Tremor 2025: The Ultimate Insider Music Festival

Forbes

19-04-2025

Asmâa Hamzaoui and Bnat Timbouktou, Tremor Festival 2025
Paul Allen/Andfotography2
Taking place every April on the Azores island of São Miguel, Tremor, a five-day experimental music festival, is an extraordinary, magical event, full of surprises. Situated in the heart of the Atlantic Ocean, the Azores are an autonomous Portuguese archipelago located about 1,400 kilometers from Lisbon and nearly 1,900 kilometers from North America. These isolated, volcanic islands, spread across the ocean, provide a breathtaking and secluded backdrop for an unforgettable musical experience.
Why the Eye, Tremor Festival 2025
Paul Allen/Andfotography2
April 2025 was the eleventh year of a festival that features a range of music by Portuguese and international artists, in wonderful indoor settings and spectacular outdoor venues. Each gig is around 45 minutes long and some overlap in different locations so choices have to be made. But that's part of the fun and adds to the sense of discovery and adventure. And another feature of the clever programming that makes this festival really special are hikes in gorgeous natural settings that involve performances en route and daily 'secret gigs' in surprising locations. Audiences don't know where the gigs are until two hours beforehand and the actual gigs are a complete surprise as well. These mysterious gigs are just one reason this festival always sells out months in advance.
Fulu Miziki at Tremor 2025
Paul Allen/Andfotography2
Tickets for Tremor 2026 have just been released (booking details below). While the festival has expanded considerably since the first one-day event with 300 tickets sold, current festival ticket sales remain capped at 2,000 attendees. This is a deliberate choice of the four festival directors as they are keen to keep the festival intimate and also to not overwhelm the island's infrastructure and local population.
Joseph Keckler at Tremor 2025
Paul Allen/Andfotography2
Among the many highlights this year were gigs featuring women musicians, including a Moroccan band in a botanical garden with hot springs, a Portuguese female guitar virtuoso and a flute solo by a very young member of a youth orchestra, mentored by a famous French jazz saxophonist. There were many more wonderful moments in a festival that fuses sounds and artistic expressions from across the globe, coming together in one of the most stunning and secluded places on Earth.
Perhaps the most magical moment of Tremor 2025 was during a walk through a beautiful wood when we encountered Asmâa Hamzaoui and her group Bnat Timbouktou seated beside a tree, performing Gnawa spiritual songs. The group brings a refreshing energy to this ancient art form originating from Morocco. Though women are essential to Gnawa rituals, there have been very few female Gnawa musicians, something Asmâa Hamzaoui aims to change. The guembri, a lute played in a percussive style, the rhythmic percussion of qraqeb (iron castanets) and Asmâa Hamzaoui's expressive voice created a mesmerising soundscape that floated around the idyllic outdoor setting.
The Zenmenn, Tremor Festival 2025
Paul Allen/Andfotography2
Held in the mountainous, serene surroundings of the Reserva Florestal, a protected forest area in the hills of the Azores, this intimate show's unconventional location added an air of mystique and exclusivity to the event. A forest trail opened up to a large field with a small stage in the center. Using a synthesizer and blending the old with the new, the organic with the electric, and the harmonic with the rhythmic, the trio created a chilled mix of both traditional Western and Eastern sounds.
The Swedish experimental supergroup Fire came together in 2009, led by a core trio of saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, bassist Johan Berthling and drummer Andreas Werliin. Merging elements of free jazz, psychedelic rock, and noise, the group creates a distinctive and adventurous sound. Known for their fearless improvisation and genre-defying performances, the trio's performance in a hall, on the grounds of a former convent, was a 45-minute, intense, non-stop wall of sound. Gustafsson's explosive saxophone lines, Berthling's deep, rhythmic bass and Werliin's commanding percussion blew the crowd away.
One of the most fantastical (and entertaining) concerts of the festival was from Why the Eye, a Belgian experimental masked quartet playing on DIY instruments at a remote lakeside location. The group describes their music as "Prehistoric Techno" probably because they perform with homemade instruments and laptops while wearing bizarre furry masks. Their noisy and experimental sound ecouraged listeners to join the lead singer in a wild, energetic dance.
Another thrilling surprise for festival goers was Joseph Keckler who, using a laptop, piano and a projector, gave one of the most electrifying performances at Tremor. Celebrated for his operatic vocals and dark humor, the American artist took to the stage where he transformed mundane tales into surreal, poignant experiences. It's no surprise he's received rave reviews including from The New York Times who described him as a "major talent who shatters conventional boundaries." Mr Keckler's theatrical performance included haunting ballads, mesmerising storytelling, eerie grooves and comic autobiographical arias on sex with a ghost and buying too much vinyl clothing. Ranging from baritone to falsetto, Keckler captivated the audience with his powerful voice and unique artistry.
The main concert venue at Tremor is on the seafront in a cavernous warehouse space, ideal for the exuberant Afrofuturist Congolese group, Fulu Miziki (music from garbage in Lingala). And in fact, the music ensemble make all their own instruments, costumes and masks from recycled materials. Their music combines raw, percussive energy with elements of traditional Congolese rhythms, noise and avant-garde experimentation. Each performance is a visual spectacle, with members wearing elaborate costumes inspired by African culture and futuristic visions. Their upcycled instruments — fashioned from items like PVC pipes, discarded metal, and plastic — created a distinct, infectious sound that had the entire crowd joyously dancing.
In a fishing village once described as the poorest in Portugal traditional Azorean music met contemporary rap. Filmmaker Diogo Lima became DJ Gaivota for the evening. Also on stage was the crew that Resident Advisor dubbed the "Azorean DJ collective Convidados." And on the docks, Som Sim Zero, a group made up of deaf performers and art collective Ondamarela, regaled the crowd with choral singing, psychedelica, traditional songs and spoken word. Their energy was contagious and you didn't have to understand Portuguese to revel in the joyful experience.
Eugénia, Auditório Luís de Camões, Tremor Festival 2025
Vera Marmelo
Eugénia Contente, a guitarist from Ponta Delgada, wove her Azorean roots with jazz-fusion in a dynamic performance. Born in 1992 in Ponta Delgada, Ms Contente discovered her passion for the guitar at the age of nine and honed her skills at the famous Lisbon jazz venue, Hot Clube de Portugal. Her trio played from her debut album, Duckontente. to an adoring crowd.
Fidju Kitxora, Portas do Ma
Vera Marmelo
The main Tremor dockside hub hosted an artist who divides his time between Lisbon and Cape Verde. Blending field recordings, atmospheric synthesisers, and vocal samples, Fidju Kitxora created a distinctive, memorable soundscape.
In a lively collaboration with French saxophonist, Guillaume Perret, the Rabo de Peixe Music School performed a winning combination of jazz, electronic music, rock and funk to an appreciative crowd. A surprise was a beautiful solo by young flautist, Maia. And treating the audience to his own solo at the end, Guillaume Perret showed off his creative use of pedals and effects to expand the saxophone's sonic capabilities.
Oko Ebombo at Tremor Festival 2025
Paul Allen/Andfotography2
Parisian multidisciplinary artist Oko Ebombo mixes poetry, hip hop, soul and dance, inspired by his own life and urban experiences. His charismatic movements, combined with hip hop and soul, greatly appealed to an admiring audience at the dockside main venue.
Portuguese-born, Cape Verde based Ari experiments with beatbox and percussion. He was accompanied by dynamic French dancer Débora N'Jiokou who specialises in hip hop and house. Tremor was the first time they'd performed together and what a gorgeous, captivating debut it was.
Azores Sao Miguel, Miradouro da Vista do Rei, Sete Cidades,, aerial drone view
getty
São Miguel is a two-hour flight from Lisbon and Oporto and a six-hour flight from Boston or New York. TAP Air Portugal offers daily flights from London Heathrow and London Gatwick to Ponta Delgada, via Lisbon. An optional free stopover in Lisbon on the way there or back is a great way to extend your trip and see more of Portugal. If traveling from North America, TAP flies from Boston, Chicago, Miami, Montreal, New York, San Francisco, Toronto and Washington to the Azores, via Lisbon and offers the same free stopovers.
Tremor 2026 will run 24–28 March. Ticket sales, are to be released in tiers at different prices as follows: From Friday, 18 April 2025, the first 400 tickets were released at the €80 early bird rate. Once those are gone, the next 400 tickets will be priced at €90. All remaining tickets will be available at the standard price of €100.