When: 01.10.2026, 11:15-12:15
Where: Albert Hall (Albertgasse 35, 1080 Wien)
Participation: Free – Sign up here

Vienna’s Gürtel is one of the city’s most active nightlife areas, and this year, the Waves Vienna Festival will take place across its venues. At the same time, it is also a space where questions of safety, access and coexistence are continuously contested and negotiated.

As part of the Neighbourhoods for All project, the Gürtel serves as a pilot area to explore how safety in nightlife spaces can be approached from different angles. Bringing together perspectives from urban planning, nightlife advocacy, technology and club practice, this panel reflects on how safety is currently understood, experienced and addressed.

Who gets to feel safe in nightlife spaces, and who doesn’t? What kinds of changes, from infrastructure to policy to in-house security measures, are needed? And what can be learned from specific contexts like the Gürtel when thinking about broader, long-term change?

About Waves Vienna

Since 2022,  Waves Vienna has had a new leitmotif besides the conference focus on East meets West: diversity. Since then, each year a new aspect from the large range of topics is worked on as a red thread for the discourse and festival programme. While the live programme features a wide variety of national and international acts, the conference offers a diverse discourse programme with panels, keynotes, workshops, master classes, and many networking opportunities. The large range of topics is worked on as a red thread for discourse and the festival programme.

Conference

The Waves Vienna Conference constitutes a part of the festival offering the possibility to attend lectures and panels as well as to participate in workshops and masterclasses. The subject-specific programme will deal with the topic „East meets West“ serving as the basis and inspiration for many years of pan-European cooperation.

Community Special

A limited number of free tickets are available for the first day of the Waves Vienna Conference (regular price: €39–85). Make sure to register for the panel discussion early – tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis!

Sign up for your free conference ticket here <3