For its eighth edition, WHOLE Festival returns to Ferropolis from July 17 to 20. The former open-pit mining site outside Berlin, defined by five decommissioned excavators frozen above a lake, hosts one of Europe’s most significant gatherings of queer electronic culture. Across four days it becomes a temporary world where music, intimacy and collective care reshape the landscape.

This year’s theme is Enter The Whole. The concept frames the festival as a portal — a deliberate crossing from the outside into a shared space built on presence, participation and queer freedom. Arriving means arriving fully: with attention, openness and responsibility toward each other. The visual language pushes WHOLE’s signature collage universe into hyperpop surrealism and Y2K futurism, moving freely between queer cultures of the past and futures still being made. Ninety percent of tickets are already sold.

Across six stages — Arena, Beach, Crane, Forest, Ambient and Performance — the line-up draws from house, techno, bass music and experimental electronics. Among the first names announced: SHERELLE, HAAi, Octo Octa, D.Dan, Tama Sumo, JASSS, Kim Ann Foxman, Juliana Huxtable, Miss Kittin, Gerd Janson, Chloe Caillet, Freddy K, and many more. The Performance Stage expands this year to sit where club culture meets live art, drag and cabaret. Zebra Katz plays a hybrid live/DJ set — the Berlin-based artist whose 2012 track “Ima Read” became a fixed point in queer club history. MEEK brings her debut year to Ferropolis after “Fabulous” reached No. 1 on Spotify Viral. Vita Pereira arrives with her first solo album, Vita’s House, carrying the electronic underground of São Paulo with her.