Reeperbahn Festival Conference 2025: society, the future, music – they’re all awaiting you

“Imagine Togetherness!” – perhaps a motto that sounds like a pop song from better times, but it will be a reality this year on Spielbudenplatz. The Reeperbahn Festival welcomes you: not just to celebrate, network, marvel and discover music, but also to think, speak and create together. This year’s conference is more than a sidekick event to the music – it is an intellectual powerhouse with heart, attitude and a broadening of horizons.

Social upheavals, digital participation, feminist perspectives and sustainable transformation – four partner conferences bring their very own vision of “togetherness” to the stage and make the 2025 conference an interdisciplinary firework display.

re:publica Hamburg – when internet politics meets the stage

Between Reeperbahn romance and server farms: re:publica Hamburg returns to the Schmidt Theatre on 18 and 19 September – and brings discourse to a stage normally filled by singing musical actors. This will be the third re:publica event in cooperation with the Reeperbahn Festival! In the usual pointed tone, topics of discussion will include digital society, media, technology and everything in between. We will learn what politicians like Ricarda Lang or Heidi Reichinnek have to tell us about what Wahlkampf 2.0 [election campaigning in the digital age] looks like, what cultural trend scout and columnist Isabelle Rogat has to say on AI, gender and internet culture and what answers generative AI offers to the complex questions of modern emancipation and sex positivity. Funded by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, the question posed here is how can digital participation work equitably in reality? If you love the internet, but also have some doubts about it, this is the right place for you.

Afro-Futuristic Convention – empowerment in surround sound

FUTURE FEMALE AFRICA are presenting the Afro-Futuristic Convention on festival Friday. It is an intercontinental event that will make the Reeperbahn the weather vane of the future of Africa. Initiated by Onejiru Arfmann, the convention opens up a space for global voices, new narratives and artistic activism.

In the middle: FUTURE FREQUENCIES, an immersive programme of performances, talks and art. Sound meets attitude, body meets vision, empowerment meets audience. The MHH campaign “PUSH THE RED BUTTON – Activate Change” will be launched also at the same time. The focus? Menstrual Health & Hygiene – not as a marginal issue, but as a revolutionary act of visualisation. A real goosebumps moment – and not only for FLINTA*.

Sustain! – for a green today, not just a green tomorrow

18 September will also turn green. The Changency and Green Events Hamburg are sending a clear signal for the sustainable transformation of the culture and events industry with the SUSTAIN! event. This is not about buzzwords, it’s about substance: greenwashing, greenhushing, climate psychology, as well as very practical tools for awareness work and fair ticketing. What costs more – saving the world or business as usual?  It is the big question. Together with experts from business and culture, the event will discuss what a fairer, more sustainable economy can look like and whether sustainability might even be financially worthwhile in the end. The event will be moderated by climate journalist Louisa Schneider, and panellists will include among others Stephan Thanscheidt (FKP Scorpio), Franziska Altenrath (FC St. Pauli) and Dr Katharina Reuter (BNW). The event invites the audience to participate in discussions.

The big question: how do we create change that is not only promised, but is also fulfilled? A conference like a compass for everyone who not only wants to celebrate but also to save the cultural sector.

NEXT Conference – thinking of the end as a beginning

“This is the end”. That’s this year’s motto of the NEXT Conference, which will take the tech world to the heart of the Reeperbahn on 18 September. But don’t worry, the end here is not apocalyptic, but transformative: how are society, industries and identities changing? And what can we make of that change?

Between disruption, design and deep dive, the NEXT Conference invites you to embrace the unknown. If you want to change perspectives, radically rethink things and lose just a little bit of control, this is the right place.

Access and tickets

All holders of a conference ticket have access to the entire Reeperbahn Festival Conference, including all partner events. Those who have a festival ticket can also visit the conferences – and vice versa. Tickets are available here.

In summary: conference as a statement

The Reeperbahn Festival Conference 2025 is not a marathon of panels for business card collectors. It is a laboratory, a resonance room, a place of possibilities. If you are longing for exchange, for perspectives outside the normal and for ideas that inspire not only on PowerPoint, but also on the stage – do not miss this event.

“Imagine Togetherness” is not just a motto; it’s a promise. And in 2025 it will be fulfilled.