From the very beginning, the Glücksgefühle Festival at the Hockenheimring was designed to be a major festival: several stages, open spaces, a broad multi-genre line-up, and a transparent brand positioning with intense media attention. Since its 2023 premiere, POOLgroup has been on board as the technical and staging partner, supporting the organizer, Glücksgefühle Entertainment GE GmbH, in establishing the festival as a large‑scale event right from the start.

Glücksgefühle (“happiness”) is a feel-good festival which appeals to a broad audience, with pop, hip-hop, rock, and electronic music, a strong, emotional brand identity and a straightforward promise: Shared moments, positive energy, and “happiness” in the literal sense.

This needs:

• a highly recognizable main stage,
• show highlights that transcend individual performances,
• and a cohesive visual identity that shapes the weekend’s narrative right up to the Closing Ceremony.

POOLgroup helps translate this ambition into set design, lighting, show pacing, and technical workflows.

The Hockenheimring festival doesn’t start quietly; it immediately kicks off at full volume. This brings a number of challenges with it:

• a large-scale site with various stages and zones,
• vastly different production requirements, ranging from group, pop, and hip-hop performances to DJ sets,
• high expectations for show quality, safety, and visitor flows, even in the early years,
• tight scheduling between acts and genres while managing complex technical setups.

POOLgroup draws on its experience from festival formats such as WORLD CLUB DOME, PAROOKAVILLE, as well as its other touring and entertainment projects and applies these standards to the specific conditions at the Hockenheimring.

Since 2023, the POOLcrew has supported the Glücksgefühle Festival with a clear-cut range of production and technology services.

Core building blocks:

• Set and lighting design
  Developing distinctive imagery for core parts of the program and selected moments of the show – particularly on the main stage. The design is configured to work during the day but really comes into its own once darkness falls.
• Staging the Closing Ceremony
  Designing and delivering the climax in which lighting, video content, effects, and music merge into a tightly orchestrated production. The aim is to capture the atmosphere of the whole festival weekend in a single moment.
• Technical artist management
  Coordinating the technical requirements of various acts, aligning riders with the available infrastructure, and ensuring smooth transfers between performances and setups.
• Specialist technical planning and implementation
  Planning and delivering lighting, audio, video, rigging, power, and media technology, with a focus on fail-safes, meaningful redundancies, and well-defined interfaces to further trades.
• Preproduction and advance programming
  Preparatory planning, test builds, and programming to test critical parts of the show in advance, checking lines of sight, and sharpening processes both technically and in terms of content.

This creates a foundation that matches the scale of the festival while still allowing precise control.

For the audience, Glücksgefühle comes across as a large but seamlessly organized festival weekend:

• stage imagery that brings the brand promise to life visually,
• transitions between genres that are technically clean and do not interrupt the artistic pacing,
• show highlights that stay in the consciousness – particularly the Closing Ceremony.

From the organizer’s point of view, POOLgroup’s work contributes primarily to two goals:

• Ensuring stable, large-scale festival operations from year one.
• Building the brand through recognizable imagery and staging that work both on-site and in media coverage and social-media content.

From the outset, the collaboration between Glücksgefühl Entertainment GE GmbH and POOLgroup was established as a partnership of equals.

• The organizer specifies the brand, program, and content parameters.
• POOLgroup contributes its festival know-how, technical expertise, and staging experience to turn these specifications into a robust production plan.

This creates a structure in which creative ideas, safety requirements, and technical excellence are united to achieve one goal: A Glücksgefühle Festival that lives up to its name, happiness, in its delivery and continues to grow year after year.