What Is Mozilla Festival and How Can I Get Involved?

Mozilla Festival (often called MozFest) is the Mozilla Foundation's community gathering for people who want to shape a better technology future. The next edition is confirmed on the Foundation's site: Mozilla Festival 2026, October 28–30, in Barcelona, and the site's call to action is "Get your badges now!" If you want to attend, the practical first step is to claim a badge through the Mozilla Festival link on mozillafoundation.org; if you can't attend in person, you can still follow the Foundation's community and newsletter for updates.

What Mozilla Festival is

MozFest sits inside the Mozilla Foundation's broader mission: "Make good tech the norm. Make good things together. Make good ideas matter." The Foundation describes itself as leading "the movement for a better technology future—powered by people, open by design, and fueled by imagination," with more than two decades of global impact.

The Festival is where that mission becomes a gathering. It connects the Foundation's global community around the idea of building "alternative digital futures" and is listed on the site under the banner "Be with community."

Key details at a glance

How to get involved

1. Get a badge. The site's Festival callout says "Mozilla Festival 2026: Get your badges now!" Treat this as the entry point for attendance — badges are how the Festival frames participation.
2. Join the wider community. The Foundation invites people to "Be with community" and to "Be a force for good technology." Its newsletter sign-up is the ongoing channel for announcements; note that after signing up you may need to confirm your opt-in via an email in your inbox or spam folder.
3. Bring a project or idea. The Festival's framing — "Make good things together. Make good ideas matter" — points to collaborative, builder-oriented participation rather than passive attendance.

Who tends to show up

The Foundation's community spotlights give a sense of the Festival's crowd:

• Surabhi Srivastava, a "Festival Wrangler," works at the intersection of media and AI ethics at RNW Media in the Netherlands, focused on giving diverse groups "a voice, and the decision-making power to co-design and co-create tech that serves public interest."
• Dr. Mary Mwadulo, a faculty member, is reimagining tech education in Kenya as Dean of Computing and Informatics at Meru University, arguing that building better technology "is not just about coding, it's about understanding people's needs."
• Irvin Chen, a longtime contributor and volunteer community lead for the Mozilla Taiwan Community, has worked on Firefox, Support Mozilla (SUMO), MDN, and Common Voice.

If your interest is open-source, AI ethics, digital rights, or community-led tech, that's the kind of work MozFest is built around.

Other ways to engage beyond the Festival

The Foundation's site points to several adjacent entry points:

• Mozilla Data Collective (MDC) — described as "rebuilding the AI data ecosystem with communities at the centre," with the invitation to "Create, Curate, Control."
• Learning and education — "Tech education that empowers, for everyone," under "Learn with us."
• Grants — the Foundation reports $35m in grants awarded for a good technology future, alongside 6m+ people in its global movement and 1m+ global voices donated for a more diverse internet.
• Nothing Personal — a counterculture magazine for independent thinkers, for those who want to read "from the front lines of digital culture."

Common snags

• Sign-up errors happen. The site itself notes that if something goes wrong, a signup may not complete and you'll need to try again.
• Confirmation is required. If you haven't previously confirmed your opt-in to a Mozilla Foundation-related email subscription, you may have to do so before it takes effect — check your inbox or spam filter.
• Badges are the gate. The site doesn't publish a separate registration path beyond the badge callout, so start there rather than assuming you can simply show up.

For the most current dates, badge availability, and program details, go directly to mozillafoundation.org and follow the Mozilla Festival link.