Lugano's Fit Festival confirms its position as a benchmark for the Swiss and international contemporary art scene. The 2025 edition will not only showcase the most daring artistic creations, but also be a moment of celebration: the Federal Office of Culture has awarded Fit the Swiss Performing Arts Award 2025, recognizing the courage of its choices and the resilience of a festival that for 34 years has brought cutting-edge theatrical and performance languages to Ticino.
The awards ceremony will take place on October 10th at the Equilibre Theatre in Fribourg , where the Laudatio dedicated to the festival will be read. "This recognition makes us immensely happy," commented the FIT management, "because it rewards our commitment to maintaining a radical space open to engaging with reality."
In Lugano, a 10-day program with 11 countries represented
From 3 to 12 October 2025 , Lugano will host 10 days of programming , with 29 reruns , 7 talks , special projects such as Keep FIT with Radio , the Biglietto sospeso , the intergenerational tandem Restez FIT! and the new three-year Sentieri selvaggi programme , dedicated to young people.
The program brings together artists from 11 Countries – from Afghanistan to the Ivory Coast, from Japan to the Netherlands – with a proposal that ranges from political reflection to historical memory, up to new forms of physical and musical expression.
Among the most anticipated productions stand out:
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inVENIR MENO by Ticinese Francesca Sproccati, who opens the festival by questioning the meaning of “resistance”;
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El pacto del olvido by the Spanish Sergi Casero Nieto, dedicated to the oblivion of Franco's memory;
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Carmelo Rifici's Diptych of the Bufferà , with a reinterpretation of Chekhov in the light of contemporary Russia;
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Non-Aligned Newsreels by Mila Turajlić, a journey into the forgotten archives of the former Yugoslavia;
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Asteroid by Marco D'Agostin, an ironic tribute to musicals and the resilience of art; -
Épique! by Nadia Beugré, an exploration of Ivorian family and female roots;
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the world premiere of Tamara Gvozdenovic's Fata Morgana , set in the energy of a club;
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One's own room inside Kabul , a project that gives voice to Afghan women forced into isolation by the Taliban;
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Magda Toffler or an essay on silence by Boris Nikitin, a delve into repressed Jewish memory;
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and Three Time Left is Right by Julian Hetzel, a reflection on the polarizations of contemporary democracies.
Fit Festival: spaces of freedom, new generations, and new professions
The festival also confirms its inclusive nature with Zona Franca , a “neutral” space open to music, workshops and informal meetings, and with the Young & Kids section , which offers shows designed for children and adolescents.
The future of Fit also involves training: the Fit for the Future project , supported by Pro Helvetia and Migros Cultural Percentage, is introducing new professionals to the curatorial team, experimenting with an innovative model of on-the-job apprenticeship.
