It’s been a busy first half of the year: Security work on Daphne and asgiref; updates to Neapolitan and django-mantle; talks at PyTV, DjangoCon Europe, and PyCon Italia; the Annual Release Cycle DEP for Django drafted, discussed and made ready; a host of asgiref issues resolved in a significant update; the Django async topic guide updated, and various issues on Django nailed there; a chat with Michael Kennedy on Talk Python about Django’s async story; and more. Plus work, which continues to be the best kind of challenge, and the source of much inspiration.
Almost August now. Time to hide a little. Let the sun do its thing, and move on.
Next on the agenda, and the last event of the year for me, will be Django on the Med 🏖️ in Pescara, Italy, on 23rd-25th September 2026.
In case you don’t know, Django on the Med 🏖️ is a three-day sprint event, where we get together and work on Django.
We have sprints after DjangoCons — and they’re the best bits! — but the idea was to give us a dedicated space where we could get a little more done.
We sprint in the mornings, until a late lunchtime or so, and the afternoons and evenings are for continuing the discussion, socialising, exploring, and so on. We hold it in September, so it’s still nice, but not too hot, and not too expensive.
The event has a beach holiday vibe, for a bit of fun and because it’s on the Mediterranean, but we get serious work done.
The upcoming Django 6.1 features database level options for ForeignKey.on_delete, so DB native cascades, which is a feature that had been sat for 11 years waiting to be implemented. Mariusz Felisiak, who implemented it, literally said that there was no way it could have been done without the time that Django on the Med 🏖️ provided. Having Mariusz, Lily Foot, Jacob Walls, and Simon Charette all in the same room working on the issue together was irreplaceable, and that’s just one example. (One goal for this year is to get the Django on the Med 🏖️ achievements board up and running.)
I’m excited about the projects that are lined up for this year. I don’t want to spoil them, or put undue pressure for results that are yet to appear, but I really think that these dedicated sprint events will show their value.
They’ll help drive Django forward.
The web framework that you built your business around.
So, maybe you should come!
And bring your team. Go check out the site. We’d love to see you there!
There may be all number of reasons why you can’t make it to Django on the Med 🏖️ — we understand.
You can still support the event by sponsoring it as a company, or making a personal donation.
It’s a small event. We don’t have big expenses, but we’d like to offer Opportunity Grants to help community members make the journey.
It’s out of season, but it’s still an ask. If we want a wider participation — which we do! — Opportunity Grants are the mechanism for making that happen. It’s about making that investment in future of Django.
The Django Software Foundation (DSF) have agreed to handle receiving any monies for the event, and distributing them again.
You can donate here: Support Django on the Med 🏖️ | Donate
Small donations add up, so don’t be shy. If you need an invoice, or want to make a larger contribution, get in touch, and we can arrange that.
§
So, whether we see you in Pescara, or you help us out from afar, welcome aboard to Django on the Med 🏖️