WHOLE Festival announces first wave of artists for 2024

Leipzig’s WHOLE Festival returns this summer for its sixth edition, celebrating queer nightlife both inside and outside of Germany.

This year’s event takes place from August 2 - 5 in Leipzig’s Ferropolis, a peninsula on the lake of Gremminer See. The three-day camping festival features six stages in total.

WHOLE has now announced the first set of artists and collectives due to appear at this year’s festival, hailing from Europe, Asia, North America, and beyond.

This year’s line-up includes Jennifer Cardini, Bored Lord, Peach, Octo Octa, DJ Fuckoff, Narciss, Mama Snake, Angel D’lite, SHERELLE, The Blessed Madonna, Gabrielle Kwarteng, Kiddy Smile, Eris Drew, and more.

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Alongside the line-up, WHOLE has announced the collectives taking over each stage this year. 12 collectives hailing from Berlin and 16 international collectives will curate each stage across four days.

Collectives making an appearance this year include Cocktail D’amore, Body Language, Adonis, T4T LUV NRG, Gegen, ZVUK, and Mala Junta.

WHOLE Festival has increased its capacity this year by 1,000, now boasting a huge 9,000-person capacity event with an aim to “celebrate and unify” the international dance music community.

Over the weekend, WHOLE shared some information about this year’s tickets, explaining: “WHOLE is a small independent festival. We do not receive any big funding or sponsorships.”

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“Unlike other festivals, there is no major entertainment corporation backing us; there are no big investors, which means we operate at a loss,” they said.

They added that despite struggles to remain self-funded, WHOLE will continue to return and ask for support from those who can afford it by purchasing a regular, face-value ticket. Otherwise, the festival now offers 1,000 “community tickets” for those who cannot.

“This year we are happy to accommodate 1,000 community tickets for people on a tight budget,” they explained. “This means prioritising low-income people, with BIPOC and FLINTA* folks specifically in mind.”

Check out the first wave of artists below, alongside the collectives taking over the stages at WHOLE this year. Grab your tickets to WHOLE Festival 2024 here.

Gemma Ross is Mixmag's Assistant Editor, follow her on Twitter