It’s about time! Welcome to another edition of the Demonights! It’s a special edition even. On the Swiss Castles Day (Oct 5, 2025), we’ll gather in the Castel Grande in Bellinzona for two hours straight of demos, old and new. Bienvenuti in Ticino!
- Date: Oct 5, 2025
- Location: Castel Grande, Bellinzona
- Time: 16:00 – 17:30 (Updated!)
- Entrance Fee: CHF 15.-, normal exhibition entry. Buy on site as special discounts may apply that are not available online.
Integrated with the Dirk Koy Exhibition, Demonights 019 is the first edition taking place in Ticino as well as the first ever edition in an actual castle. Hosted by Muda and Echtzeit, with local Italian speaking moderation (please welcome Pan/SK) and a fine selection of demos, this will be a very special evening. After the show, demosceners from near and far will gather for a mug of beer in a local tavern.
Recognised as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, the demoscene ranks among the world’s oldest digital art cultures. Since its beginnings in the independent computer circles of the 1980s, this underground movement has nurtured a vibrant guild of programmers, sound designers, and visual artists who gleefully push technological boundaries through self-made audiovisual works known as demos.
On Swiss Castles Day, we tip our hard hats to centuries of stonemasons and carpenters, and cheekily trade hammer and chisel for keyboard and compiler (no risk of splinters!). Rooted in the bustling world of the demoscene, Echtzeit casts code as a living craft, where algorithms groove like well-oiled gears. Realtime-rendered sequences play on the day’s theme of mastery and making, proving that you do not need a workbench to create real magic.
Between glitches, patterns, and pixelated poetics, Echtzeit will present some of the most atmospheric demos this dynamic guild has to offer. From immersive soundscapes to hypnotic visual sequences, this performance will showcase the broad range of creativity and technical virtuosity that define the demoscene. Join us for a one‐of‐a‐kind experience where bits and bytes are not just data, but the sawdust found in digital workshops!