🌐 LANGUAGE / SPRACHE
Sprichst du 🇩🇪 Deutsch, ou 🇨🇦/🇫🇷 Français?
⚠️ The GPN23 will require signing up. For more information, see the "Joining the GPN" section. ⚠️
23rd Goulash Programming Nights (GPN23)
The GPN23 should take place from June 19th 2025 to June 22nd 2025. For 4 long days, prepare yourself for hacking, goulash, presentations, Tschunk (our hacker cocktail), workshops, our lounge, mate, and lots of fun on your device.
Find the complete list of our info feeds over here, to stay informed about everything around the GPN.
"Goulash Programming Nights" almost sounds like a cooking contest for sleep-deprived computer scientists. What started as a gathering of nerds in a basement in Karlsruhe in 2002, steadily grew into one of the largest events by the Chaos Computer Club. The topics are diverse: Hard- and software development are, of course, the heart of the event, along with cyber security. However, many other fascinating topics are welcome here, like data privacy, net politics and many more: How to cook the most delicious goulash? Is it possible to turn hardware waste into shiny jewelry? How does a sewing machine work? How are spaceships steered?
The Goulash Programming Nights (GPN) is hosted by the local Chaos Computer Club community, the Entropia e.V.. About 1500 participants are expected to arrive every year in the halls of the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (HfG) and the lecture rooms in the Center for Art and Media (ZKM). However, it is important to point out that, in spite of some of our presentations and visitors going heavily in-depth in the subjects they explore, the event is not targetting only "techbros and nerds", but the wider public as well. Everyone who desires to learn is most welcome to join, we have something new to learn for all skill levels!
As the name indicates, programming is a center-point of GPNs. The vast halls of the HfG (the "hackcenter") are filled with empty tables, power and network access provided, waiting for participants to settle with their machines. Many arrive to the GPN with a project, aspiring to invest these days (and a few nights) into it. Others may be coming looking for one to start or join during their stay. Regardless, questions are always welcome. Most hackers, when their minds are not transcending into an awakening of pure logical thought from mere focus on their project, are happy to talk about their current tinkerings. You can also expect to find finished projects on open display throughout the event as well. Look forward to fancy lights and devices of all kinds.
Next to programming, the variety of lectures and workshops are also key to the GPNs. The schedule is filled with talks from advanced hard- and software computing, to entertaining and educating anecdotes, like the daily struggles of a computer scientist, all the way to political debates. Solder and tinker workshops may help you to acquire or improve your electronic skills, lightning talks open the stage for spontaneous presentations, and gazing at our demoscene is always a staple of our event.
This year around, the theme of the event is going to be "Hidden Patterns".
Did you already manage to discovers all the patterns hidden? We writers surely did not, and yet: Fascinating structures are often hiding in plain sight in huge amounts of data, waiting to be discovered. It's time to decrypt these patterns and discover the hidden stories they allow us to uncover.
Joining the GPN
As you might've already noticed, in the last years the GPN has gotten a bit cramped. After talking it over with our hosts (and knowing the conditions of their insurance policies), we're sorry to announce that we'll be forced to limit the amount of people allowed to enter the event building. If you're planning to be present for every day of the GPN, you will need to sign up for the event in advance. We do have a small stock of daily tickets that we're going to be giving out for passerbys and folks who couldn't grab a reservation at the event entry, but their amount is very limited and they only allow entry for a single day. Therefore, unlike all of the previous GPNs until now, you will need to sign up in advance if you want your admission into the event building to be guaranteed throughout the event duration.
This only affects access to the buildings, all outside activity in front of the event location is still open to everyone without registration.
As always, you can reserve T-Shirts, Cups, Hodies, etc. while signing up for the event.
Goulash Delicacy Pack
Since we need to strongly reduce our amount of indoor participants, we're forced to require registration for entry. However, while a free registration in limited supply is a recipe for disaster, we really care about keeping entry to the event fully free. To avoid people booking more than what they need, scalpers reselling our registrations, people half-heartedly booking and not freeing the reservation upon deciding they won't come after all, etc, we had to put up some kind of price still. Therefore, starting this year, event registrations are going to be linked to the acquisition of a Goulash Delicacy Pack valued at 10€, which includes a delicious warm meal (or 3 waffles if goulash's not your thing) prepared freshly just for you by our voluntary staff's delicate little hands, and a non-alcohoolic drink at our bar.
We hope the pack's value will encourage people who cannot come to the event after all to ask for a refund, thereby releasing their registration to be claimed by another potential visitor. Until the start of the event, all delicacy packs will be fully refunded.
Please understand that the price exclusively pays for the contents of the delicacy pack, it does not pay your entry and we make no profit off of it. It does not replace your donations, which we still require to keep the event running.
If you want to visit the GPN but cannot buy a Goulash Delicacy Pack, please reach out to friends@gulas.ch. If you made a submission in the CfP that got accepted, you already have a guaranteed reserved spot.
The release date for stocks of Goulash Delicacy Packs have sadly already passed, these were:
- Sunday 27th April at 20:00h
- Thursday 01st May at 14:00h
There's still a chance to acquire Goulash Delicacy Packs however!
Starting May 02nd at 18:00 Uhr, a waitlist has been opened on https://join.gulas.ch/. When a registration is cancelled or had a payment failure, the next person in the waitlist will receive an E-Mail with a coupon code to get the opportunity to buy this delicacy pack. You will have 18h after receiving the E-Mail to finish buying the registration. Otherwise, the coupon will be handed over to the next person in the waiting list. Beware - A spot on the waitlist does not guarantee you will get an opportunity for an entry! Please wait until you actually have your hands on a delicacy pack before making plans to come to Karlsruhe. The goal of this system is of course to try and allow entry to as many people as we can.
Day Passes
Day Passes allow to visit the GPN for a single day, and are meant for people that only pass by for a single day or passerbys who get curious and want to check the event out. If you come from far away to visit our event, you cannot rely on their availability.
We only have a very limited amount of Day Passes to be handed out each day. We communicate the amount of remaining Day Passes via a traffic lights system (Green, Yellow, Red). Green means that we still have lots of them available, Yellow means that we're running out and there may be none left by the time you get to the entrance, Red means we've officially ran out of Day Passes and entry is no longer possible without a registration.
Kids and Teens
You can get free additional reservations for Kids and Teens until 16 next to yours when buying a Goulash Delicacy Pack.
More information on registration in the FAQ.
Helping
As the GPN is organized, set-up and ran exclusively by unpaid volunteers, we encourage visitors to also give a hand in realizing the event. We call "Trolls" the visitors that allow the event to run smoothly (or even at all!) by deciding to offer help during the event. Unlike the internet kind, Trolls are highly regarded here :p This year again, we'll have a "Trolling 101" talk just after the opening, where we'll explain everything there is to know about helping at the GPN and using the Troll System.
Become a cool helper, and sign up to troll us!
Date and Place
19. - 22. June 2025 | Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (HfG) | Lorenzstraße 15 | 76135 Karlsruhe | Germany
Schedule
- Schedule for talks, workshops and meetups: tbd
- Lounge schedule: tbd
- Android App: F-Droid & Google Play
Schedule Overview
tbd
Participating
Call for Participation
Do you have a talk, workshop or meetup idea you'd like to realize at the GPN? Submit it to our CfP!
We're accepting applications until the 31. May 2025. Never stood before a crowd? No worries! We always welcome first-time presenters :3
Any questions? Our Content-Team will be happy to help you and respond to your inquiries over on the Fediverse (@content@gulas.ch) or via E-Mail (content@gulas.ch).
Bring your project!
The GPN is the perfect place to bring over your projects to. We also love to see hardware like 3D Printers, clicking & blinking contraptions, servers, etc.
Although, if your project requires more than a single standard power outlet and/or doesn't fit in your car, please have a chat about it before the start of the event with our organizers at gpn@entropia.de.
Help Us!
The event only works through the help of voluntary helpers from the visitors crowd - the Trolls.
Never trolled before? Unsure whether you can really help? We explain how the system functions thoroughly at GPN23:Trolls. Even if you're already an experienced helper, this page contains a lot of helpful details. This year again, we'll have a "Trolling 101" talk just after the opening, where we'll explain everything there is to know about helping at the GPN and using the Troll System.
Be a cool helper, and sign up as a Troll in the Troll System at troll.gulas.ch today :D
Art and creativity
The GPN is hosted at the ZKM (Center for Media Arts) and the HfG (University for Design) - the perfect place to connect art and hacking!
If you want to get creative and display your art project or decorate the event location, feel free to just bring stuff over and just do it if your project is small! Everything that won't fit on a small table or requires special infrastructure (Water, electricity, internet, ...?) will need extra organization though! Feel free to hit us up at art@gulas.ch, and we'll do our best to make it possible to expose your project :D
Self-Organized Sessions
At the GPN, our visitors give everything about the event shape, and that includes our schedule too. You are welcome to spontaneously host meetups, small workshops, debates, and anything else you may think of! You can list it up over at GPN23:SelfOrganizedSessions for other visitors to find.
Disease Prevention
As with every Chaos event, we put a lot of emphasis on mutual consideration.
If you notice before or during the event that you're exhibiting symptoms of an air-transmissible disease (e.g. common cold or flu symptoms), please, stay at home.
SafeR provides masks if necessary. You are certain about not having an air-transmissible disease, but want to be tested just in case? SafeR can help.
Please also stay home if you are affected by a parasite of any kind (for example, lice, worms, etc).
Please always be careful to wash your hands before partaking in Goulash, other kinds of food and drinks, and especially the breakfast buffet!
Code of Conduct
Our Code of Conduct is located at GPN23:CoC. Please note that it remains a work in progress!
Misc.
Sleeping, phone calls, lesser and bigger topics, questions and their answers, etc:
- Trip planning: GPN23:Arriving, GPN23:RideSharingOpportunities
- Sleeping: GPN23:Sleeping
- Accessibility: GPN:Accessibility
- DECT/Phones: GPN23:DECT
- Network Operation Center (NOC): GPN23:NOC
- Awareness: GPN:Awareness
- Field phones: GPN23:FieldPhones
- Hacker seeks...: GPN23:Dating
- Lost & Found: GPN23:LostAndFound
- Self Organized Sessions: GPN23:SelfOrganizedSessions
- More questions? GPN23:FAQ
Contacting us and Social Media
Do you have any questions that are left unanswered by our FAQ? Get in touch with us through one of our channels:
- Mastodon: @gpn_info@chaos.social for questions, @gulasch@gulas.ch for announcements. (Also available as RSS Feed)
- Matrix: #gpn:entropia.de
- E-Mail: gpn@entropia.de
We have more communication channels and social media accounts listed under GPN:Contact.
Live Streams
Video/Music Content
Images
Our guidelines for what kind of pictures are allowed to be taken are in our FAQ under GPN23:FAQ#Public Space.
Dear photographs - please share your photos in our GPN Gallery! Please don't forget to indicate under which license your works are published.