Social and Solidarity Economy

The Deputy Mayor for Economy, Housing, Finance and Tourism, Jordi Valls, has signed a collaboration protocol with the executive director of the Mozilla Foundation, Nabiha Syed, with the goal of holding the next two Mozilla Festivals, in 2026 and 2027, in the city. The protocol was signed at the opening of this year’s event, which returned to the city after 15 years away.

The Mozilla Festival is an annual global event organised by the Mozilla Foundation, bringing together techies, artists and activists to collaboratively build a more open, free and trustworthy internet. It strives to be a pivotal platform for rethinking the digital future, and holding it in Barcelona enhances the city’s role as a world leader in open technologies.

During his talk, Valls said that ‘people- and rights-centred technological models and digital policies have to be promoted. Barcelona is a leading tech city for companies, hubs and jobs, and it has historically been on the cutting edge of promoting public, open technologies with platforms like Decidim’.  ‘We want to be a tech city, but even more importantly we want to be a democratic city’, Valls added.

‘It is a pleasure to host the Mozilla Festival and to sign this mutual agreement that we will remain its venue in the upcoming years. By doing so, Barcelona is reaffirming its leadership in digital and democratic innovation and taking yet another step towards making the city known as a world capital of open technology and digital rights’, Valls stated.

Syed, in turn, said that ‘Barcelona has always been a city where possibility lies in action, a place that not only talks about a better digital future but builds it. We are proud to partner with Barcelona and bring the Mozilla Festival here in the upcoming years through a new memorandum of agreement’.

The Mozilla Festival is held in Barcelona as part of Open Tech Week, a week devoted to rethinking the future of the internet, in which Barcelona has become the world capital of open technology and digital rights with a range of events like Decidim Fest, the GIGA Agenda and the 4D European Conference. Public institutions, digital communities and citizens engage during the week to rethink open, democratic technologies that serve the common good.

Through the agreement with Mozilla, Barcelona is reaffirming its leadership in digital and democratic innovation and positioning itself as an international benchmark in open, ethical digital governance. Over the years, the city has solidified a digital strategy based on technological sovereignty, transparency and citizen rights. This strategy is reflected in projects like:

• Decidim, the digital citizen participation platform developed with open code. It has been adopted by cities and organisations around the world and has become a global touchstone in technologies for democracy.
• The Sentilo urban sensor system.
• The Municipal Data Office tools.
• The municipal websites developed with Drupal.

These initiatives, shared by other pioneering institutions like the European Commission and New York City, exemplify a people-centred digitalisation model. Plus, this very week Barcelona has become the first city to endorse the United Nations Open Source Principles.

Mozilla Festival: https://www.mozillafestival.org/es/