Alkantara Festival 2026: find your next Lisbon cultural night
by 
Babylon Radio
Listen nowA Korean late-night food stall, a whirling Italian dance and a live journey through Bamako: Alkantara Festival brings an international performing-arts programme to Lisbon from 13 to 29 November 2026. It is an invitation to spend an evening somewhere new and see the city through different creative eyes.
The 2026 programme stretches across theatres, museums and cultural spaces. For international residents, several performances offer English surtitles or little spoken language, making it easy to choose a first outing without needing fluent Portuguese.
Find a taste of home in Haribo Kimchi
South Korean artist Jaha Koo’s Haribo Kimchi uses the setting of a late-night street-food bar to explore food, memory and belonging. Music, video and robotic characters turn familiar questions about living between cultures into something playful, strange and moving.
It is a particularly appealing starting point if the taste of a dish can transport you home. The show follows the comfort of food alongside the awkwardness of fitting into another culture, with humour as well as melancholy.
Haribo Kimchi is at Teatro do Bairro Alto on 13 November at 19:30, 14 November at 16:00 and 15 November at 19:30. Tickets are listed at €12 before discounts. The 70-minute performance is in Korean and English, with English and Portuguese surtitles, and is rated for ages 12 and over.
Make a dance date in Belém
For a shorter introduction to contemporary performance, try Alessandro Sciarroni’s Save the Last Dance for Me. Two dancers revive the polka chinata, a Bolognese dance whose close holds and spinning movements demand remarkable trust and physical skill.
The pleasure is in watching their coordination: bodies turn, lower and rise together, making an old social dance feel immediate. With minimal or no spoken language, the movement does the talking.
The 20-minute duet takes place in the foyer of the Grande Auditório at Centro Cultural de Belém on 14 November at 15:00 and 17:00. The listed ticket price is €7 before discounts, with an age rating of six and over. It is an easy performance to build into a Belém afternoon.
Follow a live story from Mali
Mali Futur Live combines a film shot live in Bamako with an onstage musician using kora and sampler. Performers travel through the Malian capital, bringing documentary observation and imagined futures into the same experience.
For audiences who enjoy cinema as much as theatre, the format offers an intriguing bridge between the two. Instead of a finished film, you share a journey happening in real time.
Mali Futur Live is at Culturgest on 21 and 22 November at 17:00. Tickets are listed at €16 before discounts. It runs for 90 minutes, is rated 16+, and is performed in French and Bambarra with Portuguese and English surtitles.
Build your own programme around the individual bookings rather than treating the festival as a single-venue event. Belém, Bairro Alto and Culturgest offer quite different settings, so choosing one main performance lets you enjoy the surrounding neighbourhood too.
Stay for the conversation and music
The festival continues beyond the stage at Casa Independente, its meeting point, on selected evenings from 14 to 29 November. DJ sets, performances and karaoke bring artists and audiences together at Largo do Intendente Pina Manique 45.
Sunday entry is free on 15, 22 and 29 November. On the listed Friday and Saturday evenings, entry is free before 21:00, then €7 with €5 redeemable at the bar. The venue is upstairs without a lift.
Choose a performance that sparks your curiosity, book through its programme page and leave room for an unhurried evening. Join Babylon for free for more guides to culture and everyday life in Portugal.