October is over, and so is another Hacktoberfest. I'm writing this the monday after, while it's still fresh, because I have two things to say: one is a thank-you, and the other is a (friendly) complaint.
What I got out of it
I came into this year discovering a new community that shared in my newfound passion with open source in mind. A place that we can get challenged and share our creations with each other. Hacktoberfest 2026 gave me that.
- A habit. Having a month-long goal turned "What project should I work on today?" into "I'll finish this challenge tonight!"
- Better skills. Reading unfamiliar codebases, working with leading opensource tools, and responding to feedback without getting defensive about it. And learning all of that in a natural environment, not through YouTube tutorials.
- Confidence. Getting better control over what tool to use to what project and estimating the time scope of my projects.
- Connections. I talked to people I'd never have met otherwise. I'm taking my hat of for Jacklyn Biggin. Her engagement and friendly attitude were dangerously contagious.
The community is the real prize
The stickers are fun, but what I'll remember is the people.
Fellow hackers who took time to leave kind, specific comments on a random project shared in the discord. Fellow attendees who answered questions in Discord at odd hours when the Hacktoberfest crew took their well earned rest. People who shared beginner-friendly resurces to other people's issues. Someone even went the extra mine bug-fix with them when someone got stuck.
Hacktoberfest's new subject shift regarding AI in the open source space was a new take that even I, a newbie, felt some people in the comunity had a slight issue with. Me on the other hand thought this was a logical change considering how more and more AI takes a part in the day to day life, like it or not. So with having to deal with that and still welcoming newcomers to this experience must have taken some extra effort. If you've stayed somewhat open minded and helped around where you could: thank you. You made it a good experience for newbies like me.
Shoutout to the hosts
Fest hosts are the unsung heroes of this whole thing. They give up evenings and weekends to organize meetups, find venues, explaining the lay of the land to nervous first-timers, and keep the energy up when GitHub goes down from time to time.
Events seems to be where Hacktoberfest turns from "me and my laptop" into a shared experience. Sitting in a room (or a call) with other people all working on the same challange, helping each other and celebrating when it works, seems like the best version of this event. To every host who made that happen this year: thank you.
The disappointing part: where were the Norwegian fests?
Here's the part I'd love to see improved.
Norway's developer community and the people who could host a Hacktoberfest event seems to have been neglected. When I looked for a local fest this year, there were none. And from what And when I tried to host the reason seemed to be that fest host applications were handled slowly.
Application got sent and sat waiting over a weekend. By the time answers came, the weekend had passed and the Fest application window had expired, the momentum gone to a full stop. The result was a month with no events at all in Norway.
This matters because:
- Events are how newcomers get in. Many first-timers would probably stay active with a human in the room. Without local events, the people who most need that support and connections are the ones who miss out.
- Hosts burn out on uncertainty. Volunteering is already a gift. Making volunteers wait without clear answers is a good way to lose them for next year.
- Smaller communities lose most. Big hubs will always have someone willing to run something regardless. Places like Norway rely on the official support structure and quick response to make it feasible.
I want to be fair: running a global program with thousands of participants is hard, and I'm sure the team behind it works hard too. This isn't an attack. It's feedback from someone who fell in love with the event and wants it to work better.
What would help
- Clearer promise about the application window Don't say that the application window are still open on the Twitch streams if this is not the case everywhere.
- Clear status updates, even a simple "received / in review / approved / declined" so hosts can plan.
- Faster turnaround on approvals, or a lightweight approval path for hosts who have run events before.
- Regional support, so smaller countries aren't treated as an afterthought.
Looking ahead
I'm not giving up on this. Next year I'd like to either help organize and most definitely attend a Norwegian Hacktoberfest event, and I'd encourage others here to do the same. If you're in Norway and interested in hosting, drop a comment. Maybe we can coordinate early, apply early, and make noise early.
And if you took part this year, whether you grabbed one sticker or thirty: thanks for being part of it. See you next October and Happy Hacking!
What was your Hacktoberfest 2026 like? Did you manage to attend a local event, or did you run into the same issue with fests in your country? Let me know in the comments.
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