please click on the link.
GUESTS
Michel Houellebecq, Rosa Montero, Ray Loriga, Mariana Enriquez. Anna Starobinets, Sara García Alonso, Mariano Sigman, Laura Fernández, Agustín Fernández Mallo, Fernando Trueba, Maribel Verdú, Sara Barquinero, Rodrigo Cortés, Iggy Rubín,…
See the full list of guests here.
EXHIBITIONS
Albert Monteys: Cosmic Wonder is on display from 6 October to 1 November at the Mediateka Azkuna Zentroa – Alhóndiga Bilbao and will be extended to several Metro Bilbao stations until the end of November.
Azcona, humorista gráfico’ will be on display from 16 to 30 October at the CMD La Bolsa (Casco Viejo) and forms part of the activities marking the centenary of Rafael Azcona.
Click on the link for more information.
SPONSORS
The festival would not be possible without the support of its sponsors and collaborators.
Find out which institutions and organisations are supporting the 2026 edition of Ja! Festival.