SEE YOU AT WHOLE: A WHOLE New World Awaits you in 2025

WHOLE Festival 2025 Programme

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Returning for its seventh edition from July 18–21, 2025, WHOLE Festival once again transforms the dystopian playground of Ferropolis — the legendary “Iron City” of Gräfenhainichen — into a queer utopia under the peak of the German summer. Just a few hours south of Berlin, WHOLE is an annual pilgrimage for thousands, opening a three-day portal for music, community, and radical celebration.

A Butt Plug Spaceship To Another Galaxy

This year’s theme — WHOLE New World — promises a delirious voyage into another dimension. In a surreal teaser video by Liam Schnell, a butt plug-shaped spaceship packed with ecstatic aliens launches into orbit, bound for a raving queer planet where difference is sacred and joy is the law. Set to SOPHIE’s Whole New World / Pretend World and a remix by SOPHIE & Doss, the teaser is a loving tribute to the iconic artist whose influence still pulses through queer dancefloors worldwide.

A Sonic & Sensual Playground

Building on past success, WHOLE cements its place as a global leader of queer festival culture. Six distinct stages — Arena, Beach, Crane, Forest, Ambient, and Performance — promise an immersive sonic and visual odyssey: DJ sets, live acts, workshops, panels, art installations, and lazy beach afternoons. This year, the beloved Crane Stage extends its hours until 2 AM, giving night owls extra room to dance beneath the iron giants.

Cruising, Community & Radical Play

The festival’s iconic Cruising Village returns, curated by diverse crews blending soft and hard play, with a dedicated FLINTA* area. A WHOLE classic — the legendary Douching Station — reclaims its rightful place. Also returning is the much-loved TRINA Tent, a BIPoC-created haven for diasporic communities with body activation workshops, BIPoC speed dating, thought-provoking panels, and liberating DJ sets for collective release.

An Expansive Lineup

WHOLE 2025’s lineup is a kaleidoscope of cutting-edge global talent: I.JORDAN, Romy, Tygapaw, AHADADREAM, DJ AYA b2b THC, Dana Montana, Rakans b2b AGY3NA, Ellen Allien b2b Dr. Rubinstein, Blasha & Allatt, Nene H b2b Badsista, Wallis, OK Williams, Shaun J. Wright b2b Kiddy Smile (their first-ever b2b, closing the festival), The Blessed Madonna, Shanti Celeste b2b Jennifer Loveless, Fafi Abdel Nour, DJ Holographic, Lakuti b2b Tama Sumo, Josh Caffee b2b NIKS, and so many more experimental, innovative artists.

On the Performance Stage, expect show-stopping sets from M¥SS KETA, Milan’s masked high priestess of chaos-pop. Also, enjoy the performance of Miss Bashful x DBBD, Berlin’s whispering witch of the rave. They weave sensual rituals of sound and desire. Joining them are collectives ADIRA — celebrating queer Arab* identities with Arabic-pop and anti-orientalist vibes — and SWEAT, a trans and queer crew crafting inclusive raves in Copenhagen and Berlin.

A Global Tapestry of Collectives

WHOLE’s ever-expanding family of crews welcomes first-timers like Berlin’s Fluid Vision and Power Dance Club, plus Augsburg’s HAMAM Nights. The lineup reaches from Barcelona (Me Siento Extraña) to San Francisco (MÜLL), Bangkok (NONNONNON), Tbilisi (Eau De Cologne), Bogotá (Bulto), Santiago de Chile (Fiesta Dame), Los Angeles (Signal), and Lisbon (CURVS). Berlin’s local powerhouses — Body Language, Buttons, Cocktail d’Amore, Gegen, Herrensauna, Lecken, Lunchbox Candy, Pornceptual, Puticlub, and WEEEIRDOS — hold the city’s queer heartbeat at its core.

The Crane Stage embodies WHOLE’s genre-bending DNA, kicking off with Kilowatt, a Black-run electronic and techno collective, and spicing up the weekend with Brazilian Funk trailblazers Irmãs de Pau. Sunday wraps with Brooklyn’s iconic QTPoC. nightlife collective Papi Juice and Berlin’s beloved queer LatinX bash PutiClub.

Meanwhile, the Ambient Stage deepens its embrace with immersive live sets, conceptual soundscapes, and intimate storytelling by artists like Arewà Basit and Juliana Huxtable, plus collectives like African Acid Is The Future, kwia, Infinity Rug, Futurehood, and Tabloid Press.

Space for All: Care, Consent & Sober Realities

Beyond the dancefloors, WHOLE 2025 invites you into its softer galaxies: from sensual touch, radical consent, and yoga to writing workshops and queer speed dating. A standout is the Safety & Self-Defence workshop by Queens Against Borders. The Solidarity Program grows stronger — offering free festival access for 150 marginalized attendees, prioritizing refugees, BIPoC, trans, disabled, and fat folks, with community donations keeping the portal open.

The Sober Space returns bigger than ever, hosted by Connecting Passions and Lemonade Queers, creating a warm, judgment-free zone for sober and sober-curious ravers with daily 12-step meetings, crafts, grounding rituals, and conversations about sobriety, sex, and care.

See You At WHOLE — where everyone wears the crown.

Photos by @REDORBLUEONE