Today, the DEICHBRAND Festival at Cuxhaven/Nordholz sea airport is considered one of the most influential open-air festivals in Germany. Since 2009, POOLgroup has been the event’s long‑term technical partner. Set between a dike and the airport runway and enjoying the breeze from the North Sea, the ‘Festival in the North’ has grown from a gathering of tens of thousands into a major festival that now welcomes around 60,000 visitors each day

Rock, pop, hip-hop, EDM – DEICHBRAND is known for its broad mix of musical genres and outstanding live performances. Kings of Leon, The Prodigy, Peter Fox, Nina Chuba, and Macklemore have all previously appeared on the Cuxhaven/Nordholz sea airport stage.

The organizer’s aim is to stage a festival that is relevant internationally while retaining its distinctive north German character: unapologetic and focused on the audience – with strong headline acts, reliable infrastructure, and transparent technical standards on which artists, crews, and audience can rely.

The site is located on the North Sea coast, on a former military airfield next to a dike. Strong winds, ever changing weather conditions, and exposed open areas pose a structural and logistical challenge every year.

In response, vast quantities of equipment, extensive stage space and infrastructure, and a large crew are organized and deployed, ensuring the program, safety, and artistic requirements are perfectly aligned. Detailed technical planning begins months before the festival starts so everything on site runs smoothly. The partnership has particularly proven its worth when bad weather strikes: Thanks to the team’s personal commitment, the festival has always been delivered safely and professionally, even in challenging years, further deepening the connection between the organizers and the POOLcrew.

At DEICHBRAND, the POOLcrew assumes overall technical planning and implementation for several main stages, the Palace Tent, VIP areas, and selected special areas.

This includes specialist planning and deployment of lighting, audio, and video technology, designing rigging and frameworks that can cope with the particular local wind and load conditions, as well as setting up suitable ambient lighting across the site. During the festival itself, the POOLcrew provides technical support for each artist’s set, coordinates changeovers, and liaises with production, security, and additional trades.

Thanks to their long-term collaboration, the crew knows the terrain, workflows, and technical peculiarities in detail – from access, structures, and time windows to the specific requirements of global stars and local artists.

For the audience, this means four days of live experiences at a consistently high level – from international headline acts on the Fire Stage to late-night club shows in the Palace Tent. Genres change, artists change, the weather changes but the technical quality stays the same.

What began as a local festival has turned into an established major event that continues to evolve year after year. POOLgroup has been part of this growth since 2009 as the technical backbone and planning partner with a crew in the background who keep the “Festival of the North” shining brightly.