FOSDEM 2026
On 2026-01-31 and 2026-02-01, the Free and Open Source Software Developers' European Meeting FOSDEM 2026 will take place in Brussels, Belgium.
Naturally a Gentoo crowd will be there.
People coming to FOSDEM
Please add yourself if you're not listed yet!
Gentoo Developers
| Nick | Arrival | Departure | Will be at Dinner (TBD) | Signed up for stand | Talk | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sam James (Sam) | Friday afternoon | Monday afternoon | Yes | No | The saga of official binary packages for Gentoo Linux | |
| Andreas K. Hüttel (Dilfridge) | Thursday late night | Monday afternoon | Yes | Yes | The saga of official binary packages for Gentoo Linux | |
| Fabian Groffen (grobian) | Friday late afternoon | Sunday afternoon | Yes | No | No | |
| Viorel Munteanu (Viorel) | Friday | Monday | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Arsen Arsenović (Arsen) | Friday | Sunday | Yes | No | No | |
| Ulrich Müller (ulm) | Friday afternoon | Sunday evening | Yes | Yes | No | |
| David Seifert (soap) | Friday afternoon | Sunday evening | Yes | No | No |
Users, Friends, Guests, ...
| Nick | Arrival | Departure | Will be at Dinner (TBD) | Talk | Comments | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lucio Sauer (Antecrescent) | Friday afternoon | Sunday afternoon | Yes, with a friend | No | ||
| DarthGandalf | Friday evening | Monday morning | Yes | No | ||
| Leah (Doasu) | Friday afternoon | Monday dawn | Yes, with three friends | No | Coming with my student club. | |
| Filip Kobierski (FKobi) | Friday afternoon? | Monday morning? | No? | No | Coming as FSFE staffer: probably will spend most time working | |
| 1vybridge | Friday evening | Sunday evening | Yes | No | ||
| Marcos (neutroniak) | Friday afternoon | ? | Yes | No | ||
| navi | ? | Monday morning | Yes, with spouse | No | ||
| Terin Stock (terinjokes) | Friday afternoon | Monday morning | Yes | No | ||
| akpall | Friday evening | Monday evening | Yes (+3 friends) | No | ||
| Axkn | Friday afternoon | Sunday evening | Yes | No | ||
| Vadorovsky | Friday evening | Monday afternoon | Yes | Yes | ||
| Lanodan | Friday noon | Monday afternoon | Yes | No | Vegetarian | |
| Chiron8 | Friday Evening | Sunday Afternoon | Yes, with a friend | No | Friend is vegetarian | |
| Pescu | Saturday morning | Sunday Afternoon | No | No | ||
| Raiku | Friday evening | Monday morning | Yes (+2 friends) | No | ||
| Nils Freydank (holgersson) | Friday evening | Monday morning | Yes | No | might bring pre-printed GPG keys for signing rituals ;) | |
| negril | Friday evening | Monday noon | Yes | No | wants to talk about pbins ;) | |
| ferringb | Friday evening | Sometime the next week | Unlikely | No | likely will be mostly in EU digital sovereignty tracks | |
| Wrenne | Friday evening | Monday dawn | Yes | No | Vegetarian | |
| Raffaele (rafspiny) | Friday evening | Sunday evening | Likely | No | Mostly in the python and database tracks. Would like to help at the stand. |
Gentoo Stand
Gentoo will have a stand in building H (overview of all stands)
The following is an hour-by-hour schedule of who is running the stand. The plan is to have always two devs present, with overlapping two-hour slots (i.e., 10h-12h, 12h-14h, ... and 9h-11h, 11h-13h, 13h-15h, ...) (At start and end there are shorter slots, but these obviously also involve build-up and teardown.)
| Saturday | Sunday | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hours | Developer 1 | Developer 2 | Developer 1 | Developer 2 |
| 0900 | TODO | Andreas K. Hüttel (dilfridge) | TODO | TODO |
| 1000 | Ulrich Müller (ulm) | TODO | ||
| 1100 | Viorel Munteanu (Viorel) | TODO | ||
| 1200 | TODO | TODO | ||
| 1300 | TODO | TODO | ||
| 1400 | TODO | TODO | ||
| 1500 | TODO | Viorel Munteanu (Viorel) | ||
| 1600 | TODO | Ulrich Müller (ulm) | ||
| 1700 | TODO | Andreas K. Hüttel (dilfridge) | ||
| 1800 | TODO | TODO | ||
Gentoo dinner and other social events
We recommend you join #gentoo-fosdem (webchat) for last minute notices.
Friday
Unfortunately the official beer event on Friday is history (thanks COVID). We may meet up informally for dinner, join the IRC channel for last minute information.
Saturday
There will be a Gentoo dinner on Saturday, January 31 at 19h30 at the Chez Leon restaurant, located a couple of blocks to the north of the Grand Place. The reservation reference is "Gentoo dinner". We order and pay individually with cash or card.
Please try to be there on time: We asked to be seated at one (or a couple) big table(s) to avoid having people feel isolated. However, if (most?) people are not there by 19h45, they may start assigning our table(s) to others and we might end up dispersed in smaller tables.
Please add yourself to the participant list above until Wednesday 28.1., 18:00 CET so we know how many places to reserve.
Information on Public Transportation
From Brussels airport (Zaventem) to city centre
From Brussels airport (Zaventem) you can take the train to the city centre. However, Belgian rail unions have announced a strike until Friday, 30 January 2026 at 10:00 pm during which train frequencies will be reduced.
An alternative, which is also cheaper than the train, would be to use the bus operated by STIB/MIVB, the public transportation provider for the city of Brussels, as they do not participate in this strike. At the airport, follow the signs to the bus stop, and take bus 12 which has a stop located directly in front of the airport exit. From the airport to the city the ticket costs €7,90 if you pay by bank/credit card inside the bus, which is already cheaper than train. Better yet, for the inverse trip from the city to the airport there is no special fare, you pay the same fare that you would pay for a trip inside the city, making this by far the lowest-cost option even though the bus can be less comfortable than the train. Check the STIB page for more details on the Airport line.
Bus 12 connections are shown on the map of the line. Of particular interest may be the following stops:
- Meiser, connecting to tram 25 which stops at ULB, right in front of FOSDEM. Some walking is involved between the bus and tram stop at Meiser.
- Schuman, offering a connection to metro lines 1 and 5 (e.g., towards the city centre).
- Trône (terminus), offering connections to metro lines 2 and 6 (e.g., towards Louise square and the South railroad station/Gare du Midi) but also to bus lines 71 and 95 connecting the city centre with ULB/FOSDEM.
How to avoid the FOSDEM crowds during commuting
The most direct line from the city centre to ULB/FOSDEM is bus 71 but for this reason it becomes very crowded. A more pleasant option would be to take metro line 5, direction Hermann-Debroux, and get off at Delta station (attention: metro line 1 shares the same platforms with metro line 5 in many stations; make sure to board line 5 and not 1). From Delta you can then take bus 71 in the opposite direction (De Brouckère) and get off at the ULB stop (no crowds and much shorter ride). Despite the connection, this option is usually faster as well.
The same course in reverse can be followed on the way back from FOSDEM to the city centre, when bus 71 is even more crowded. From ULB, take bus 71 in the direction Delta all the way to the terminus, and from there walk to Delta metro station.
Tram 25 can also be used to make a connection with metro line 5 at Thieffry, while tram 8 makes a connection with metro lines 2 and 6 at Louise. However, both tram lines can also get crowded (tram 8 more than 25), especially at the end of the FOSDEM day, though usually not as badly as bus 71.
Another option is to use bus 95. Like bus 71, it also starts in the city centre, near Grand'Place. You get off at the Cimitière d'Ixelles stop, which is 1 stop away from ULB: You can either make the 600-metre walk or take bus 71 for 1 stop (the same one coming from Delta). Therefore, this option is actually less optimal than bus 71 (requiring an extra connection or walking) but maybe for this reason, and also because perhaps fewer FOSDEMers know about it, it is less crowded.
Tickets
You can find the various ticket options here. For the typical FOSDEM participant, the best option is using a bank or credit card to purchase a ticket inside the vehicle for €2.30 per 60-minute journey up to a maximum of €8.40 per day. Make sure to use the same card every time.
However, if you move together with others, it may be worth sharing a 10-journey MOBIB card that can be purchased at one of the vending machines located at metro stations and many bus stops (including ULB). The MOBIB card costs €6 but you can buy a 10-journey ticket ("Brupass 10 journeys") for €18.90 which starts saving you money from the 15th trip onwards (the card is rechargeable). Unlike the bank/credit card, the same MOBIB card can be used to pay for multiple passengers: the first time you board, validate within one minute the card as many times as there are passengers; afterwards, if you make any connections, it's enough to validate just once every time for all passengers. And, if you intend to return to FOSDEM in the future, the card is valid for 5 years (or maybe even longer if it still works) although the ticket itself is only valid for 18 months.
The ticket (either charged on a bank/credit card or a MOBIB card) remains valid for 60 minutes after first validation, and you can use it to jump between busses, trams, metro and even train (within Brussels). You cannot use it to go to the airport by train but you can use it to go to the airport with bus 12. However, you must validate the ticket every time you make a connection (unless you connect inside the metro system). If you pay with a bank/credit card inside the vehicle, make sure to use the same card every time.
