Lucid Dreams 2026

Lucid Dreams: Happy Palace is a laboratory, a stage and a space for reflection all in one. The festival invites its visitors into a palace of perception – an ephemeral, sensory architecture of hope, situated between inner landscapes and outer worlds, between desire and creation, between the real and the virtual. As in previous years, we had the privilege of supporting the festival as a studio, providing coaching and artistic-technical input, and assisting the students with the realisation and presentation of their work.

What is happiness in the digital age? In May 2026, the Lucid Dreams Festival returns with the theme Happy Palace. Once again, the stage in the courtyard in St. Pölten will become a walk-through art trail: a labyrinth of interactive installations, spatial soundscapes, XR/AR constellations and performative rituals. Students, lecturers and international guests from, amongst others, University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten, PJATK Warsaw and KISD Cologne will present works that explore how we inhabit, programme, distort and protect happiness.