Walking Festival of Sound is a transdisciplinary event exploring the role of walking through and listening to our everyday surroundings. It combines a number of free and public events including walking performances, walking seminars and listening sessions, all taking place in diverse public spaces and online. Walking Festival of Sound facilitates a meeting point for the international network of practitioners and researchers interested in sound and walking. Through diverse events we explore how walking and listening practices can augment and challenge the way we perceive, navigate through, and care for our shared environments. In 2019 the festival took place in two cities, Stockholm, Sweden and Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. In April 2021, the festival moved to Krakow, Poland and Edinburgh, Scotland. In 2022, the festival visited Seoul, Korea and Vancouver, Canada. Zurich, Switzerland, was the festival's site in 2024. In 2026, the festival takes place in Boston and Cambridge, USA.



The festival was founded and is directed by
Jacek Smolicki and Tim Shaw

Contact us by sending an email to info[at]wfos[dot]net


Diligently supported by: friendliness, conviviality, mutuality, and insubordinate forms of cross- and non-institutional attentiveness.

WFoS 2019 was funded by Newcastle University Institute for Creative Arts.
WFoS 2021 was funded by European Cultural Foundation's Culture of Solidarity Grant. 2021 events were also facilitated thanks to Jacek Smolicki's postdoctoral artistic research funded by the Swedish Research Council between 2020-2023.
WFoS 2022 was funded by Vancouver New Music and Arts Council Korea.
WFoS 2024 was funded by The Collegium Helveticum, the joint Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) of ETH Zurich, the University of Zurich, and the Zurich University of the Arts.
WFoS 2026 is supported by Harvard ArtLab, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Loeb Fellowship, Harvard Arnold Arboretum, Harvard Shelemay Sound Lab.

Design: Jacek Smolicki / Ekoton Studio