Following its successful return in 2024, the renowned festival for digital art and gaming culture will celebrate its next edition in Dortmund: From 13 to 16 November 2025, the NEXT LEVEL Festival will once again transform various locations throughout the city into interactive spaces for new experiences. Under this year's motto ‘Transmission’, the festival is dedicated to the dialogue between gaming, performance and immersive arts – and sets art, technology and society in motion.
The artistic direction is in the hands of Lex Rütten and Viv Lennert, who together curate a multi-layered programme that reflects and brings to life the cultural, social and aesthetic relevance of gaming and interactive arts.
Supported by Theater Dortmund and its Academy for Theatre and Digitality, the festival offers a highly networked, technically savvy and interdisciplinary environment. In addition, numerous other pioneering institutions of digital arts and innovation are involved as venues, including the Projektspeicher, the Dortmunder U and the Künstlerhaus Dortmund.
NEXT LEVEL is unique in Germany: since 2010, it has positioned itself as a resonance chamber for digital gaming culture – a showcase for the latest technologies as well as a stage for digital performances, virtual reality, creative coding, immersive installations and interactive narrative forms. The focus is always on participation, accessibility and intergenerationality.
‘Transmission’ stands for more than just data streams. It describes cultural transmission, artistic transfer and the constant change in digital aesthetics. Visitors can expect a dynamic interplay between subjective experience and collective experience: immersive installations, digital theatre formats, creative games and media art performances create a place of encounter and vision.
The first programme highlights will be published in September at www.next-level.digital. You can find the latest news and publications on the topic on the festival's social media channels (@nextlevel_festival).
SAVE THE DATE: NEXT LEVEL Festival 2025 - 13 to 16 November 2025 - Venues throughout Dortmund
Festival theme: ‘Transmission’
The project is funded by the Neue Künste Ruhr programme of the Ministry of Art and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia, the KULTURsekretariat NRW and the cultural institutions of the city of Dortmund.