[ANNOUNCEMENT] ❄️ v1.35 Enhancements Freeze in Effect / Upcoming Key Dates

[Rayan Das]

Howdy Kubernetes community! 👋 

Enhancements Freeze began today, Friday 17th October 2025, at 12:00 UTC. 

Enhancements stats for v1.35: 

▶️ Enhancements opted-in for v1.35: 101

▶️ Enhancements tracked for v1.35: 75

⏹️ Enhancements removed from milestone after freeze: 8

Any KEPs that wish to join the v1.35 release must now have an approved Exception. Once approved, Enhancements will be entered into the tracking board by the Enhancements team. If you plan to submit an Exception request, please submit it as soon as possible.

For those with accepted Enhancements, please continue linking all k/k and k/website PRs to your k/enhancements tracking issue.

Upcoming Key Dates:

• Thursday 30th October 2025 (AoE) / Friday 31st October 2025, 12:00 UTC: Week 7 — Feature blog freeze
• Thursday 6th November 2025 (AoE) / Friday 7th November 2025, 12:00 UTC: Week 8 — Code Freeze and Test Freeze
• Monday 10th - Thursday 13th November 2025: Week 9 - KubeCon NA
• Tuesday 2nd December 2025 (AoE) / Wednesday 3rd December 2025, 12:00 UTC: Week 12 — Docs Freeze
• Wednesday 17th December 2025: Week 14 — Kubernetes v1.35.0 released

If you have any questions, please reach out to the Enhancements team at #enhancements or Release Team at #sig-release

Thank you! 

Rayan Das,

v1.35 Enhancements Lead