Pre-event workshop
Where Culture Collides: Mapping Identity, Friction & Creative Possibility
A hands-on session before the main event. Through identity mapping, participants will uncover the cultures, communities, experiences and places whose friction shape who they are. Cultural collision as an opportunity for greater understanding, connection and creative possibility.
Facilitators: Grace Odumosu & Ayesha Syeddah
Host: Favour Odusola
Film screening
We open with I'm Always Here, a short by Kayleigh Corcoran made through The Close-Up Summer Residency 2026. Across one 1990s summer, an Irish Traveller boy and his Latin American best friend try to hold on to the freedom of childhood while family expectations pull them towards very different futures.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Kayleigh Corcoran, winner of The Close-Up Summer Residency 2026, exploring the story behind I'm Always Here and what it took to bring it to the screen.
Two panels
When Culture Collides, Who Changes?
Moderated by Ayesha Syeddah.
Panelists: Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan,Yves Lorrhan and Raphael Olympio
Are cultural encounters about exchange, or is someone always expected to adapt? What really happens when cultures meet: who compromises, assimilates, translates themselves or makes others comfortable, and who gets to remain unchanged.
What Happens in the Messy Middle?
Moderated by Beatriz Gómez Moreno.
Panelists: Isabella Rinaldi, Anish Tiwari and Jamal Sul
Can misunderstanding, tension and contradiction create something new? Collision isn't always beautiful. This is the uncomfortable, complicated space between cultures, and whether creative breakthroughs come from friction rather than agreement.
Live performances
Music, movement and spoken word, starting with JWY, a Dublin DJ with roots in Ghana, India and Suriname whose sets rarely sit still. Where sounds collide. With movement of Alessandra Azeviche, expect different sounds, stories and cultural influences to meet on one stage. OLYMPIO brings his creative energy to GORM Gathering 2026 with a live performance celebrating culture, identity and self-expression.
And with Tawla Collective's What's In Your Bag?, we explore the stories, identities and cultural experiences we carry with us, and what happens when we bring them into the same space.
Headliner and more performers to be announced.
Connection over food and music
We close over food, where cultural tastes collide on your plate and on your tongue. The conversations that tend to happen in the margins, with something worth eating in front of you.
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