A big stage full of big names will open Jazz à la Villette 2026 through the headlining collab between New York collective Snarky Puppy and the Metropole Orkest.

Ten years to the day since crowding the stage of the Grande Halle for a concert we’ll never forget, Snarky Puppy is back with a supersized version of the genre-fusing performances that have had such success for two whole decades. Jazz, funk, rhythm and blues, soul, rock, gospel, contemporary music – the collective deftly blends it all into an American melting pot, managing to pull out their own unique style and sound. Today, Snarky Puppy is meeting the many musicians of the Metropole Orkest, a Dutch institution similarly famous for its ability to build bridges between styles. Following Sylva in 2015 – an orchestral suite that won them a GRAMMY – the two groups released Somni in 2025, an album with the wild ambition of breaking down borders, which sounds best when it goes back to where it was recorded: on stage. Unmissable.

Opening act:  Arsenal Mikebe

Gathered around an impressive arsenal of instruments sculpted together as one, Ugandan percussionist trio Arsenal Mikebe leads listeners into a hypnotic trance.

From mesmerising polyrhythms and unbridled runs of acoustic and electronic percussion to ululating voices and synthetic drones, Arsenal Mikebe’s music is immediately ear-catching through the power of its unique beat. Based in Kampala, the Ugandan percussionists released their first groundbreaking album in 2024: the aptly named DRUM MACHINE, performed on a custom-made machine sculpted by Henry Segamwenge. This steel-cast “percussion machine” combines a range of instruments and tools to build a sound inspired by the legendary TR-808 Rhythm Composer. On stage, the three musicians face off, standing at the three points of their impressive triangle to take their wild trance to its max. While bringing the audience along for the ride.