We’ll quickly rip off the band-aid and simply say: “Unfortunately, we don’t know!”
At the end of 2025, we decided not to organise a 2026 edition of The Art Department Berlin. It was a difficult but also necessary decision since we were planning a proper celebration of our 20 years anniversary, trying to gather as many people as possible in one place.
While it wasn’t, and still isn’t, our intention to completely cancel the event in Berlin, we now know for sure we will not be able to make a return in 2027.
We want to assure you we did not reach this decision lightly. We are however still very busy working on the new format of Playgrounds Festival that will be replacing The Art Department Eindhoven starting with 2027. In addition, given the various challenges the creative industry is facing, we don’t want to find ourselves in the situation of not being able to deliver the festival we feel our community deserves.
We definitely want to return to Germany as we know it’s a central and easy to access meeting point for our community. We are also open to and looking into alternatives for Berlin. But for the time being, we want to once again welcome everybody to join us for Playgrounds Fest 2027 in Eindhoven!