Open Call MITTELYOUNG 2026 | Fear
Mittelfest launches an Open call for Theatre, Dance, Music and Circus projects of UNDER-30 artists, companies and collectives from Central Europe and the Balkans to perform at Mittelfest 2026, under the topic of Fear.
Deadline: 10 February 2026, 15.00 PM CET
Mittelfest artistic direction and the group of curatores will select 9 projects (2 theatre, 2 music, 2 dance, 2 circus and one project that may belong to one of the above categories) to be showcased and from 14 to 17 May 2026 in Cividale del Friuli.
Among those 9 projects scheduled, up to 3 shows to be rescheduled during Mittelfest Fear from 16 to 26 July 2026.
At its sixth edition, Mittelyoung is an event by and for young people under 30, a window for a generation immersed in a century, the 21st, yet to be invented and written. The festival is based on an open call for projects from Italy, Central-Europe and the Balkans, examined by a group of under-30 curators appointed by Mittelfest in cooperation with some institutions and training bodies in Friuli Venezia Giulia region and SNG Nova Gorica (Slovenia). A jury of experts will also be present during the festival to evaluate the performances on stage.
The projects submitted must be in line with the theme Fear of Mittelfest 2026 edition:
”This is what happens with fear: it is all in the expectations, in what we imagine it will be. Fear is the primary emotion that anticipates events, it does not follow them. It is already there. It arrives and points the way, as in the allusive geography of myth. Yet, while it predicts succumbing to every fatal challenge, it prevents the outcome. All you have to do is go beyond what your eyes believe. Because sight is often deceiving: it does not notice what is in front of it, but what the mind already expects. The gaze, it is said, only registers differences. Our story, then, may be similar to that of Perseus: do not yield to Medusa’s gaze, do not turn to stone in the face of terror that is already known, in the face of what the mind fears will happen. Instead, shielded by a stolen eye, keeping our fearful gaze locked, we can return victorious, riding our Pegasus, laden with precious corals. Will it happen? Who knows: if, while observing things, we begin to see them with new tools and different eyes, some pleasant surprise may await us. If the fear that lurks in our thoughts were overcome by our actions, some miracle might reveal itself. Instead of running away from it, why not follow every fear wherever it leads us? Why not accept its adventures? Maybe we will find stones, maybe corals.“
- Applications are open to under 30 artists, ensembles and companies working in theatre, music, dance and circus, coming from 27 European countries: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Ukraine, Hungary.
- Associazione Mittelfest will grant to each selected project an economic support (co-production contribution or cachet) up to €4.000.
- Applications must be submitted exclusively via the online application form available on Mittelfest's website.