The Barcelona Decidim Fest 2025 is jointly organised by the Decidim Association and the Ajuntament de Barcelona (Barcelona City Council), and takes place from 16 to 18 October 2025 in Barcelona. The event is the annual gathering of the global Decidim community — a worldwide network of cities, organisations, and developers committed to advancing digital democracy through open-source participatory governance tools.
Decidim, which means "we decide" in Catalan, is an open-source digital platform originally developed by Barcelona's municipal government to enable citizen participation in urban decision-making. Since its launch, the platform has been adopted by hundreds of cities and organisations worldwide, powering participatory budgeting processes, collaborative policy drafting, and public consultations at every level of government.
The Decidim Fest brings together software developers, municipal officials, democratic innovation researchers, and civic activists to share experiences, showcase new features and integrations, and discuss the future of digital democracy. Key topics include best practices for implementing participatory budgeting at city scale, technical workshops on deploying and customising the Decidim platform, strategies for scaling citizen participation across diverse cultural and political contexts, and the role of open-source governance tools in strengthening democratic accountability.
Sessions also explore how digital participation platforms can be made more inclusive and accessible, addressing challenges such as digital literacy gaps, language barriers, and the engagement of underrepresented communities. The programme features hands-on workshops, lightning talks from cities around the world sharing their Decidim implementations, and strategic discussions on the platform's governance and development roadmap. For anyone interested in the intersection of technology and democracy, this festival is a unique opportunity to engage with the world's leading community of digital participation practitioners.