Whole Festival 2025 review: A wild, unique queer party that’s not for the faint hearted

“Queer uptopia” is a label applied to many events on the LGBTQ+ calendar, but no party so canonically aligns itself with the concept of a utopian paradise for the queer intelligencia as Whole Festival.

Located just a couple of hours south of Berlin, Whole is three days of pure queer hedonism, situated, ironically, in the distinctly dystopian setting of Ferropolis, a peninsula filigreed with towering, decommissioned industrial machines in Gräfenhainichen. It is as well known for its eerie, brutalistic location as it is for its notorious woodland cruising villages and extremely laissez-faire attitudes to sex and debauchery (its infamous douching stations are as famous many of DJ names on the line-up). Whilst this combination makes for a truly unique festival experience, it’s also clearly not for the faint hearted – a day out at Mighty Hoopla, this is not.

The festival comprises six stages, each celebrating the different faces of dance music – from the more hardcore sounds of the festival’s Arena stage which welcomes acts like Juliana Huxtable, CEM and OK Williams, to the more melodic, house-influenced sets on the Beach stage from the likes of Maria Politi, The Blessed Madonna and Giulia Gutterer. Plus, there’s the opportunity to simmer down at the festival’s smaller Ambient area – for dance music afficianados, there’s certainly a smorgasbord of sounds to choose from. To the less finely-tuned ear however, we’re not sure they would agree that the festival offers much in terms of variety, although the Performance stage hosts an assortment of live acts like sleazy-pop starlet Miss Bashful, and various drag and comedy acts who provide a much needed reprieve from the two-stepping for those who seek it.

The festival is undoubtedly an impressive display of the finest techno acts in Germany and beyond, but also includes many euphoric pop moments for those who knew where to find them – the Beach stage even hosts a Cher power hour on the Sunday. Glimpses of Madonna, Doechii, Lady Gaga, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé and Ariana Grande are also sprinkled throughout the weekend, to delight of many gays and their FLINTA sisters, and perhaps the most unexpected pop moment comes in the form of the recurring motif of ‘Don’t Cha’ by the Pussycat Dolls, which is first heard in the early hours of the Sunday morning, remixed during a DJ AYA b2b THC set on the Forest Stage, and later closes the festival when it booms out of the Arena stage in its bombastic, original form at 7am on Monday morning.

Of course, beyond the music what really determines the vibe of any festival is the crowd it attracts, which in recent years seems to be one of Whole’s most contentious elements. A quick glance at the Whole Reddit board will expose you to post after post of loyal festival goers complaining about an influx of so-called ‘circuit gays’ who have flocked to the festival from around the world this year. To the uninitiated, ‘circuit gays’ refers to a certain subsection of gay men who can typically be identified by their beefy physiques, scantily clad (if borderline ‘basic’) fashion stylings, and, perhaps most importantly, a penchant for chemsex drugs like GHB and mephedrone. The principal complaint about this subculture seems to be a change in atmosphere it brings to a party, shifting the vibe from one of sisterhood and community to a more sex-fuelled, appearance-based hierarchy.

After three days roaming between the stages on Ferropolis, there’s no denying that this type of character is present in abundance at Whole. Truth be told, if one is precious about the sight of a thong-wearing man consuming psychoactive substances, this probably isn’t the party for you. However, we find the festival offers more than enough to create a good time elsewhere, from the sea of largely very friendly faces we encounter (captured here in exclusive photos by Spyros Rennt), its charming lakeside environment, and its liberal (at times startingly so) attitude towards sexuality.

Which brings us back to the question of queer utopia. It’s one we go on a bit of a journey with over the course of the festival’s three days and nights. Upon arrival, we step foot on the festival grounds with a sceptic’s eye, wondering if such a thing could really be conjured on earth, least of all at a relentless techno festival. Later on, at the festival’s midpoint we find ourselves well and truly charmed, if a little starry eyed, spouting claims that it was, in many ways, utopian. And by the festival’s end, a little more sleep deprived and just a touch jaded by life in a world where no nook or cranny is safe from the sight of jockstrapped partygoers getting it on, we couldn’t help but wonder: is this actually meant to be better than how the rest of society operates? Is this what queer utopia looks like?

Nevertheless, overall we have a great weekend at Whole. Perhaps utopia is a lofty ambition for any festival, one which sets the bar unreasonably high. It may not amount to “queer utopia” but what Whole does deliver on is a truly wild and unique queer partying experience, unlike almost anything else you can experience in a festival season, save for perhaps a few hours in the NYC Downlow or a stint on Fire Island, and one which is well worth showing up and leaning into – if you think you’ve got the stones for it.