Hit The City has announced 24 new acts for the upcoming edition of the free city festival in Eindhoven. Earlier, the festival already made an impression with names such as S10, Jonna Fraser, Typhoon, High Vis, DEADLETTER and Lambrini Girls. The line-up is now expanding further with a new wave of acts from both the Netherlands and abroad. From post-punk and indie rock to hip-hop, hyperpop and electronic acts: there will once again be plenty to discover across Eindhoven’s city centre at the end of August. Newly confirmed artists include Def, Harpy, JACOTÉNE, Fauna, Meryl Streek, Nyarko, CROUCH, jev. and DITTER.

Hit The City is a collaboration between Effenaar, Friendly Fire and ASML, and will take place on Friday 28 and Saturday 29 August 2026, preceded by an opening show on Thursday 27 August. With a large outdoor stage at Ketelhuisplein and venues spread throughout the city centre, the festival once again offers plenty of room for both established names and artists you’ll soon be able to say you saw before they blew up.

Eindhoven recently gained a new creative meeting space with Vrijstaat: a venue featuring a stage, skate hall and festival garden right in the heart of the city. During Hit The City, the location will provide the backdrop for summery pop sounds from all corners of the globe. Alongside previously announced headliner Yīn Yīn, visitors can also catch Fauna, whose organic instrumentation and psychedelia effortlessly push toward the dancefloor. The psychedelic pop duo Kit Sebastian and Space Age DJ Collective will also perform there, blending disco, Italo, groove and forgotten gems from around the world into eclectic DJ sets.

The Nieuwe Oude Rechtbank will open its doors to the public for the first time during Hit The City. The distinctive venue immediately receives a fitting line-up: audiences will experience the striking voice of JACOTÉNE, an artist capable of silencing an entire room with ease. Acclaimed singer-songwriter Charlotte OC, praised by Billboard, Vogue and The Independent, is also on the programme, alongside rising pop artist Pixie McCann with her offbeat garage dream pop. Frans Kalf has been upgraded to the Nieuwe Oude Rechtbank and will perform there with a full band. With sharp lyrics, he guides listeners through his bittersweet world under the approving gaze of Ramses Shaffy and Jacques Brel — a place where heartbreak and roaring laughter coexist.

On Stratumseind, Stage Music Café becomes the home for everything balancing between hip-hop, trap and hyperpop. Nyarko combines her Ghanaian roots with Dutch influences into a vibrant afrosound filled with different languages and styles. Congolese-Canadian artist jev. merges experimental hip-hop and R&B into music centred around connection and daring to be different. Meanwhile, Janet Livv moves effortlessly between drum ’n’ bass, UK garage and pop.

Café Prins Hendrik is the place for anyone who prefers experiencing concerts half a metre away from the amplifier. There you’ll find Brussels-based post-punk duo Mek’Dr’Dr, where grooving basslines and chaotic rhythms collide in a live show that makes standing still impossible.

Fans of anything loud and combustible will feel right at home at Dynamo this year. Among the acts is punk producer Meryl Streek, whose experimental electronics and raw punk sound like the world could collapse at any moment. Audiences can also witness alt-metal goddess Harpy with her dark industrial goth-pop, while WIJF unleashes a wall of noise built from vintage stoner rock, sludge and groove. UITZENDBUREAU delivers confrontational music about police, dystopia and the establishment, while CLUB BRAT pushes the chaos even further with an eclectic mix of punk and noise pop.

Just down the road at Café The Jack, HOOFS performs a relentless blend of punk, noise and post-punk. Not exactly music for the faint-hearted — but visitors are welcome to find that out for themselves.

On Saturday, the Main Hall of Effenaar will be taken over by hip-hop artist Def. With his sultry, zeroes-inspired sound, short yet effective tracks and impeccable sense of timing, he has rapidly become one of Gen Z’s most distinctive new voices. His track “Bad Bitches Luisteren Def” went viral on TikTok, catapulting him from the internet straight into packed venues. In the Small Hall, visitors can catch Devon Rexi, an interdimensional dub collective flirting with motorik krautrock, heavily rooted in dub and constantly pushing the boundaries of what music can be.

Meanwhile, Altstadt offers a healthy dose of guitar-driven chaos. Belgian trio DITTER proves that pop and punk can work perfectly together when paired with a strong sense of humour and cynicism. Fans of Arctic Monkeys should not miss Bandit, bringing a gritty yet irresistibly catchy mix of indie, post-punk and shoegaze.

Somewhere between EKKSTACY, Mareux and The Haunted Youth you’ll find Pyo at Café Wilhelmina: a blend of modern post-punk and new wave with a clear nod to the eighties. Also performing is FIEP, delivering indie rock that goes beyond sharp hooks and catchy melodies, recommended for fans of Wet Leg, Porridge Radio and Alvvays. Frisian pop also gets a place at the festival: MAYTE proves that quirky Frisian-language alt-pop works surprisingly well in Brabant.

As summer slowly comes to an end, Hit The City offers one final reason to celebrate Eindhoven together: three days, 100+ artists and seventeen venues spread across the city. With its accessible and wide-ranging programme, the festival contributes to the region’s cultural landscape and once again turns Eindhoven into a central meeting place.

The 24 new names:
Bandit / CLUB BRAT / Charlotte OC / CROUCH / Def / Devon Rexi / DITTER / Fauna / FIEP / Harpy / HOOFS / JACOTÉNE / Janet Livv / jev. / Kit Sebastian / MAYTE / Mek’Dr’Dr / Meryl Streek / Nyarko / Pixie McCann / Pyo / Space Age DJ Collective / WIJF / UITZENDBUREAU + many more to be announced

The whole line-up so far:
Typhoon / S10 / Lambrini Girls / Kevin / Jonna Fraser / High Vis / DEADLETTER / Yīn Yīn / ten56. / Slow Crush / MICHA / Josylvio / jet van der steen / Jack Shore / Elmer / Yazal / Wrong Man / WIJF / Vals Alarm / UITZENDBUREAU / TJE / Supermarkt / Space Age DJ Collective / Snackbar / Silver Lake / Serve / Pyo / PISS / Pixie McCann / New Candys / Nyarko / Mouth Ulcers / Michael Ekow & May / Meryl Streek / Mek’Dr’Dr / MAYTE / Lintworm / LeBlanc / L.A. Sagne / Kit Sebastian / Kirara / Jools / JACOTÉNE / Jesse Hoefnagels / Janet Livv / jev. / Honey I’m Home / HOOFS / Hex Girlfriend / Harpy /Greg Freeman / Glazyhaze / Gallamesh / Gala Dragot / Future Husband / Frozemode / Frans Kalf / FIEP / Fellatio / Fit / Fauna /Def / Devon Rexi / DITTER / Croíthe / CROUCH / Coalmine Canary / CLUB BRAT / Ceebo / Charlotte OC / Brik Tu-Tok / Blair Davie / BLOED / Bandit / Badtime / Badminton / Automatic / Alice Olsthoorn + many more TBA