Events and Programming
STATION F is not a conventional concert hall or theatre. Its public programme is built around technology, entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence, investment, innovation and the future of work. The campus organises more than 600 events a year according to its general information page, while a newer visitor FAQ describes more than 1,000 events and workshops annually, suggesting that the count varies depending on whether internal community activity is included.
For visitors, the most common formats are keynote talks, panel discussions, startup showcases, hackathons, pitch sessions, investor gatherings, workshops, exhibitions, networking evenings, product launches and professional conferences. Live music is occasional rather than central to the identity of the venue. Some larger events add a closing concert, DJ set, dinner or cocktail reception, but STATION F primarily books business and innovation programming rather than touring artists.
Recent programming shows how the venue is evolving. In 2021, STATION F hosted Future 40, its annual selection of promising early-stage companies, alongside Fighters Day, F for Femme, a startup Christmas market and online demo-day activity shaped by the pandemic. The same year, it opened a 275-square-metre television studio for streamed and hybrid events, with capacity for up to 300 attendees on site.
In 2022, programming included the fifth-anniversary celebrations, Future 40, the Talent Fair, NewSpace discussions and events connected with the emerging French quantum ecosystem. The campus also hosted prominent guests including Tony Parker, Mike Horn, the King of Sweden and other political, business and cultural figures.
2023 brought a particularly strong AI focus. STATION F recorded an open question-and-answer session with Sam Altman, Stripe’s Paris AI Day, a major Hugging Face AI meetup, the launch of the Kyutai research laboratory and new programmes devoted to AI and quantum computing. These events were generally talks, demonstrations, technical meetups and founder gatherings rather than conventional performances.
In 2024, the calendar expanded further into artificial intelligence, climate technology and international entrepreneurship. Notable activity included Ask Me Anything sessions with Dario Amodei of Anthropic and Clément Delangue of Hugging Face, AI Pulse by Scaleway, a large Mistral hackathon, AI-focused dinners and a Black Ambition competition event hosted by Pharrell Williams during the Olympic period.
2025 placed STATION F at the centre of Paris’s AI moment. The campus hosted business-day activity connected with the AI Action Summit, welcoming figures including Sam Altman, Jonathan Ross, Aravind Srinivas and Lisa Su. Paris Creator Week also used the building for a large creator-economy conference with hundreds of speakers and thousands of attendees, including panels, demonstrations, networking, exhibitions and a closing concert.
The published 2026 calendar includes Qoder Paris Night, Outbound Cup, AI Engineer Paris, Google and Google DeepMind’s Startup Day France, Creative Destruction Lab sessions, Databricks workshops, an open question-and-answer session with Xavier Niel, ai-PULSE by Scaleway, GreenTech Forum and The New Food Paradigm. Most are scheduled in the Open Platform or smaller workshop rooms, confirming that STATION F functions as a flexible conference and innovation campus rather than a fixed-seat entertainment venue.
Beyond 2026, no later public event calendar was listed in the reviewed sources. The strongest announced direction is continued investment in AI, health technology, climate technology and international founders. F/ai, launched in January 2026, runs two cohorts each year, with a second 2026 cohort planned for September through December.
Tickets and Booking
There is no single STATION F ticket office or standard venue pricing structure. Each organiser sets its own registration process, price, capacity and cancellation terms. Many talks, meetups, workshops and campus-facing events are free with advance registration, while major professional conferences may charge from tens to several hundred euros depending on the pass. A 2025 creator-economy conference at the campus advertised a standard pass in the low hundreds of euros, illustrating how widely prices can vary.
Check the individual event listing for the current registration status, door time, identification requirements and whether the event is free, invitation-only or paid. Registration usually closes when the room reaches capacity, so popular AI talks, founder appearances and hackathons should be booked as soon as they are announced.
Do not assume that a registration confirmation gives unrestricted access to the entire campus. STATION F divides the building into restricted and semi-public areas, and event guests may be limited to the room or zone assigned to their programme. Visitors normally enter through reception and follow the organiser’s instructions for badges, security and room access.
STATION F also offers free guided campus visits in French and English. These are separate from event tickets, last approximately 45 minutes and require each participant to register individually. Photos are authorised during the public visit format, although event-specific photography rules may differ.
About STATION F
STATION F is a startup campus and event complex at 5 Parvis Alan Turing in Paris’s 13th arrondissement. It occupies the former Halle Freyssinet, a freight-transhipment building designed and built by engineer Eugène Freyssinet between 1927 and 1929. The campus opened on June 29, 2017, after a major renovation backed by Xavier Niel.
The building is approximately 310 metres long and 58 metres wide, with about 34,034 square metres of floor area. It is divided into three principal zones: SHARE for events, partners and public-facing services; CREATE for startup workspaces; and CHILL for food, social activity and amenities. The historic structure was placed on France’s supplementary list of Historic Monuments in 2012.
STATION F is notable because the event spaces sit inside a working entrepreneurial ecosystem. Its current campus includes more than 30 startup programmes, partner offices, mentoring services and space for approximately 1,000 startups. The campus’s value to event organisers is therefore not only the architecture, but also the concentration of founders, investors, researchers, public services and technology companies under one roof.
Seating and Layout
The main formal auditorium is the Master Stage, listed at 352 seats on the venue information page and rounded to 350 seats in the booking FAQ. It is the best fit for keynotes, panels, founder interviews, screenings, demonstrations and other presentation-led events. The room is described as having cinema-quality audiovisual equipment, but STATION F does not publish a permanent row-by-row seat map or a general VIP seating plan.
The Open Platform is the largest adaptable event area, covering approximately 900 square metres. It is listed for up to 700 standing guests or 350 seated guests. Its open format suits exhibitions, hackathons, trade events, cocktail receptions, fashion or product demonstrations and large networking events. Sightlines depend on the organiser’s stage, screen and furniture layout rather than on permanent seating.
Other spaces include the 100-seat Open Stage, a 100-seat Central Room, the 75-seat Founders Café, the 50-seat Junior Stage and the 25-seat Creativity Room. Two restaurant mezzanines, Amazonia and Biblioteca, each seat approximately 80 people and are designed for informal talks, dinners, cocktails and networking. The spaces vary from fixed auditorium seating to highly flexible open layouts.
There is no verified public information describing a dedicated concert acoustic design, orchestra pit, balcony, standing dance floor or standard VIP package. For a music-heavy or production-intensive event, the organiser’s room plan matters more than the general STATION F layout.
Architecture, Design and Technical Capabilities
The defining architectural feature is Freyssinet’s pre-stressed reinforced-concrete structure. The three long parallel naves have thin vaults, exposed concrete and extensive lateral and overhead openings that bring daylight deep into the building. Some roof sections are less than five centimetres thick at the ridge, an unusually light structural solution for a building of this scale.
The renovation was led by Wilmotte & Associés with historic-monument specialists and engineering teams covering acoustics, lighting, climate systems, structure and façades. The design preserves the long internal perspective and visible concrete vaults while inserting workspaces, meeting rooms, auditoria and event infrastructure. Motorised openings support natural ventilation and night-time cooling, while localised systems help control comfort in the different campus zones.
The Master Stage is advertised with high-end cinema, sound and lighting equipment. The Open Stage includes integrated screens, and the Open Platform can be configured for large-scale presentations, demonstrations and hybrid events. STATION F also operates a television studio on the Open Platform with a 7-by-3-metre LED wall, 12 LED bars and three return screens; the studio was designed for broadcasts and hybrid conferences with up to 300 people on site.
Public sources do not identify installed loudspeaker models, mixing consoles, microphone inventory, rigging loads, lighting fixtures, stage dimensions or power specifications. Those details should be requested in the event brief rather than inferred from the venue’s general “top-tier equipment” description.
Getting There and Parking
The address is 5 Parvis Alan Turing, 75013 Paris. The closest public transport connections are Chevaleret on Metro Line 6 and Bibliothèque François Mitterrand on Metro Line 14. Bibliothèque François Mitterrand also connects with RER C and several bus routes, including 25, 62, 64, 71, 89, 132 and 325, with night-bus connections on N131 and N133.
From Chevaleret, follow the signs towards the Halle Freyssinet and the Parvis Alan Turing. From Bibliothèque François Mitterrand, walk via Rue du Chevaleret and the surrounding BnF and Avenue de France district towards the long former freight hall. Allow extra time for finding the correct entrance because the building is large and event access may be controlled at a particular door.
STATION F does not have its own visitor parking facility. The nearby Bibliothèque François Mitterrand car park on Rue Émile Durkheim is a practical option; the city lists a 200-space facility in the area, while the operator’s current indicative tariff was €4.20 for one hour when checked in September 2026. Prices displayed at the car-park entrance take precedence and may change.
There is no confirmed dedicated rideshare bay in the venue information reviewed. Arrange drop-off on the public street near the parvis without blocking pedestrian paths, fire access or loading areas. Cyclists and motorbike users should use designated public areas and lock vehicles securely; STATION F accepts no responsibility for bikes left on public streets.
Inside the Venue
Expect a working campus rather than a conventional entertainment venue. The SHARE zone contains reception, partner services, event rooms and the main auditorium, while CREATE is primarily reserved for resident startups. The CHILL zone contains La Felicità, a large public food hall with five kitchens, two bars and a café; the restaurant can accommodate up to 1,000 people.
Event entry normally involves registration, reception or security screening and directions to a specific room. General visitors are not free to wander through startup work areas. Current rules state that guests generally enter during weekday reception hours of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., unless an event or the manager authorises different access arrangements.
No universal bag-size policy, coat-check policy, merchandise service or event-wide door-sale policy was confirmed in the published venue rules. Avoid bringing unnecessary valuables, as the internal rules say personal belongings should not be left unattended and that the venue accepts no liability for loss or theft.
Eating and drinking are restricted to designated areas. Smoking and vaping are prohibited throughout the establishment, animals are not permitted apart from guide dogs for blind people, and security may inspect belongings or refuse access where safety requires it. Face coverings that conceal identity, drones, dangerous materials and unauthorised access to restricted areas are also prohibited.
Nearby Amenities
La Felicità is the most convenient pre-event dining option because it is integrated into the STATION F complex. It offers Italian-style food, bars and café service in the CHILL zone, although opening hours and access may vary by day or event. The surrounding Bibliothèque François Mitterrand and Avenue de France district also provides restaurants, cafés and bars within walking distance.
The Bibliothèque nationale de France’s François-Mitterrand site, the Seine, Avenue de France and the Pont de Tolbiac area are nearby landmarks that make the 13th arrondissement easy to combine with a daytime event. Hotel choice is broad around the BnF, Gare de Lyon and the eastern Paris districts, but STATION F does not publish an official hotel list.
For a large conference, arrive 30 to 45 minutes early. This allows time for the metro-to-venue walk, reception, security, registration and the long internal distances between the entrance, auditorium and food areas. For smaller workshops, follow the event’s stated arrival time rather than assuming the whole campus opens to guests.
What Makes This Venue Special
STATION F’s strongest feature is the combination of industrial heritage and active startup culture. The preserved concrete vaults, long sightlines and daylight create a distinctive setting for conferences, while the surrounding companies, partner offices and founders make the building feel more like a living technology district than a hired meeting room.
The venue has also become a symbolic address for France’s technology ecosystem. Since opening, the campus has hosted global technology executives, founders, public officials, international delegations, AI researchers, artists and investors. Its programme has increasingly reflected France’s push into AI, climate technology, quantum computing, health technology and international entrepreneurship.
The cultural impact extends beyond startups. The renovated hall reconnects with the neighbourhood through public-facing food, landscaped surroundings, pedestrian routes, art installations and open events. In 2024, STATION F added a bike repair shop and yoga studio nearby and hosted temporary art displays during the Olympic period.
Economically, STATION F reports that more than 9,000 startups have passed through the campus since launch. Its companies raised €1.5 billion across 136 funding rounds in 2025, while the campus welcomed new partnerships in AI, healthcare, education and international expansion during 2026. These figures are reported by STATION F itself, so they should be read as campus-reported impact measures rather than an independent economic assessment.
Visitor Tips and Information
STATION F states that its building meets French accessibility standards and provides an entrance ramp, elevators, trained welcome staff and safety experts. The main auditorium has nine seats specifically designed for people with disabilities. A Paris convention listing also identifies wheelchair access and accessible toilets in several spaces, but notes that its information has not been independently verified. Contact the event organiser before booking if you need a specific companion seat, transfer position, hearing support or route through the building.
France does not use the United States’ ADA framework as its primary building-accessibility standard, so it is more accurate to describe STATION F as meeting French accessibility requirements rather than simply calling it “ADA compliant”. The venue does not publicly list hearing loops, captioning, sensory rooms or event-by-event sign-language provision.
Bring your registration confirmation, photo identification if requested, a charged phone and minimal belongings. Wear comfortable shoes: the complex is exceptionally long, and large conferences may involve movement between the Open Platform, Master Stage, breakout rooms and food areas. There is no general dress code, but professional conferences usually have a smart-casual atmosphere.
Do not arrive expecting a free museum visit. The building is a working campus with controlled access. Public tours and registered events are the reliable ways to enter, while the CREATE zone and many areas of SHARE remain restricted. The internal rules also prohibit unauthorised meetings, flyer distribution, displays and events in common areas.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is STATION F a concert venue?
STATION F is primarily a startup campus and conference venue, not a regular concert hall. It occasionally hosts closing concerts, DJ sets, cultural events or live entertainment connected with a larger conference, exhibition or community gathering. Most programming consists of talks, panels, hackathons, product demonstrations, workshops, pitch sessions and networking rather than touring music performances.
What types of events take place at STATION F?
The programme focuses on artificial intelligence, startups, entrepreneurship, venture capital, climate technology, quantum computing, health technology, creator businesses and future-of-work topics. Typical formats include keynote presentations, panel discussions, hackathons, investor meetings, startup showcases, professional conferences, private launches, exhibitions, dinners and community meetups.
Are STATION F events free?
Many public talks, workshops and community meetups are free with advance registration, but there is no universal rule. Large professional conferences may charge for passes, while private events may be invitation-only. Prices are set by each organiser, so check the specific event listing for its current fee, registration deadline, refund conditions and access requirements.
Does STATION F sell tickets at the door?
There is no venue-wide door-sales policy. Some organisers may admit registered guests only, while others may provide limited on-site registration if capacity remains. Popular talks and conferences can fill in advance. Treat advance registration as essential unless the event announcement explicitly confirms walk-in access or same-day ticket sales.
How many people can the Master Stage hold?
The Master Stage is listed at 352 seats on STATION F’s venue information page and described as a 350-seat auditorium in its booking FAQ. It is the principal formal auditorium for keynotes, panels and presentations. The venue does not publish a permanent public seating chart, so exact seat locations and accessible seating arrangements depend on the event setup.
How large is the Open Platform?
The Open Platform covers approximately 900 square metres and is advertised for up to 700 standing guests or 350 seated guests. It is a flexible blank-canvas area used for conferences, hackathons, exhibitions, demonstrations, receptions and hybrid events. Its final capacity and sightlines depend on staging, furniture, production equipment and safety requirements.
Does STATION F have VIP seating?
STATION F does not publish a permanent VIP section or standard hospitality package. Individual conferences may create reserved seating, speaker areas, investor lounges or premium passes, but those arrangements belong to the organiser rather than the building. Review the event’s own registration information if you need reserved seating, backstage access or hospitality details.
What is the best room for a presentation?
The Master Stage is the clearest choice for a large keynote or panel because it has auditorium seating and dedicated audiovisual equipment. The Open Stage suits smaller presentations with a more informal amphitheatre arrangement. The Central Room, Founders Café and Junior Stage are better for workshops, breakfasts, private discussions and smaller professional gatherings.
Is STATION F accessible for wheelchair users?
STATION F states that the building meets French accessibility standards and includes an entrance ramp, elevators, trained staff and safety experts. The main auditorium has nine designated accessible seats. Because room layouts change for each event, wheelchair users should confirm the exact entrance, seating position, companion arrangements and restroom route with the organiser before attending.
Can I visit STATION F without attending an event?
Casual access to the working campus is restricted. STATION F offers organised public tours in French and English, generally lasting about 45 minutes, and visitors can also enter through registered public events. The CREATE startup area is not a general tourist attraction. A visitor invitation, tour registration or event confirmation is the safest way to gain access.
What are the nearest metro stations?
The closest metro connections are Chevaleret on Line 6 and Bibliothèque François Mitterrand on Line 14. The latter also connects with RER C and several bus routes. The final walk leads through the Halle Freyssinet and Parvis Alan Turing area, so allow extra time if you are attending a large event with a controlled entrance.
Does STATION F have its own parking lot?
No. STATION F says it does not operate its own visitor parking facility. Nearby paid city and commercial car parks serve the Bibliothèque François Mitterrand and Rue Émile Durkheim area. Availability and pricing change, and the tariff displayed at the car-park entrance is the controlling price. Public transport is generally the simpler option for evening events.
Where can I eat before an event?
La Felicità is integrated into the STATION F complex and provides multiple food counters, bars and café service in the CHILL zone. It is the most convenient option for lunch or an early meal, although access and opening hours may change. Additional restaurants and cafés are available around Avenue de France and Bibliothèque François Mitterrand.
Can I bring food or drinks inside?
The internal rules prohibit eating and drinking outside designated areas, particularly in workspaces and circulation routes. Alcohol is permitted only in designated bars and restaurant areas and may not be distributed to minors. Event organisers can impose stricter rules inside their rooms, so avoid bringing open drinks or large food items unless the event information allows them.
Are bags searched at STATION F?
Security may inspect personal belongings, particularly during heightened security conditions or when required by public authorities. The published rules do not state a universal size limit or a standard concert-style clear-bag policy. Bring only what you need, keep valuables with you and allow time for screening before the scheduled start.
Can I take photographs inside STATION F?
Photography is authorised during the organised public visit format, but event-specific rules may differ. Startup workspaces, private meetings, partner areas, artworks and other visitors may have privacy restrictions. Ask the event team before photographing speakers, screens, prototypes or people, and never enter restricted areas to obtain a photograph.
Are children allowed at STATION F events?
There is no single campus-wide age policy for every event. A public tour, conference, workshop or evening reception may each set different age limits, especially where alcohol, professional networking or security procedures are involved. Check the individual event conditions before bringing a child, and do not assume that a general campus visit is suitable for children.
Are pets allowed inside STATION F?
The internal rules prohibit animals inside STATION F except guide dogs for blind people. Event organisers may apply additional requirements, but the published campus rule is the important starting point. Assistance-animal arrangements should be confirmed in advance so reception and security teams know what to expect at entry.
Is there a coat check or merchandise counter?
No permanent, venue-wide coat-check or merchandise service is confirmed in the published information. A particular organiser may arrange temporary cloakroom facilities, branded merchandise or a registration desk for its event. Travel light, especially for a conference in the Open Platform, and check the event instructions rather than relying on a standard theatre-style front-of-house service.
What should I bring to a STATION F event?
Bring your registration confirmation, identification if requested, a charged phone and minimal personal belongings. Comfortable shoes are useful because the building is long and event layouts can involve substantial walking. If you need accessible seating, captioning, a companion place or another accommodation, request it before arrival rather than waiting until the room is full.
Why is STATION F architecturally important?
The campus occupies the former Halle Freyssinet, a 1927–1929 freight-transhipment hall designed by Eugène Freyssinet. Its thin pre-stressed concrete vaults, long three-nave plan and abundant daylight are central to the building’s character. The hall was placed on France’s supplementary list of Historic Monuments in 2012 before its conversion into STATION F.
