Barcelona to fund Open Tech Week with €190,000 until 2028

Barcelona City Council commits to fully fund the 2026, 2027, and 2028 editions of Open Tech Week. The municipal expenditure amounts to €190,000.

The Barcelona City Council has signed an agreement with the BIT Habitat Foundation to completely cover the next three editions of the Open Tech Week. The agreement covers 2026, 2027, and 2028, and this year's event will take place from 26 to 30 October.

The municipal expenditure will be €190,000. Of that amount, €27,142 corresponds to this year's edition and €81,428 to each of the next two.

The Open Tech Week was born in November 2025 as a week of international meetings on technology, innovation, and digital rights. The sessions were spread across various locations in the city and included conferences and debates on a fair, open, and democratic Internet.

Topics covered included digital security, technological sustainability, and inclusive access to technology. The council's goal is for Barcelona to lead initiatives in these areas at the national level.

To monitor the compliance of the agreement, the council and the BIT Habitat Foundation will create a commission that will meet at least once every six months.

The Mozilla Festival will again be part of the Open Tech Week programme. Its presence in the city is guaranteed until 2027, according to the agreement.

The Deputy Mayor for Economy, Jordi Valls, defended the need to promote technological models that place people and their rights at the centre after the signing.

“Barcelona is the leading tech city for companies, hubs, and employment, and has historically been a leader in promoting public and open technologies”

Valls added that the Catalan capital wants to be a tech city, but above all, a democratic city.