Snarky Puppy & Metropole Orkest

A lot of (beautiful) people on stage for the opening of Jazz à la Villette 2026 with the event collaboration between the New York collective Snarky Puppy and the Metropole Orkest. 

Exactly ten years after gracing the stage of the Grande Halle for a truly memorable concert, Snarky Puppy returns with an expanded version of the genre-bending sound that has been the hallmark of their success for the past two decades. Jazz, funk, rhythm and blues, soul, rock, gospel, and contemporary music—the collective has skillfully blended all these musical styles in an American melting pot to create a sound and style all their own. Snarky Puppy reunites with the expansive Metropole Orkest, a Dutch institution also renowned for bridging musical divides. Following their 2015 GRAMMY-winning orchestral suite, Sylva , the two ensembles released Somni in 2025, an album of audacious ambition—a grand crossing of all boundaries—that truly comes alive where it was recorded: live. Unmissable. 

Opening act: Arsenal Mikebe

Gathered around an impressive array of instruments welded together, the Ugandan percussion trio Arsenal Mikebe invites you into a hypnotic trance.

Intoxicating polyrhythms, frenetic runs of acoustic and electronic percussion, wailing vocals, and synthetic drones: the music of the trio Arsenal Mikebe immediately captivates with its uncommon striking power. Based in Kampala, the Ugandan percussionists released a stunning debut album in 2024, the aptly titled DRUM MACHINE , performed on a custom-designed device by sculptor Henry Segamwenge, a cast steel "percussion machine" that incorporates various instruments and tools to create a sound inspired by the legendary TR-808 drum machine. On stage, the three musicians face each other, positioned at the three corners of this imposing triangle, taking their wild trance far beyond their grasp. And the audience with them.