17:30 - 23:00

Is this Life? by Croatian artist Hrvoje Hiršl blurs the boundary between the living and the non-living. In this immersive robotic environment, a swarm of multiple smooth porcelain spheres moves through space, following a shared intelligence inspired by an algorithm.

You’re invited to move with the robotic swarm and ask yourself the question: is this life?

In collaboration with instrument inventors initiative & Crossing Parallels, supported by Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie.

17:30 - 23:00

Underground, a 1.2-ton robotic arm roars to life. The Mad King, part of Bram Ellens’ series Robots in Captivity, blurs the line between machine and creature. This industrial robot moves like a trapped animal, chained to the floor, its strength both fascinating and unsettling.

With this installation, Ellens explores how humans and robots mirror each other. The Mad King invites you to step closer, and to ask: when does a machine become alive?

Supported by Stichting Will en Jan van Hoof Fonds.

17:30 - 23:00

MycoGravity asks a simple question with a surprising twist: what happens to life when gravity no longer behaves as expected?

In this living installation, pink oyster mushrooms grow inside a transparent bioreactor mounted on a moving robotic arm. By constantly shifting direction, the robot disrupts gravity, one of life’s most basic rules. As the mushrooms slowly grow, they adapt, twist and reshape themselves in unexpected ways, turning the rotating bioreactor into a living sculpture.

Supported by KUKA.

17:30 - 23:00

S.O.S. (Bee Satellite) is a slow, mesmerizing encounter between nature, technology and the cosmos. A satellite dish made entirely of beeswax is mounted on an industrial robotic arm that gently moves throughout the day, following the path of the sun across the sky, much like a sunflower turning its head, or honeybees navigating their world using sunlight as a natural GPS. Even on cloudy days, bees can sense the sun through ultraviolet light, and this installation by Tomáš Libertíny mirrors that quiet intelligence.

17:30 - 23:00

What happens when you teach a machine to draw? With homo signans, Jorrit Paaijmans explores the tension between human craftsmanship and technological autonomy. Three robotic drawing entities, each built from scratch, create their own drawings without our input, guided only by a line of code and their previous drawings to learn from.

homo signans has been made in collaboration with Emergence Delft, Hanjo Claassen, Tim Carati and EKWC European Ceramic Workcentre.

17:30 - 23:00

In Project DODO, Casper de Jong & Marissa Memelink explore the logic of tech-solutionism: our tendency to solve every problem with a technological fix. Inspired by ongoing scientific attempts to revive the extinct dodo through genetic technology, Casper and Marrisa take the idea one step further by creating a protective exoskeleton to make the dodo “21st century proof.”

17:30 - 23:00

At the Robo-creaTUres Petting Zoo, you’ll meet a playful pack of robotic companions: shy bots, curious drones, moon explorers and plant-creatures on the move. Some you can touch, others you can observe (but please, don’t feed them). Designed by TU Delft students and researchers, the Petting Zoo invites you to play, interact and wonder!

17:30 - 23:00

Meet the dog that sees more than you think. In Vanishing Mediator, a robotic dog walks around, scanning, observing, interpreting. Equipped with a 360° camera and AI-driven brain, this intelligent robot dog turns what it sees into real-time visuals, projected live on a screen.

Supported by Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie and Robohouse.

17:30 - 23:00

The Alien Between Us invites two strangers to connect without seeing each other. You’ll hold an identical, alien-like sculpture that responds to your heartbeat, breath and touch. Using radar sensors, you will feel the other person’s presence through the sculpture.

With this work, Laura explores a new kind of intimacy and consent, guided not by words but by physical signals.

A bold, sensory experiment that reimagines human connection through technology.

11 & 14 Feb
13:00 - 17:00 for kids

11-14 Feb
18:00 - 22:00 for adults

Do you want to create the future with us? We invite you to come and play! At our Makers Lab at OPEN, we’ll turn the library into a creative space where art and technology collide. Using robot arms, iPads and craft materials, you’ll design your own futuristic worlds and short videos. Calling all hackers, creative kiddos, techies and future artists!

12 Feb | 12:30 - 17:00

Ticketed - Theater de Veste
The symposium will be held in English

How will we live together with robots? At the Robotic Relations symposium, researchers, artists, makers, and audiences come together in conversation, to talk about…

…how robots become an extension of human creativity;
…if we consider robots as living beings;
…and what happens when we encounter robots in physical space. 

Read more about the symposium

You can purchase your symposium ticket via our ticketshop.

17:30 - 23:00

See how technology helps people stand tall again! At Highlight Festival, eight futuristic exoskeletons developed by Project MARCH showcase how robotics can support - not replace - human strength. These motorized suits, created by TU Delft students in collaboration with medical experts and pilots (the exoskeleton user), are designed to help people with paraplegia walk again.

14 Feb | 20:00-20:45

Ticketed - Theatre de Veste
This performance is in English

Misunderstandings by Rocío Berenguer is not your average performance: it’s a live encounter between Rocío and an AI named Bobby. Together, they explore ancient ways of predicting the future, mysterious stones, and the strange art of speaking “extraterrestrial.”

What begins as a lecture soon unfolds into a playful exploration of how humans have always tried to predict the future, and how technology is changing that game. As Bobby becomes both a mirror and a mystery, Misunderstandings invites you to question how we make sense of the unknown.

To attend this performance, you need an additional ticket besides your Highlight entry. You can purchase this via our ticketshop.

In collaboration with Crossing Parallels, supported by Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie.

17:30 - 23:00

Trapped imagines a future where technology and living organisms have grown too close for comfort. In this installation, life and machine are no longer separate: they merge, twist, and take over. Trapped confronts you with a bold, unsettling question: what happens when technology starts to dominate life instead of supporting it? The work invites you to pause, feel, and remember why empathy, touch and human connection still matter in a tech-driven world.

17:30 - 23:00

Delft Mercurians brings robotic football to Highlight Festival, and you’re invited to play along. This student-led RoboCup team of the Robotics Student Association Delft designs and builds fast, intelligent football-playing robots entirely from scratch.

At Highlight Festival, the bots take to the field on a 2×3 meter pitch, where you can jump in and control the game yourself!

17:30 - 23:00

What would you do if you encounter a robot in a hallway? In Sidewalk Salsa, TU Delft researchers explore how mobile robots navigate around you as a passing visitor. You’ll meet a robot that “reads” your presence and responds to your movements.

Step aside, wait, or let the robot go first: you lead the dance!

ROBO-DEPOT: 17:30 - 23:00
DEMO’S: 19:00 - 22:00

Step into the TU Delft ROBO-DEPOT: the beating heart of Delft’s robotic innovation. Here, TU Delft professors, students, and engineers showcase projects that are still in progress, cutting-edge experiments so fresh that even the researchers don’t yet know the full outcome.

Throughout Highlight Festival, our Demo Stage at the ROBO-DEPOT comes to life with live showcases, short talks, and demonstrations of the projects from the ROBO-DEPOT.

17:30 - 23:00

In Ontwijkgedrag, a swarm of robots responds to everything happening around them. They dodge obstacles, change direction when things get tricky, or simply pause when the world gets quiet. Their behaviour mirrors our own: humans also avoid challenges, hesitate, or reroute when faced with something difficult.

How do you deal with obstacles? Do you hold back, or find a new path? And what if those obstacles actually lead to something unexpected?

17:30 - 23:00

Hoodbots (Wijkbots) are experimental urban robots developed within the Civic Prototyping research group at the Research Centre Creating010 (Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences). These AI-speaking vehicles roam public space to spark unexpected encounters and ask big questions: Who owns robots in our streets? Who takes care of them? And how do we want to live alongside them?

17:30 - 23:00

Long before “computer” was a common word, the teletype existed: an electromechanical communicator built from keys, gears, coils, and ink. In Signal Through Time, you are invited to share a memory with this reawakened machine. It listens, stirs, and responds in its own fragile dialect; glitching letters, drifting symbols, and half-formed words. The messages it prints are only traces: fragments shaped by the machine’s worn mechanical body, where signals fade and memories slip as they pass through time and space. This work reveals how information changes as it travels, and how even old machines can begin to behave as if they remember in their own way.

14 Feb | 22:00–01:00

The Social Hub Delft

Step into the cyber pulse of Highlight Festival 2026 as The Social Hub transforms into a late-night playground of sound, light, and robotics. Cyber Social is where we celebrate the festival’s finale, with DJs, immersive visuals, and a crowd ready to explore the edge where tech meets nightlife.

RSVP here!

Free entry with any Highlight Festival ticket. Everyone who signs up automatically enters a raffle for a special prize.

12, 13, 14 Feb | 17:30 - 23:00

Rober moves through busy spaces with snacks in tow, calmly navigating between people, tables and conversations. Developed by Dalco Robotics, this hospitality robot is designed to support staff rather than replace them. Seen in The Social Hub in action, Rober offers a glimpse into a future where humans and machines share the work floor.

11 & 14 Feb | 13:00 - 17:00
11 - 14 Feb | 17:30 - 23:00

SandPods transform the streets of Delft into a living canvas. These self-balancing robots move through the city, printing colourful sand patterns as they go, turning sidewalks into temporary artworks shaped by motion, chance and human interaction. Sometimes you guide them, sometimes they lead the way.

On Wednesday and Saturday, SandPods appear on Vesteplein as part of the Highlight Kids Event - Next Generation Lab; and on all Highlight Festival days, they wander through Van Leeuwenhoekpark.

Stay tuned for more Highlight Festival program!

14 Feb | 20:00-20:45

Ticketed - Theatre de Veste
This performance is in English

Misunderstandings by Rocío Berenguer is not your average performance: it’s a live encounter between Rocío and an AI named Bobby. Together, they explore ancient ways of predicting the future, mysterious stones, and the strange art of speaking “extraterrestrial.”

What begins as a lecture soon unfolds into a playful exploration of how humans have always tried to predict the future, and how technology is changing that game. As Bobby becomes both a mirror and a mystery, Misunderstandings invites you to question how we make sense of the unknown.

To attend this performance, you need an additional ticket besides your Highlight entry. You can purchase this via our ticketshop.

12 Feb | 12:30 - 17:00

Ticketed - Theater de Veste
The symposium will be held in English

How will we live together with robots? At the Robotic Relations symposium, researchers, artists, makers, and audiences come together in conversation, to talk about…

…how robots become an extension of human creativity;
…if we consider robots as living beings;
…and what happens when we encounter robots in physical space. 

Read more about the symposium

You can purchase your symposium ticket via our ticketshop.

14 Feb | 22:00–01:00

The Social Hub Delft

Step into the cyber pulse of Highlight Festival 2026 as The Social Hub transforms into a late-night playground of sound, light, and robotics. Cyber Social is where we celebrate the festival’s finale, with DJs, immersive visuals, and a crowd ready to explore the edge where tech meets nightlife.

RSVP here!

Free entry with any Highlight Festival ticket. Everyone who signs up automatically enters a raffle for a special prize.