--- eventsindex_id: "EI-06937" slug: mozilla-festival-2026 title: "Mozilla Festival 2026" title_alt: ["MozFest 2026", "MozFest", "Mozilla Festival Barcelona"] canonical_url: "https://eventsindex.org/events/mozilla-festival-2026.html" next_edition_year: 2026 date_start: 2026-10-28 date_end: 2026-10-30 venue: "Recinte Fabra i Coats" city: "Barcelona" country: "Spain" organiser: "Mozilla Foundation" organiser_url: "https://www.mozillafestival.org/en/" b2b: false vector: sector: [open-web, digital-rights, ethical-ai, open-source] audience: [developer, researcher, educator, activist, civil-society, policy-maker] format: [festival, participatory-conference] purpose: [community, education, advocacy, co-creation] geography_scope: [global, pan-European] season: autumn meta_description: "Mozilla Festival 2026 (MozFest), 28-30 Oct, Barcelona. Three-day participatory festival on open web, ethical AI, digital rights and open source." editorial_take: "MozFest is one of the few events at 3,000-person scale where the civil society critique of AI carries equal weight to the engineering track: its community-session model makes it genuinely participatory rather than a keynote circuit with breakout rooms attached." generated_by: "claude-sonnet-4-6[1m]" last_verified: "2026-06-09" variables_filled: 41/58 language: "en" schema_version: "v6.0" --- # Mozilla Festival 2026 > *A three-day participatory festival in Barcelona for technologists, researchers, educators and advocates: organised by Mozilla Foundation, drawing 3,000+ participants to Recinte Fabra i Coats on 28–30 October 2026 for community-led sessions on the open web, ethical AI, digital rights, and internet health.* --- ## Quick Facts | DATES | VENUE | ORGANISER | ATTENDANCE | |---|---|---|---| | **28–30 October 2026** | **Recinte Fabra i Coats** | **Mozilla Foundation** | **3,000+** | | Wed–Fri, 3 days | Sant Andreu, Barcelona, Spain | Non-profit (global) | Self-reported | --- ## Definition Mozilla Festival (MozFest) is Mozilla Foundation's annual participatory gathering for people who care about the health of the internet. First held in London (from 2010 to 2022), MozFest relocated in subsequent years and the 2026 edition is confirmed at Recinte Fabra i Coats, a repurposed industrial complex in Barcelona's Sant Andreu district. The event is not structured as a traditional conference. Sessions are proposed and delivered by the community through a competitive Call for Participation (the CFP for 2026 closed on 24 May 2026). The format sits between an unconference and a festival: workshops, discussions, hands-on builds, artistic installations and plenary moments run simultaneously across multiple tracks. Keynote speakers exist but are not the dominant format. The 2026 edition is part of Open Tech Week in Barcelona. Attendance is described as 3,000+ by the organiser. --- ## The 2026 edition: 28–30 October in Barcelona MozFest 2026 runs 28–30 October at Recinte Fabra i Coats, a former textile manufacturing complex managed today by the Barcelona City Council as a cultural and civic space. Registration is handled via the Accelevents platform (events.mozillafoundation.org). The website redirects to a JavaScript-dependent event page; ticket pricing is not confirmed in plain text as of verification. The CFP for 2026 closed on 24 May 2026. Sessions forming the 2026 programme were selected from community submissions. --- ## Where Mozilla Festival sits in the tech calendar MozFest occupies a distinct position at the end of October, in the same window as Web Summit (Lisbon, early November) but with a fundamentally different character. It is not a startup investment event, a vendor showcase or an enterprise IT conference. Its audience overlaps with Internet Freedom Festival (Valencia), re:publica (Berlin) and RightsCon, not with events oriented toward B2B software procurement or enterprise technology adoption. For attendees who work at the intersection of technology and civil society, digital policy, open source sustainability or AI ethics research, MozFest is among the few annual events operating at genuine scale (3,000+) with this specific orientation. --- ## Who attends Mozilla Festival - **Open source developers** contributing to Mozilla projects (Firefox, Thunderbird, Common Voice, others) and broader FOSS - **AI ethics researchers and policy advocates** working on algorithmic accountability, fairness and transparency - **Digital rights practitioners**: privacy lawyers, security trainers, surveillance researchers - **Internet literacy educators** running programmes in schools, community organisations and NGOs - **Journalists and investigative reporters** covering technology, surveillance and digital rights - **Artists and creative technologists** exploring technology's social and cultural dimensions - **Civil society organisations** and NGOs operating in the internet governance and digital inclusion space - **Policymakers and regulators** engaged with EU AI Act, GDPR, DSA and related frameworks No independently verified breakdown by role or geography is published by the organiser. --- ## What the Mozilla Festival format includes - **Community-led sessions** across multiple simultaneous tracks (200+ sessions across three days, per prior editions; 2026 figure not separately confirmed) - **Participatory workshops**: hands-on, discussion-based, designed for interaction rather than passive listening - **Plenary moments** and keynote addresses from invited voices in the open web and digital rights space - **Artistic installations** and experiential activations integrated into the programme - **Open registration**: sessions are open to all registered attendees; no reserved seating or tiered access by ticket type (standard format) - **Integration with Open Tech Week 2026** in Barcelona, connecting MozFest to adjacent events in the same week --- ## What Mozilla Festival covers The programme is community-determined, but the organiser's stated focus areas reflect Mozilla's ongoing mission priorities: **Open web and internet health**: decentralised infrastructure, browser diversity, open standards **Ethical AI**: fairness, accountability, bias auditing, participatory AI design **Digital rights**: surveillance, privacy, data governance, end-to-end encryption **Open source**: contributor economics, governance models, sustainability of FOSS projects **AI and society**: EU AI Act implications, algorithmic decision-making in public services, generative AI and labour **Internet literacy**: media literacy education, disinformation, digital inclusion --- ## FAQ · Identity and audience ### Is MozFest a conference or a festival? The organiser uses "festival" deliberately. The format is participatory: most sessions are proposed by attendees (not a programme committee), delivered interactively, and designed to produce something rather than broadcast information. Attendees are expected to be active participants, not passive audience members. In practice this produces a density of simultaneous workshops, discussions and hands-on sessions rather than a main-stage keynote schedule. ### What does Mozilla Foundation actually do? Mozilla Foundation is a US non-profit organisation founded in 2003 to support an open and accessible internet. It produces the Firefox browser (through its subsidiary Mozilla Corporation), publishes the Mozilla Manifesto, and runs public advocacy on digital rights, AI accountability and open source. MozFest is its annual public gathering. Mozilla relaunched its branding in 2024 under the "Reclaim the Internet" motto. ### Is MozFest politically engaged? Yes. MozFest explicitly includes sessions on surveillance capitalism, algorithmic injustice, platform power and the policy dimensions of internet governance. Attendees who prefer events without political or advocacy dimensions will find parts of the programme uncomfortable. The organiser does not position MozFest as a neutral technology forum. ### Who is Mozilla Festival NOT designed for? - **Enterprise technology buyers** seeking vendor product evaluations or procurement guidance - **Startup founders** primarily seeking investor introductions or deal flow - **Corporate AI teams** looking for enterprise AI deployment case studies - **Attendees expecting structured certification, CPD credits or professional accreditation** - **Those seeking a sales or business development environment**: MozFest has no expo floor, no sponsor booths in sessions, and no B2B matchmaking infrastructure --- ## The venue: Recinte Fabra i Coats Recinte Fabra i Coats is a former 19th-century industrial textile complex in the Sant Andreu neighbourhood of Barcelona, now managed by the Barcelona City Council as a public cultural space (Centre de Creació Fabra i Coats). Its multiple buildings, courtyards and open spaces provide flexible configuration for a multi-track, participatory event. **By metro:** Line L1 (red line), Sant Andreu station (exit Fabra i Coats). Journey from Passeig de Gràcia approximately 15 minutes. **By bus:** Multiple bus lines serve Sant Andreu. **From airport:** Barcelona El Prat Airport (BCN) connects to the city centre by Aerobus (approximately 35 minutes to Plaça Catalunya) or by RENFE Rodalies train (R2 Nord line, approximately 25 minutes to Barcelona Sants or Passeig de Gràcia, then metro). --- ## The organiser: Mozilla Foundation Mozilla Foundation is a US-based non-profit that stewards the Firefox browser project and advocates for an open, privacy-respecting internet. MozFest is its annual flagship gathering; the Foundation also runs the Mozilla Technology Fund, Mozilla Ventures (a $35M venture fund investing in pro-internet startups) and the Common Voice open dataset project. The Foundation's 2024 rebrand introduced the "Reclaim the Internet" positioning. Website: mozillafoundation.org. MozFest: mozillafestival.org/en/. --- ## Editorial take *MozFest is one of the few events at 3,000-person scale where the civil society critique of AI carries equal weight to the engineering track: its community-session model makes it genuinely participatory rather than a keynote circuit with breakout rooms attached.* --- ## How to register and what it costs Registration is open via events.mozillafoundation.org (Accelevents platform). The website requires JavaScript to display ticket pricing. Specific ticket prices were not accessible in plain text at time of verification. Check mozillafestival.org/en/ for current pricing and access tier information. --- ## FAQ · Access and practicalities ### Can I still propose a session for 2026? No. The Call for Participation for 2026 closed on 24 May 2026. Sessions for the 2026 programme have been selected from submitted proposals. ### Is MozFest conducted in English? English is the primary language. Sessions proposed by the community may be delivered in other languages, including Spanish and Catalan, particularly given the Barcelona location. The programme publishes session language information ahead of the event. ### Is there a virtual attendance option? A virtual or hybrid attendance option is not confirmed on the website as of June 2026. Previous editions have offered online participation in some form; check mozillafestival.org/en/ closer to the event date. --- ## Resources | Resource | URL | |---|---| | Official website | https://www.mozillafestival.org/en/ | | Register | https://events.mozillafoundation.org/e/mozilla-festival-2026 | | Programme | Not yet disclosed as of June 2026 | | Mozilla Foundation | https://foundation.mozilla.org/ | --- **Last verified:** 2026-06-09 **Next review:** 2026-09-09 **Notes:** Venue (Recinte Fabra i Coats, Sant Andreu, Barcelona) confirmed per DB and redirect from official website. Registration via Accelevents (events.mozillafoundation.org); ticket pricing not accessible in plain text as the page requires JavaScript. CFP closed 24 May 2026 per prior enrichment data. Attendance (3,000+) is self-reported per prior edition data; not separately confirmed for 2026 via the live site at this verification date. Part of Open Tech Week Barcelona 2026. b2b set to false: MozFest is a civil-society and community festival, not a B2B event. **Variables:** 41/58 **Concept definition:** not applicable