CloudFest 2025 has started! Our team is heading there and we’re pretty excited about it. If you’ve never heard of CloudFest, it’s basically the biggest internet infrastructure event in the world, happening at Europa-Park in Germany.
We’ll be there soaking it all in, making connections, and hopefully coming back with ideas that’ll make our services faster, smarter and more reliable for our customers.
I wanted to share why we’re so excited and what we’re looking forward to, in case any of you are on the fence about attending or just curious about what goes down at these things.
Images credit: CloudFest
What makes CloudFest different from other tech events?
First off, this isn’t your typical boring conference with stale coffee and awkward small talk. They take over an entire amusement park in Germany’s Black Forest. With over 11,000 people from the cloud industry expected to attend, it’s more festival than conference.
As they say on their website: “We do this because we love technology, we love people, and we’re excited for the possibilities that emerge when brilliant human beings connect.”
That’s the vibe we’re after – the real human connections in an industry that’s becoming increasingly AI-focused (which, ironically, is this year’s theme: “The Human Edge – Finding Your Place in an AI World”).
The crazy stuff we’re looking forward to
The World Server Throwing Championship
Image credit: CloudFest
Yes, you read that right. People literally throwing servers to see who can chuck them the furthest. It’s in its second day this year and includes both men’s and women’s divisions. The winners get to wear the coveted WSTC Belt and apparently the crowd goes “absolutely nuts” when they win.
According to the organizers, “this sport is not just about strength: it’s also about balance, technique, breathing, focus, and the power of what is in your heart.” I’m not sure about that last part, but it sure looks fun! Supposedly this sport has “ancient roots” going back to classical Greece, where ‘discus’ was allegedly the Greek word for ‘server.’ (Sure, guys. Whatever you say.)
High-Ropes Speed Networking
Because normal networking isn’t exciting enough, they’ve moved it above the exhibition area on a high ropes course. Yes… You network while suspended in the air. Their website warns: “Climbing is not permitted during the speed networking slots! Could you imagine accidentally dropping your phone on someone’s head from 10m in the air?”
This is apparently a safety warning they actually needed to include. Only at CloudFest 🙂
The “Ring Stage”
New for 2025, this boxing ring-styled stage hosts fast-paced sessions in what they call “an unusual environment – unusual even for us!” Given everything else I’ve mentioned so far, I’m both curious and slightly concerned about what qualifies as “unusual” by CloudFest standards.
Rollercoasters
The park’s newest rollercoaster, Voltron Nevera, features “seven inversions, four launches, 2.2 seconds of weightlessness in one go and the world’s steepest launch at 105 degrees.” I’m both terrified and can’t wait to try it.
And if this rollercoaster doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, there are plenty others too choose from: The Blue Fire Megacoaster, a smooth launched coaster known for its intense acceleration and thrilling inversions, particularly its final inversion that leaves riders breathless. Silver Star is a massive hypercoaster offering an exhilarating experience with high speeds and a surprising mid-ride break. Lastly, Wodan Timbur Coaster is a wooden coaster celebrated for its high speeds, near misses, and excellent theming, making it a standout among wooden coasters in Europe.
Images credit: Europa Park
The actual business events
Alright, enough about the crazy activities – here’s the more serious stuff we’re looking forward to:
Heavyweight speakers
The speaker lineup is pretty impressive:
- Albert Einstein (wait, what? Apparently some kind of AI or hologram thing)
- Cory Doctorow (EFF) talking about “How Enshittification Conquered the 21st Century”
- Roger Dingledine (The Tor Project) on “The Many Layers of Tor”
- Karlheinz Brandenburg, who created the MP3 format
- A plethora of Internet Hall of Famers and industry leaders
WP Day & Agency Day
Today (March 17) includes WP Day and Agency Day, which seem perfect for smaller providers looking to expand WordPress and agency partnerships. Leaders from Automattic, Elementor, Patchstack and others will be speaking.
The CloudFest Hackathon
This happens right before the main event and includes 10 open-source projects around AI, accessibility, and infrastructure. We’re not participating this year, but we’re interested in seeing the results, which will be presented during the main event.
Image credit: CloudFest
The exhibition hall
With over 100 companies exhibiting, including big names like Intel, NVIDIA, WebPros, Hetzner, and OVHcloud, we’re planning to take full advantage of seeing everyone in one place.
Parties every night (sorry, “networking events”)
Images credit: CloudFest
CloudFest doesn’t do boring cocktail receptions. They have:
- Come2Gather in the Streets Party (Monday): Featuring the “Lords of Uptime,” an all-star band made up of cloud industry leaders
- Shamrock Shake (Tuesday): An Irish-themed party that just misses St. Patrick’s Day
- ConneXion Party (Wednesday): Apparently so epic that “it’s not unheard of to see people wearing sunglasses indoors the following morning”
- BierFest (Thursday): Complete with “steins, songs, sausages” and people in lederhosen standing on tables cracking whips
Images credit: CloudFest
Plus impromptu “pop-up after-parties” that happen throughout the venue. The Colosseo Bar seems to be where a lot of the after-hours connections happen.
Getting there
Europa-Park is in Rust, Germany – a tiny town of just a few thousand people. It’s where Germany, France, and Switzerland meet, so there are plenty of options for getting there:
- Flying into Frankfurt (FRA) or Zurich (ZRH) then taking a train to Offenburg where there’s a free CloudFest shuttle
- CloudFest Airport Express: For €99 you can get directly from Frankfurt Airport to Europa-Park
- Smaller airports like Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden (FKB) or Strasbourg (SXB) are closer but have fewer flights
Basically, they’ve set up an entire transit system just for this event, which is pretty impressive.
Final thoughts
Events like CloudFest remind us why we love this industry. It’s about connecting with other passionate tech people who are building the internet’s infrastructure, learning from them, and maybe having a beer (or several) together while throwing servers across a parking lot.
We’ll be posting daily updates from the event, so if you’re not able to make it this year, you can live vicariously through our experiences. And if you are going to be there – hit us up on LinkedIn! We’d love to connect.
Oh, and if you’re going, download the CloudFest app. Apparently they announce last-minute surprises through it, plus it has a “Booth Party Alert” function that helps you find where the free drinks are. Priorities, people.
See you in Rust!
