about this event
Festiverse 2026 🪔✨ The World's Biggest Festival Hackathon. Code for culture. Build for the world. From the festival of lights and joy, Festiverse is becoming a global gathering of builders, dreamers, creators, engineers, designers, founders, artists, and storytellers who want to imagine how the world will celebrate in the future.
Festiverse is a global hackathon where culture meets technology, tradition meets imagination, and celebration becomes something we can build together. This year's theme is: Festivals in the Age of AI 🪔🤖✨ How will people celebrate in the future? How will AI, apps, agents, voice, AR, payments, creator tools, social platforms, community technology, and immersive experiences transform the way we celebrate festivals, holidays, rituals, and cultural moments? From Diwali to Christmas, Holi, Eid, Lunar New Year, Dashain, Thanksgiving, local street festivals, family gatherings, and new digital traditions, Festiverse invites participants to build products that make celebration more meaningful, accessible, creative, connected, and joyful.
A Celebration, Not Just a Hackathon 🎇 Festiverse is designed to feel fun, welcoming, colorful, and full of energy. Expect a weekend of building, meeting amazing people, sharing culture, wearing festive outfits, enjoying food and drinks, taking photos, making memories, and celebrating what the future of festivals could look like.
San Francisco will be the main stage, bringing together builders from one of the world's most creative technology ecosystems. Global hackathon hubs include: NY • Tokyo • Seoul • London • Mumbai. More global participation details will be announced soon. Venue details will be announced soon.
The Challenge 🎆 The main problem statement is: Festivals in the Age of AI. Participants are challenged to build something that reimagines how people celebrate, organize, share, preserve, and experience festivals in the future. Your project can focus on culture, community, creativity, logistics, storytelling, payments, commerce, accessibility, safety, travel, food, gifting, family coordination, event discovery, virtual celebration, or anything else connected to festivals and celebration.
Tracks include Culture and Community, AI and Celebration, Creator and Media, Commerce and Gifting, Access and Inclusion, and Open Innovation. Sponsor tracks will be announced soon. Prizes will be announced soon, with winners potentially recognized across categories including Grand Prize, Best AI Project, Best Cultural Impact, Best Design, Best Technical Execution, Best Community Project, Best Commerce or Gifting Project, Most Creative Festival Experience, and Sponsor Track Winners.
Sponsors and partners will be displayed soon. Festiverse is open to partnerships with AI companies, developer platforms, cultural organizations, universities, community groups, creator platforms, food and beverage brands, fintech companies, local businesses, and global festival communities.
Attendees are encouraged to wear traditional attire, cultural outfits, or festive clothing. Food, drinks, snacks, and essential hackathon support will be provided throughout the event. Power will be available with multiple power strips, though participants are encouraged to bring their own chargers and adapters.
Teams can have 1 to 4 people. Solo builders are welcome. All participants must apply and be approved before attending. Participants must bring a valid government issued ID. Visa and travel support may be available where possible.
Photos and videos will be taken during the event for event memories, social media, recap content, sponsor updates, and future Festiverse promotions.
Festiverse is designed to be a welcoming, respectful, and inclusive space. All attendees are expected to treat others with kindness, respect cultural differences, and help create a safe environment for builders from every background.
The full schedule and agenda will be announced soon. Expect check in, opening remarks, team formation, hacking time, mentor support, food breaks, project submissions, demos, judging, awards, and closing celebration.
tracks
Culture and Community
Build tools that help people preserve traditions, connect with family, organize communities, or celebrate cultural identity.
AI and Celebration
Use AI to create new ways of planning, personalizing, storytelling, translating, recommending, or experiencing festivals.
Creator and Media
Build experiences for photos, videos, music, digital art, stories, live streams, avatars, performances, or festival content creation.
Commerce and Gifting
Build tools for festival shopping, gifting, local vendors, food ordering, creator marketplaces, ticketing, payments, or donations.
Access and Inclusion
Create products that make festivals easier to participate in for elders, immigrants, people with disabilities, remote families, multilingual communities, and first time attendees.
Open Innovation
Build anything bold, useful, beautiful, emotional, or unexpected that fits the theme of festivals and celebration.
when
Festiverse 2026: Diwali Hackathon
Main hackathon day.
◍ San Francisco (venue details to be announced)tickets
| tickets | price | Fee | Status | description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Admission | Free | TBA | Available | Registration for Festiverse 2026: Diwali Hackathon. All participants must apply and be approved before attending. |
prizes
| # | PRIZE | price |
|---|---|---|
| Grand Prize | To be announced | TBA |
| Best AI Project | To be announced | TBA |
| Best Cultural Impact | To be announced | TBA |
| Best Design | To be announced | TBA |
| Best Technical Execution | To be announced | TBA |
| Best Community Project | To be announced | TBA |
| Best Commerce or Gifting Project | To be announced | TBA |
| Most Creative Festival Experience | To be announced | TBA |
| Sponsor Track Winners | To be announced | TBA |