Hack Week is not all about coding, innovating and working hard. Throughout the week we’ve hosted parties and side events to help the teams really let their hair down and relax. The theme of Hack Week #4 is Rockstarz, so we’ve organized lots of Rock n’ Roll-themed activities.

Since Monday, our Rockbandz competition has run daily at lunchtime in Berlin and Dortmund. Each team includes a guitarist (or two), a lead singer and a drummer, who compete on instrument simulators. The competition began with seven bands, and today the final two will compete for the ultimate title of Champion Rock Band!

There are two other ongoing championships that end today: Helldiverz, a shooting game with challenges that have gotten progressively harder over the week; and Rally Mario Da Kartz, a “Mario Kart on Speed” that spans all 32 original tracks from Mario Kart 8 — but with the CPU set to “Hard,” and the items as “Frantic.”

Yesterday we hosted a Mini Rockerz event for Zalando Tech parents to bring their youngest mini-me’s to the office for the day:

Parents in Berlin also had the chance to bring slightly older mini-me’s to our Mini Hackerz event, where a team of Zalandos taught them some basic coding skills:

On Tuesday, our tech execs — including SVP of Technology Philipp Erler and VP Engineering Eric Bowman — took a turn as Chefs du Jour and served waffles and mulled wine to the teams:

Wednesday’s fun included rock-band Jamz and hard rock Karaoke. Three of our homegrown Zalando bands took to the stage to entertain the masses, who dined on hot dogs and Dark 'N Stormies:

Piñatas, rock-themed movie nights, pool and table-tennis competitions, and lots of beer and hanging out completed the Hack Week experience for many of us:

Tonight’s award ceremony will lead into a final office-wide celebration for 2015. We owe a massive thank you to the Zalando Hack Week organizers for making the week so incredibly cool. Rock on, dear organizers!

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