NextNOW Fest 2026: Explore 7 Can’t-Miss Picks

Crochet something. Catch a comedy show. Swap clothes, browse books and zines, dance to a DJ or check out a car show. This year’s NextNOW Fest, kicking off Wednesday, welcomes the community back to campus with more than 50 free performances, workshops, exhibitions and other creative experiences. 

This year, the annual multiday arts festival will take place at an even wider range of spaces. Alongside longtime hubs like The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center and the Adele H. Stamp Student Union, events will pop up at Hornbake Library, in the Memorial Chapel and even on the shore of Lake Artemesia, where festivalgoers can head for a guided hike, picnic and sun printing workshop.

Presented and produced by The Clarice, NextNOW Fest brings together UMD student groups, academic departments and local and touring artists, and is a signature event of the university’s Arts for All initiative.

For Artistic Planning Fellow Victoria Uleck ’27, who remembers attending NextNOW as a first-year student, it’s a “great way to meet people and try new things.” 

“NextNOW is a low-pressure way to explore student organizations and activity on campus,” she said. “There are so many pockets of activities to explore with new or old friends.” 

We caught up with some of the students, staff and faculty behind this year’s programming. Here are their favorite picks:

From everyday commuter cars to pristine vintage sports cars, art cars and even a vintage fire truck, an eclectic fleet will roll into Tawes Plaza for the “Road Work Car Show.” The pop-up accompanies “Road Work,” a multimedia exhibition curated by Ava Burke, MFA candidate in studio art and winner of the 2026 John Dorsey Prize for Outstanding Curatorial Practice, at UMD’s Herman Maril Gallery exploring roads, infrastructure and car culture.

It’s one of several exhibitions opening during NextNOW: “Landline” at the UMD Art Gallery examines homeland, memory and belonging through the work of contemporary Muslim artists; the David C. Driskell Center marks its 25th anniversary with “Jubilee”; the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library celebrates “For Everyone,” marking 50 years of the local nonprofit Dance Exchange; the Stamp Gallery’s “Afterhours” examines obsolescence, utility and value; and Marta Pérez García’s “Bearing Witness” in H.J. Patterson Hall acknowledges the escalation of domestic violence against women during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bring a yoga mat, blanket or cushion and settle into the Memorial Chapel for an immersive hour of sound, stillness and restorative rest. In “Resonant Futures: Sound as a Portal,” sound healing practitioner and artist Estephanie Rose will fill the chapel with vibrations from crystal singing bowls, flute, gong, ocean drum and Andean instruments.

Rose, a first-generation Peruvian American artist and founder of Sound & Movement, draws on ancestral memory and the music, movement and stories carried through her family. The experience also incorporates Bhramari Pranayama, a yogic breathing meditation using gentle humming, and concludes with community reflection.

In “Where We Meet,” Arts for All Artist in Residence Kate Eberstadt blends live music, storytelling and quantum physics concepts to explore the question: Can we use music to connect with people that we're separated from in space and time? 

Part concert, part experiment and part staged essay, the autobiographical solo show grew from Eberstadt’s questions about how we remain connected to people we can no longer reach. The show culminates in a musical “experiment” that invites the audience to participate. NextNOW audiences will get an early look at the work, now in development off-Broadway. 

Seven local DJs will take turns behind the decks at the Terp Marketplace this year, part of a bigger emphasis on an art form that NextNOW organizers see as a way to bring people together through music and dance.

“We’re making a conscious attempt to make space for people to linger and appreciate the music, plus uplifting people working in this art form,” said Uleck, who helped book the lineup. The DJs, which include UMD students, will bring house, techno, EDM and more.

The energy continues with the Silent Disc-Glo, where festivalgoers can don wireless headphones and dance to their choice of three live DJs.