Registration for CloudFest 2026 is now open, and as we begin the experience for the 22nd edition of the world’s #1 internet infrastructure event, we are eager to re-earn that top spot as we prepare to welcome an expected 10,000 attendees.
That’s right, friends… it’s time for an experiment!
CloudFest is an amazing experience just as it is… and that’s why we have to change it. After so many years of producing this festival, we’ve let go of the idea that there is a fixed notion of “the perfect CloudFest”—because the world is always changing, the internet infrastructure industry is always changing, and the individual people who make up this community are always changing. As you may have already guessed, the secret to staying the #1 Cloud industry event in the world is to never sit still.
So each year we try to produce the perfect CloudFest to meet that particular moment. If CloudFest 2026 will be your first time at one of our events, you’ll say to yourself, “Wow… I had no idea a B2B conference could feel like this!” If it’s your second or fifth or 10th or 20th time, you’ll say, “Wow… this feels shiny and new! Now I know what Madonna was talking about!”
We are changing and adding many things to CloudFest 2026, based on three main criteria:
- Making it easier to learn and share ideas around the key theme
- Accommodating up to 10,000 attendees as we evolve into a larger festival that still feels intimate, immediate, and immersive
- Things we think will be really cool
The two previews we’re sharing today hit all three of those criteria.
CloudFest Lab: A Space We Build Together
CloudFest Lab is a brand-new 1000sqm indoor-outdoor space, which will include a stage, cafe, and exhibition area. This really is a laboratory environment, where we will experiment with new presentation formats and new kinds of engagement.
A lab seems like the ideal way to meet the moment we are all facing, where things are just changing so damned fast. CloudFest Lab will be the first thing you see as you approach the Main Entrance this year, and therefore it is also the new location for the main Registration and Information Desk.
This is the full CloudFest floorplan, to give you an idea of how CloudFest Lab fits into the larger festival experience.
Topic Tracks: New Ways to Explore Our Main Theme
We are also changing from daily subthemes to a program of five topic tracks to serve the main theme of “The Sustainability of Everything”. It’s a big, bold theme—and we want to be sure that you are approaching it in ways that make sense to your business in terms of focus and actionability. These are the six topic tracks, which will run concurrently throughout the festival:
- Cybersecurity & Compliance
- AI-Powered Cloud Solutions
- Corporate IT Evolved
- Data Sovereignty
- Finding the Future
You can explore the five topic tracks here. (Another reason not to miss the opening session: the agenda planning team and our advisors will be discussing how we came to this concept, why it’s so important to reframe how we approach a main theme, and what to look for once the main program starts.
Since I’m writing this in early November, we still have several months until CloudFest 2026 kicks off at Europa-Park. The whole team is using that time to develop new ideas and refine existing concepts to make the whole experience more valuable for attendees and partners alike.
A Little Too Crazy?
We’re finally doing a beer garden this year, but some ideas did not make it onto the final list. Our Chief Evangelist Soeren von Varchmin came up with the idea of an edible stage, and I actually researched how to make that a reality.
The short version: it’s technically possible, but it would taste terrible. So don’t take a bite out of any stages once you get to CloudFest 2026. I suggest not even licking them, but I”m not going to micromanage you.
Check out more of what’s new, and be sure that you plan to stay from the very first moment until the very last.
The Center of the Cloud Universe
CloudFest 2026 takes place March 23-26 at Europa-Park in Germany’s Black Forest. For those four days, the CloudFest community is twice the size of the population of the town—it’s the center of the universe for anyone who works in or with the Cloud. Besides CSPs, we also welcome web hosters, MSPs, domain name service providers, telecoms, AI experts, policy and digital sovereignty advisors, web agencies, open source contributors, and corporate IT leaders; all from different backgrounds and different parts of the world—from Berlin-based CEO to coders in rural Uganda. As a thank-you for reading this far, those in that core audience can use the code CODE to register for free.
See you at CloudFest!
