Cercle is teaming with the ESA and CNES for a first-of-its-kind “Space Dome” featuring astronaut talks, VR installations and an address from the International Space Station ahead of the festival’s May 2026 return.
Cercle‘s legacy has been built on turning UNESCO backdrops and architectural icons into the world’s most elegant rave stages. But for Cercle Festival 2026, the Paris-born collective is embracing a change of scenery inspired by outer space.
Cercle has announced a partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES), the French government’s space agency, that will see the installation of a dedicated “Space Dome” at the center of the festival, a first-of-its-kind fixture at a European music event.
The dome is designed as a science-forward hub rather than a sponsored lounge, with programming that will include talks with astronauts and experts of the space industry as well as immersive activations spanning VR and other sensory technologies. ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot is set to kick off the weekend with an address recorded from the International Space Station.
Cercle’s rise has always been about staging electronic music inside places that already carry a sense of awe, where the setting does part of the storytelling. The genre has long borrowed the imagery of space exploration and created art from the cosmos, and now the two areas are merging at one of the world’s finest air-and-space museums.
Cercle Festival returns May 22-24 to the tarmac of the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace with three stages “set beneath landmarks of aeronautical and space history,” according to a press release. This year’s lineup includes Eric Prydz, ARTBAT, Lane 8, Michael Bibi, Sammy Virji and more.