Updates
What has actually been decided, in the order it was decided. No teasers, no countdowns.
How this page works
We post here when something is fixed — a city, a date, a venue, a partner — and not before. That means this page is sometimes quiet for weeks. It also means anything on it can be relied on.
- 2026-09 Partner applications open Nine steps, about four minutes. Founding partners help shape the programme before it is fixed.
The first entries appear as soon as the Dortmund contract is countersigned. Until then, the newsletter is the fastest way to hear about it.
Subscribe instead
If you would rather not check a page, the newsletter carries the same items. Three or four emails a year, one click to unsubscribe.
Still open
What is not decided yet, and what it waits on.
The honest version of a countdown. Each of these becomes an entry above the moment it is signed — not the moment it looks likely.
The venue
Agreed in principle, in contract. Everything with a floor plan on it waits for this signature.
The dates
Fixed together with the venue, because the hall's calendar decides them and not the other way round.
Ticket sales
Opens once venue and dates are both contracted, on this site and by mail on the same day.
The programme
Curated from proposals once the dates exist, published as a filterable timetable and moving until the week before.
The exhibitor list
Grows from the first countersigned contract. It shows signed exhibitors only, which is what makes it worth reading.
The roadmap
In this order, not at this speed
01
The decision for Europe
After İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir and Antalya it is settled that the festival gets a European chapter. Dortmund is decided as the city.
02
Venue and dates
Hall, ground and calendar week hang on the contract. Until it is signed we name no date — not even approximately.
03
Presale
Starts together with the venue announcement. Anyone on the newsletter hears on the same day; there is no pre-emption right.
04
Exhibitor list
Published once the areas are allocated. We are collecting applications already.
05
Programme
Coffee Talks, workshops and the music programme appear in stages rather than all at once — otherwise half of it would later read differently.
06
The festival
Four days in Dortmund, 2027. Thursday for the trade, then the public.
How we communicate
Three rules we hold to
A project announcing itself three years before the date has plenty of time to spend trust badly. So the same three rules apply to every item.
Nothing before the signature
No partner, no venue, no date is named before it stands contractually. Good conversations are not a result.
Open points stay visible
What is not yet settled does not vanish from the communication but stands there as an open point — with what it depends on.
The list hears first
Venue announcement, presale start and exhibitor list go to the newsletter before they appear anywhere else.
On the procedure
What stands here has been signed
This page is deliberately short. It carries no intentions and no states of negotiation, only what is contractually fixed — with a date. Anything else would be an announcement, and we have read enough announcements.
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