The two themes were further explored in various parts of the festival’s programme, such as in the exhibition Ways of Water in Melkweg, for which artists explored the relationship between humans and water through photography and art installations. As part of an online film programme in collaboration with the film platforms Cinetree and Peper, films were shown that thematically tied in with the programme, such as Africa's Great Civilizations, a six-part series from Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and the compelling documentary Regard Noir, in which actress and director Aïssa Maïga goes on an international journey to answer the question: why is there so little room for diversity in the world of film and television?
There were also lots of conversations with and about artists, such as in Conversations, in the podcast introductions by De Groene Amsterdammer and Meet the artists, in addition to the various performances. In Afro Beats; from High Life to Amapiano, Angelo Bromet interviewed two experts about the origins of beats and rhythms. For Who’s talking?, writers Kamel Daoud and Nazmiye Oral talked about the importance of representation and the corresponding dos and don’ts. The conclusion from this conversation about authorship, perception, literature and contrariness was that the question is not ‘who can say what?’, but that the first thing to ask should be: ‘how do you say something?’
An eight-day programme was put together inspired by various pieces featured at the festival: Manifesto for the living in a time of extinction. For this programme, ROEF placed a glasshouse on the roof of the Q-Park Westergasfabriek parking garage. This was, among other things, the location for the Future Festival Meet-up, which explored possibilities for more sustainable organising in collaboration with fellow festival Eurosonic Noorderslag and Green Events. There were various workshops, like one about rivers by The All Rivers and Species Act, inspired by Altamira 2042 from Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha, as well as workshops about gardening provided by Bloei & Groei. On the final day of this programme series, the audience learned to look at the climate crisis from different perspectives during two panels. Farmer and maker Anne van Leeuwen closed the programme with a manifesto in the form of an interactive walk on the roof that connected the various programs together.
Sustainability was a central theme throughout the programme, so naturally efforts were also made to host the event sustainably, for example by using as little energy-intensive technology as possible. The decision to build a glasshouse on a roof, devised by programme partner ROEF, made people more aware of the untapped potential of urban rooftops.