I'm really exited that they've found a new location.

Berlin was nice but was restricted to less than 4k people IIRC. Hamburg was awesome and the Congress suddenly grew to 12k visitors. The upper floors there still had carpet which was really cozy and the largest lecture hall spreads across three stories and accommodates a couple thousand people. You don't get that anywhere else here. It's really unfortunate that they have to renovate the building, now that we've settled. Everything was working so well.

It's still going to be awesome and I hope we can grow even more, now that more exhibition halls are available. See you there ;)

Awesome choice! I live in Berlin and was close to suggesting Leipzig after they had asked for alternatives at the congress. Now I am actually surprised that Congress Center (or even Messe?) Leipzig agreed, given the requirements of a hacker congress. Let's hope and make sure that it will be as good as always.

Just a few notes:

* Accommodation will be cheaper (no holiday season, and Eastern Germany has lower costs of living in general). The city is currently extending their local transportation networks into surrounding small towns, so there should be more to choose from.

* The area is outside the city, but not remote. Trains from Berlin and from Leipzig-Halle Airport stopped at Messe Leipzig in the past (not sure whether this is still the case), which made the journey from Berlin even shorter than the 1h 15min it takes now. It is also a popular stop for cheap long-distance buses.

* I am personally not aware of halls that can hold thousands of people in the Congress Center itself like in Hamburg, but I am not sure as I have not been there in a while. Here is a hall overview: http://www.ccl-leipzig.de/raeume-technik/raumuebersicht/ I guess CCC would need to make use of the actual big exhibition halls as well for the really popular talks if they don't exist ( it would be quite cool if they could use just one of them ). Well, I always wanted to have a CCC cardboard stool (Papphocker).

* Leipzig has a vibrant cultural, art and alternative scene. Google "Baumwollspinnerei" or "Viktorianisches Picknick / Wave-Gotik Treffen".

* A start-up scene exists, but it is not as developed as in Berlin and Hamburg. In general the city feels less international (while still being home to some international audience e.g. due to having the trade fairs, the said creative people, a big university and three Max-Planck Institutes)).

* Architecture: The hall of the main station is the biggest one of a terminus station in Europe. Visitors tend to like the "Leipziger Passagen" that traverse the inner city. Völkerschlachtdenkmal. And (just saying ;) ) the computer science and math faculty of their university resides in a newly built landmark temple of glass and light with quite an interesting history ("Paulinum").

Yes, it's outside, but it's 8 minutes by train ride from the central main station.

Leipzig is a great town. Especially if you are a Bach-head like me.

Or if you're into printing and typography! Museum für Druckkunst - "Museum of the Printing Arts" - is really cool (http://www.druckkunst-museum.de/Museum_en.html).

I missed that one, and I've been in the printing industry most of my life.

Yeah, my first reaction was "Sweet, I can go to 34c3 and check out Bach's grave"

The Bach Museum there is pretty amazing, but I actually like the smaller one in Eisenach better, which is attached to his Geburtshaus.

I'm wondering why they didn't choose Hannover as it is somewhat in the middle of Germany, has an international airport, is accustomed to heavy spikes in tourism and has the world largest fairground due to the Expo in 2000. Hannover also is a major crossing point of railway lines and highways (Autobahn).

Hannover itself may be centrally located and quite reachable, the Messegelaende in Hannover is not. There is, for example, no tram service going from Messegelaende to the city center between 2130—0400. With the last talks of the day usually lasting until after midnight, that's clearly unacceptable.

I am not really aware of a suitable location over here - sadly. Yes, the exhibition area is huge, but does not really fit their needs. Would have been neat, anyway.

Make sure to visit the "Runde Ecke" in Leipzig to get a feel for what happens when we let the government create unlimited surveillance.

I hope the CCC rotates among other German cities in the future, so with the excuse of the CCC we could also enjoy other beautiful cities in Germany :-)

Is it feasible to attend the CCC as a non-German with only a basic grasp of the language? I've always had the impression that it was very German-language oriented, but seeing the amount of English in this thread has me reconsidering.

I don't speak German and I've been to every Congress since 2009. My favorite event every year. As mentioned most - or at least the majority - of the talks are in English, and the organizers very much cater to non-German-speaking visitors (e.g. the official wiki - main source of information - is mainly in English; here's last year's: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2016/wiki/Main_Page).

Also the price (iirc 100 EUR for a standard 4-day ticket last time) is ridiculously low given the massive amount of talks, often very high-caliber, and very varied. Check out last year's schedule to get an idea: https://fahrplan.events.ccc.de/congress/2016/Fahrplan/schedu...

And there's so much more besides the talks! They typically open the venue the evening before (26th), and then it goes on 24/7 non-stop until the 30th. Go if you can. I've persuaded various people to come over the years - techies and non-techies alike - and everyone's had a blast.

Totally.. There are lots and lots of people from all over the world (not only the US hacker community) who don't speak a single word of German.

Yes, it is feasible. Most of the talks are in English, the ones which are not will be translated by the Translation Angels.

I would guess that almost everybody of the participants can speak English, although a considerable amount of them will be Germans.

I love it.

Leipzig is a great city. The attendees will like it here, although the congress is always at the worst season of the year.

Moved back to Leipzig over a year ago (from Berlin). I guess, I can attend again without discomfort.

Be sure to make room to acommodate people. ;-)

Can't say I'm too happy as being in Hamburg and Berlin were integral parts of CCC. But hopefully will be as good as ever.

I get that people like Leipzig but getting there is bad for almost anyone who is not from Germany.

Flights of 5 hours with stopover from Sweden :(

Fly to Berlin and take the train to Leipzig (1h30m).

The are also direct trains to Prague, which made for a nice side trip when I needed to go to Leipzig.

They're longer, about 3h I think.

Sadly I can only recommend against that. Because you can't book them together you need to plan in a lengthy stop in case of delays. I made that mistake twice and both times I was badly burned.

There is a train every hour. If you don't buy a discounted ticket, you can take any train you want.

You can also take the bus, which is a lot cheaper but takes longer.

So stay a night in Berlin on the way there!

Thanks for the recommendation !

Copenhagen here. I will be there

I took the train from Copenhagen to Leipzig.

It's a bit too long, but I met my Swedish friends on the platform at Hovedbanegård, and they'd already started the party with "cheap" alcohol from Netto.

Are the hotels cheaper there than in Hamburg?

Yes. It's also not much of a general holiday destination for the time, so it'll be cheaper all-round, just much worse to get there.

I would have preferred Frankfurt, but I heard the local fair company didn't understand what they are missing out on.

Not much more difficult than Hamburg, 1:30 train from Berlin or a direct flight from Stansted (although not sure if that Ryanair flight runs over Christmas)

I'm from Prague, it's significantly more convenient than Hamburg and slightly more convenient than Hamburg for me :)

Yes, Leipzig in general is substantially cheaper than Hamburg and even Berlin.

I will definately reach out to people to crash on someones couch.. If money is an issue, do the same! When the congress was in Hamburg I had people staying at my place from all over the world. ;)

Congress is the best thing in the world, it doesn't matter where they put it.

Kunsthalle Hamburg most of the years had excellent exhibitions. Good shopping, Secondella is great.

Okay it isn't Berlin with 3 Opera houses, some 60 musea, the Rutsch in the Tiergarten, but Hamburg was ok. Looking forward to Leipzig

What exactly do you miss for it to be exciting?