For Real | Performing arts festival exploring new technologies

Who is it for?

• We bring together programmers, colleagues, venue directors and technical staff from performing arts venues, alongside innovative artists from Belgium, Greece, Italy, Slovenia and Sweden. Through workshops, demos, discussions and, above all, performances, we’ll help you confidently integrate digital performing arts into your programme. 
• In the morning, we’re organising a separate workshop especially for technicians, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the digital stage at For Real.
   

A whole week in Leuven!

The For Real performance programme runs from 24 to 29 November 2026 in Leuven. Enjoy a packed week in which VR, AI and robotics enter into dialogue with music, theatre and circus, alongside discussions, installations and plenty of performances. The highlight is our inspiration day on 26 November. Scroll down to explore the day’s programme.

For Real Festival 2026 is a collaboration between Cultuurconnect and 30CC Leuven, supported by Digital On Stage/Creative Europe and Sociaal Fonds voor de Podiumkunsten.

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09:00–09:30 | Welcome coffee and tea

09:30 | Welcome
 

09:45–11:00 | Performance: Plum Road Tea Dream by Samuel Baidoo (BE)

This hybrid experience combines theatre, gaming and rituals. Through the performative possibilities of livestreaming, the two performers explore the intimate emotional and experiential world of the character S. before the audience’s eyes. The audience is drawn into a cinematic experience. On stage, this creates a familiar dynamic from the world of online gaming: a community watching as a player discovers a game for the first time. Read more on the 30CC website.
 

09:45–10:45 | Performance: Imago Dei by Robin Jonsson (SE)

Imago Dei is a performance about the fragile boundary between humans and machines. On stage, a performer and a humanoid robot meet in a quiet, charged encounter.
If humans were created in the image of God, what does it mean that we are now creating beings in our own image? When a machine appears to feel, looks at us and responds, what do we see? Read more on the 30CC  website. (max. 30 participants)
 

09:45–12:15 | Workshop for technicians: Behind the Scenes of the Digital Stage at For Real

Are you a theatre technician curious about the latest possibilities in digital performing arts and how to put them into practice in your venue? During this inspiring behind-the-scenes tour, Abdelhadi Baaddi (innovation:lab Utrecht) and Kobe Le Duc (theatre technician at 30CC) will introduce you to video mapping, immersive sound and interactive software such as Isadora.

This is not a traditional workshop, but an accessible, clear look at what innovative technologies mean for your day-to-day work. Abdelhadi will introduce the latest technological developments, after which Kobe will explain the technical challenges involved in staging For Real at 30CC. We’ll talk to some of the For Real artists and take a closer look at their setups and specific applications. We’ll explore how they translate their digital concepts into touring systems, technical riders and solutions that work with the existing infrastructure of cultural venues.

This session is an ideal learning opportunity for technicians working at cultural venues and with performing companies who want to discover how digital worlds and physical stages can come together. (max. 20 participants)
 

11:15–12:15 | Session 1: Digital Performing Arts in Your Programme

AR, VR, AI and robots on stage: how do you approach them as a programmer? You’ll get practical tips on how to start curating and programming digital performing arts. The creative process for digital performing arts often takes longer than that of a traditional stage production, and the concept sometimes evolves alongside the possibilities offered by the technology. How do you book a work when the final result has not yet been fully determined? How do you assess work in which technology plays a central role? How can a cultural venue get its traditional audience excited about digital performing arts while keeping things financially viable? And what technical and organisational factors need to be considered? Drawing on case studies and programmers’ experiences, we’ll discuss how to strike a balance between experimentation and accessibility, and how to integrate digital works into your programme in a sustainable way. (Session in English)

With Diego Iglesias and Cristóbal Baños Hernández (programmers at MMMad Festival, Madrid).
 

11:15–12:15 | Session 2: Robots on Stage

Digital performing arts are developing rapidly in Belgium, but the sector is still relatively small. What opportunities are there to work together to build a sustainable ecosystem for digital performing arts? This panel brings together representatives from across the field—artists, performing arts venues and support organisations—to reflect on where we are today. What is already working well? Where do we see growth and momentum? We’ll focus on inspiring practices, successful collaborations and concrete steps forward. How can we strengthen one another? How can we help experimentation grow? And how does Belgium position itself in a broader international context? (Session in English)

With Robin Jonsson (artist) and Ugo Dehaes (artist). Moderated by Laurien Michiels (innovation lab facilitator at 30CC, digital youth worker at Link in de Kabel vzw, and artist). (max. 30 participants)
 

12:15–14:00 | Lunch

During lunch, you can experience five works, two of which will remain available until 16:00.
 

• 12:15–14:00 | VR experience: LANDI’S CUBE – Situated Bodies by Margherita Landi (IT)

  LANDI’S CUBE – Situated Bodies is a participatory, immersive performance in which the audience becomes the performer. Wearing VR headsets, participants each enter their own virtual “cube”: an intimate space that functions as a non-verbal communication system. Choreography emerges not from fixed patterns, but from direct interaction between different perspectives—one guiding, the other translating that guidance into movement. Read more on the 30CC website. 

  (Runs continuously, with a new session every 15 minutes/6 participants.)
   

• 12:30–13:10 | Performance: IN-Visible by Nikoletta Dimopoulou (GR)

  What does it feel like to witness violence between a couple in a public place? And what can you do as a bystander? IN-Visible makes the invisible visible. New media enter the private sphere of relationships, bringing to light stories that would otherwise remain hidden. How many stories can we tell together? And how many could be prevented if we dared to speak up?

  IN-Visible is a digital, participatory performance about gender-based violence. By combining new media with performative practices, the work engages the community while safeguarding anonymity and inviting people to make their voices heard. The audience becomes a co-dramaturg: together, they create the text and shape the performance.

  The interactive experience uses platforms such as YouTube, Mentimeter and OBS Studio, as well as sensors, enabling the audience to participate actively. Read more on the 30CC website. (max. 20 participants)
  
  
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• 12:45–13:35 | Performance: Techno Freak Show by Marina Mazutto (IT)

  Techno Freak Show is a performative exhibition featuring six installations of human-machine figures. The project takes the historical “freak shows” of the Victorian era as its starting point, viewing the phenomenon through the lens of today’s digital and robotic world. The colourful installations seem to have emerged from a digital jungle, combining technology with the excess and theatrical atmosphere of the circus. Read more on the 30CC website.
   

  Can be visited continuously:

• 12:15–16:00 | Installation: Humanitarium by Yoryos Styl/Inside Spaceman (GR)

  With the installation Humanitarium, visitors enter a post-apocalyptic museum where an alien curator holds up a confronting mirror to our society. This interdisciplinary experience uses innovative technology to turn the traditional theatre experience on its head. At Virtual Reality stations, you observe pivotal moments in human history as if you were a specimen in a laboratory, while a live AI guide continually adapts the tour to the audience’s reactions. You can also influence the course of the performance via an interactive web app on your smartphone. Read more on the 30CC website.
   

• 12:15–16:00 | Performance: Tremens by CREW (BE)

  Inspired by William Shakespeare’s tragedy Timon of Athens, CREW’s Tremens is an immersive experience that merges theatre and virtual reality. The audience is immersed in a virtual world shaped by interaction, disorientation and uncanny architecture. Among avatars and live performers, the boundaries between real and digital, reality and illusion begin to blur.

  CREW sees virtual reality not as an escape, but as a confrontation with our reality. During residencies in November 2024 and summer 2025, the company further developed the work and tested it with audiences. Performers can duplicate, migrate and record their bodies and animations, creating a unique blend of live and digital interaction. Read more on the 30CC website.

14:00–15:00 | Session 3: A Digital Lab in Your Venue

Can a performing arts venue give artists the space—both literally and figuratively—to experiment with digital performing arts? Several Flemish venues are exploring the role of digital labs: spaces where artists, technicians and digital experts come together to research, test and create using AI, VR and robotics. In this session, we’ll explore with 30CC how such a lab could work within a performing arts venue. What do you need to get started in terms of infrastructure, expertise and partners? How can you support artists in a field where technology evolves rapidly? And how can you build a community in which artists and technology specialists strengthen one another? 

Veerle Van Schoelant (artistic coordinator at 30CC) and Abdelhadi Baaddi (founder of Innovation:LAB in Utrecht) will share their experiences.
 

14:00–15:00 | Session 4: In Conversation with the Artists of For Real

In this session, you’ll talk to the artists behind the work featured at For Real Festival. They’ll take you behind the scenes of their creative processes and explain how technology helps shape their artistic choices. (Session in English)

With Digital on Stage artists Samuel Baidoo (BE), Nikoletta Dimopoulou (GR), Kevin Trappeniers (BE) and Margherita Landi (IT). Moderated by Diego Iglesias (MMMad Festival, Madrid). (max. 30 participants)
 

14:00–15:00 | Performance: Imago Dei by Robin Jonsson (SE)

Imago Dei is a performance about the fragile boundary between humans and machines. On stage, a performer and a humanoid robot meet in a quiet, charged encounter. If humans were created in the image of God, what does it mean that we are now creating beings in our own image? When a machine appears to feel, looks at us and responds, what do we see?

Without offering answers, Imago Dei opens up space to reflect on empathy, creation and the sacred in an age of artificial life. Read more on the 30CC website. (max. 30 participants)
 

15:15–15:55 | Performance: IN-Visible by Nikoletta Dimopoulou (GR)

What does it feel like to witness violence between a couple in a public place? And what can you do as a bystander? IN-Visible makes the invisible visible. New media enter the private sphere of relationships, bringing to light stories that would otherwise remain hidden. How many stories can we tell together—or prevent together if we dare to speak up?

IN-Visible is a digital, participatory performance about gender-based violence. By combining new media with performative practices, the work engages the community while safeguarding anonymity and inviting people to make their voices heard. The audience becomes a co-dramaturg: together, they create the text and shape the performance.

The interactive experience uses platforms such as YouTube, Mentimeter and OBS Studio, as well as sensors, enabling the audience to participate actively. Read more on the 30CC website. (max. 20 participants)
 

15:15–17:00 | VR experience: LANDI’S CUBE – Situated Bodies by Margherita Landi (IT)

LANDI’S CUBE – Situated Bodies is a participatory, immersive performance in which the audience becomes the performer. Wearing VR headsets, participants each enter their own virtual “cube”: an intimate space that functions as a non-verbal communication system. Choreography emerges not from fixed patterns, but from direct interaction between different perspectives—one guiding, the other translating that guidance into movement. Read more on the 30CC website.

(Runs continuously, with a new session every 15 minutes.)
 

15:30 | Performance: Stampede by Varja Hrvatin (SI)

Stampede is a thought-provoking, documentary-style interactive performance about safety in our society. Starting from the phenomenon of human stampedes, it explores how economic drivers, mass hysteria and inequality put the fundamental right to safety under pressure. The performance asks challenging questions about responsibility, power and justice, holding up a mirror to us: how have we become entangled in this rat race, and how can we break free?

The technology used in the performance relies on radio frequencies to create responsive, interactive connections between audience members, performers, the soundscape and projections, using programmable restaurant pagers. Read more on the 30CC website. (max. 60 participants)
 

17:00 | Reception
 

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