UWE Festival 2025

The third UWE Festival, held on 7 and 8 June 2025, once again transformed the grounds of the Etzdorf substation into the venue for a special cultural event. The UWE Festival brings urban art and creative participatory activities to rural areas, creating an extraordinary connection between industrial architecture and contemporary art.

The former substation once again became an extraordinary backdrop for international and national artists creating graffiti, street art, media art, performance art, installations and sculptures. Around 35 artists and collectives came together for a two-week creative phase to explore the Striegistal valley, the UWE building, its architecture and its history.

In 2025 were Björn Holzweg (Hamburg), Daria Dordina (Leipzig), DiFF (Aue/Bad Schlema), Disturbanity Graphics (Berlin), Chiara Dahlem (Luxembourg), Element Art (Erzgebirge), Freizeitgruppe Gestaltung (Glauchau) GOSP (Leipzig) GOOGI (Georgia) Guido ‘Rebelism7’ Günther (Chemnitz) Guido Zimmermann (Frankfurt) Gregorio Alvarez (Leipzig-Chile) Hifi (Dortmund) HNRX (Austria) Jannis Schröder (Berlin) Janosch Müller (Stuttgart) Juliane Maria Hoffmann (Leipzig) Karolina Kempe (Döbeln) Lapiz (Hamburg) formatierung.srt (Leipzig) Masholand (Georgia) MOW (Oelsnitz) Musya (Georgia) Nense Gomez (Berlin-Chile) Onebran (Athens/Greece) Ordinario (Cologne) Pablo (Georgia) petonka (Berlin) Phillip Eichhorn (Halle) Slex Nenskat (Plauen) TAMOONZ (Georgia) Toymaster Flash (Jena) TIEV (Leipzig) Vidam (Berlin) xxminimquadrant (Osnabrück) and others at UWE.

Visitors were not only able to observe the creative process and its results, but also get actively involved themselves: numerous hands-on workshops invited them to implement their own ideas and try out new things. The 2025 maker programme included: Etching | Screen printing | Lego meets printing | 3D graffiti – lettering in form | Felting | Jeans upcycling | Batik | Glass engraving with sandblasting | Bird Republic - Birdhouse building 2.0 | Embroidery | Tin jewellery – your unique piece in sepia | Tech art with electronic waste | Sticker cuts | Airbrushing | Pennant painting | Soft skills – your own cushion | Ma Skills DJ School | Site quiz | FabLab – building, embroidering, accelerating – analogue & digital.

Music, especially electronic music, played a central role in 2025. A diverse programme with DJs and live acts from different genres such as house, techno, hip-hop and acoustic was offered on three stages. The 2025 lineup included the following acts: A Dreams A - Björn Burns - Bandana Solo - David mit der Gitarre - Chris the R aka Stromstrasse 8 - Digital Kaos - Enny One - Indiana Jane - Jacob Wetzel & Phillip Weber - Jan Mas - Knister Philister - Maz Mazine - Mitch & Dekker - Sealt Covers - Sebastian Casper - Snoopy - Speche & Ron - SPUT - Skyy - Takeshy Sinn - Tears for Beers - The Gnat & Mad_Line - Tom Newman - UWO Boy das Sonnenkind

A special setting will be provided in 2025 by the festival's inclusion in the programme of Chemnitz 2025, European Capital of Culture. This has made the festival part of a larger cultural network that has raised the profile of creative projects in the region.

The UWE Festival stands for creativity, community and cultural exchange – a place where urban zeitgeist meets rural surroundings and something new is created together.

Photography: Micha von Vau & JT