MUTEK Argentina Ends 5-Day Run With Sold-Out Passes
CULTURE · ARGENTINA
Key Facts
- —The country Argentina, whose capital Buenos Aires has hosted the Montreal-born MUTEK festival of electronic music and digital art since 2017.
- —Why it matters The MUTEK festival puts Buenos Aires on a circuit shared with Montreal, Barcelona, Mexico, Tokyo and Dubai, and draws visitors to the city’s cultural venues.
- —Why now The eighth edition ran from Wednesday 7 to Sunday 11 October; its open-air closing night at La Nube ran into the early hours of Monday.
- —What happened 28 acts listed by the festival played six programmes across five days, from the Teatro San Martín to the Teatro Colón and the city Planetarium.
- —The numbers The five-day pass cost about US$99 and the weekend pass about US$43 at face value. Both sold out, the organisers said.
- —What it means for you For visitors paying in dollars, single nights cost about US$16 to US$30 before service fees, and the passes have already sold out.
- —Still open No attendance figure or closing statement had been published by Monday morning, and the 2027 dates have not been announced.
The MUTEK festival of electronic music and digital art ended its eighth Argentine edition in Buenos Aires on Sunday 11 October, with a closing set scheduled to run into Monday. Five days of shows ran in theatres, a club, an open-air terrace and the city Planetarium. For American visitors the story is access: a full pass cost about US$99, and it sold out.
MUTEK Argentina, the local branch of a network founded in Montreal, ran from Wednesday 7 to Sunday 11 October. The festival’s own website lists 28 acts from Argentina, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Switzerland. The closing programme, Experience, was billed to end in the early hours with the Argentine minimal techno producer Barem.
The headline international name was Satoshi Tomiie, a Japanese producer whose career was built in New York’s house music scene. He was billed twice: a modular synthesiser set at Saturday’s Nocturno and a DJ set at Sunday’s closing.
Five Venues in Five Days
The festival opened on Wednesday 7 October with its flagship A/Visions programme at the Teatro San Martín theatre. Canadian artist Myriam Bleau performed Hypermobility, and the Argentine act Klauss played.
The same night saw the premiere of La Joya, a light sculpture by Martín Huberman and El Estudio Normal. It is built from the optics of 60 car headlights and runs programmed light sequences, according to Infobae and Revista Gente. The piece moved to the Deseo club for Saturday’s programme.
On Thursday 8 October the Experimenta Lab programme was held at the Centro de Experimentación of the Teatro Colón, the opera house’s experimental stage. Single tickets for that night sold out, the festival’s ticket page shows.
Friday’s Play programme ran at Artlab, which Revista Gente describes as the festival’s home. It featured live sets by Drune, Ana Vojnov, Koiwa and SKSSS, the Italian artist 555n (Gadi Sassoon) and a DJ set by Dana Ruh, a German artist based in Berlin.
Saturday’s Nocturno moved to Deseo, a former textile factory in the Villa Ortúzar district with about 2,000 square metres of space. Swiss producer NVST made her first appearance in Argentina there, alongside Carlos Alfonsín, Dana Ruh and Tomiie’s modular set.
A Planetarium Dome and an Open-Air Finale
Sunday split into two programmes. At the Planetario Galileo Galilei in Palermo, the Domo programme screened works made for its 20-metre dome at 5, 6, 7 and 8 p.m. local time.
The French duo Studio Lemercier, Joanie Lemercier and Juliette Bibasse, showed Nebulae in its South American premiere. Japanese artists Manami Sakamoto and Yuri Urano also gave Metaract its first South American screening. The Argentine pair Qoa and Joaquina S. presented a world premiere.
From 6 p.m., the Experience programme took over La Nube, an open-air site on the Costanera Norte riverside. The line-up listed Primeiro, the Chilean singer Paula OS, the duo DIOM, a DJ set by Tomiie and the closing set by Barem.
MUTEK Argentina is run locally by its director general, Gonzalo Solimano. The wider network is led from Montreal by its founder and artistic director, Alain Mongeau, according to the festival’s team page.
What It Means for You
For travellers paying in dollars, Buenos Aires remains one of the cheaper places to see this kind of programme. The figures below use the Central Bank of Argentina’s reference rate of ARS 1,517 per dollar for Friday 9 October.
The general pass, listed as covering five of the six programmes, cost ARS 150,000 (about US$99) before service fees. The weekend pass for Saturday and Sunday cost ARS 65,000 (about US$43). Both had sold out, the organisers said on their ticket page.
Single tickets ranged from ARS 25,000 (about US$16) for the Planetarium screenings to ARS 45,000 (about US$30) for Saturday’s club night. Service charges were extra.
There is a caveat. Exchange rates change, so dollar prices for a future edition may differ. Visitors should also budget for late-night transport, as several programmes ran past midnight.
For music fans, the festival mixes international names with a large local line-up. For the city, it brings audiences into public venues such as the Planetarium and the Teatro Colón. Our MUTEK Argentina in Buenos Aires: Electronic Music and Digital Arts Festival Runs October 7–11 preview set out the programme in September.
The next big electronic date in the city is a different kind of event. Creamfields Buenos Aires 2026 in Argentina: Charlotte de Witte Headlines at the Parque de la Ciudad on November 14.
What Is Not Known
The organisers had not published an attendance figure or a closing statement by Monday morning, Buenos Aires time. It is not known how many single tickets were sold for each night beyond those marked as sold out.
Local outlets previewed the programme and reported on the opening night, but no report on Sunday’s closing had appeared by early Monday. The festival has not yet announced dates for a ninth edition in 2027.
The festival’s partners and any public funding for this edition were not set out in the sources reviewed for this article.
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where did MUTEK Argentina 2026 take place?
The eighth edition ran from Wednesday 7 to Sunday 11 October 2026 in Buenos Aires, at the Teatro San Martín, the Teatro Colón’s experimental centre, Artlab, Deseo, the Planetario Galileo Galilei and La Nube.
How much did MUTEK Argentina tickets cost in US dollars?
The general pass cost ARS 150,000 (about US$99) and the weekend pass ARS 65,000 (about US$43), both sold out. Single nights cost about US$16 to US$30 before fees.
Who played at MUTEK Argentina 2026?
The festival listed 28 acts, including Satoshi Tomiie, NVST, Dana Ruh, Myriam Bleau, Studio Lemercier, Klauss and Barem, who closed the final night.
Sources: MUTEK Argentina, tickets · MUTEK Argentina, Edition 8 · MUTEK Argentina, team · MUTEK Argentina, Satoshi Tomiie profile · Central Bank of Argentina, reference exchange rate · Infobae · Revista Gente · Página|12
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief