Istanbul Cocktail Festival returns to Life Park on Saturday 19 September and Sunday 20 September for its ALL STAR edition, organized by Wonder Wheel Agency. Celebrating more than a decade of bringing cocktail culture, gastronomy, music, and lifestyle experiences together, the festival revisits some of the artists, bars, brands, and concepts that have shaped its history. Zeynep Bastık, Bedük, Büyük Ev Ablukada, and Jakuzi lead a two-day music program also featuring Emir Yargın with Klas Pop, Aslı Bekiro, Cem Pilevneli, and Kardelen, while signature cocktails, food concepts, workshops, and interactive experiences run throughout the weekend. Tickets are available via BuBilet.
The ALL STAR theme looks back across the festival’s history while maintaining the combination of live music and cocktail culture at its core. Beyond the concerts, participating bars will serve signature creations throughout the weekend, accompanied by gastronomy offerings, workshops, brand experiences, and activity areas spread across the two days.
Saturday 19 September: Zeynep Bastık, Bedük & More
Zeynep Bastık leads Saturday’s program as one of the defining Turkish pop artists of her generation. After first reaching a broad audience through acoustic interpretations and collaborations shared online, she transformed that visibility into a substantial catalog of original material, with songs including “Uslanmıyor Bu,” “Ara,” and “Lan” becoming major contemporary pop hits. Her music combines direct, melodic songwriting with modern electronic production, while her progression from intimate acoustic sessions to large-scale concerts has made her one of the most prominent live performers in Turkish pop today.
Bedük brings a different kind of pop energy to Saturday’s lineup. A longtime presence in Turkish electronic music, the singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist built his reputation by combining electro-pop, funk, disco, and dance music at a time when that crossover occupied a much smaller space in the local mainstream. Albums including Even Better and GO helped establish his colorful, high-energy approach, with tracks such as “Automatik” and “Electric Girl” becoming enduring fixtures of his catalog. His live shows have remained central to his identity, translating tightly produced electronic songs into a performance style rooted in movement, rhythm, and audience interaction.
Saturday’s program also features Emir Yargın with Klas Pop and Aslı Bekiro. Yargın’s Klas Pop concept approaches familiar pop culture through his characteristically playful musical perspective, while Bekiro adds another dimension to a day built around accessible, energetic sounds and recognizable personalities.
Sunday 20 September: Büyük Ev Ablukada, Jakuzi & More
Büyük Ev Ablukada headline Sunday’s program, bringing one of the most distinctive catalogs to emerge from Turkey’s independent music scene. Formed in the late 2000s, the collective developed a cult following through unconventional songwriting, distinctive stage identities, and concerts that challenged the usual boundaries between performer and audience. Their sound has continually evolved, moving from the intimate acoustic character captured on Full Faça toward electric, psychedelic, and increasingly electronic territory. That willingness to reshape their own musical language has allowed them to remain a singular presence in alternative music well beyond the scene from which they first emerged.
Jakuzi have followed an equally individual path, but through the darker vocabulary of synth-pop, new wave, and post-punk. Emerging internationally with Fantezi Müzik, the project attracted attention for pairing Turkish-language songwriting with cold synthesizers, drum machines, melancholic melodies, and influences associated with the darker European pop of the 1980s. Subsequent releases expanded that foundation without losing its emotional directness, establishing Jakuzi as one of the Turkish alternative acts to find a meaningful audience well beyond the country’s borders.
Cem Pilevneli and Kardelen complete Sunday’s music program, extending the day beyond its two principal acts and into a broader selection of contemporary independent sounds. Together, the weekend’s lineup moves comfortably between mainstream pop, electronic music, alternative rock, synth-pop, and DJ culture, reflecting the eclectic musical identity that has accompanied Istanbul Cocktail Festival throughout its history.
Across two days, the ALL STAR edition brings together the different strands that have defined Istanbul Cocktail Festival over the years, from live music and DJ sets to cocktails, gastronomy, and creative experiences. With returning favorites alongside a broad mix of contemporary artists, the weekend serves as both a celebration of the festival’s history and another chapter in its continuing evolution.
For more information, be sure to follow the Instagram pages for Istanbul Cocktail Festival and Wonder Wheel Agency. Tickets are available via BuBilet.
Bahçeköy Yeni, Bahçeköy Cd. No:114, 34473 Sarıyer
