Two days before the opening game of the 2024 European Football Championship, around 90,000 people celebrated the Fan Fest EURO 2024 in Munich’s Theresienwiese park. Internationally renowned stars such as Ed Sheeran, Nelly Furtado, Mark Forster, Dylan, and Tim Bendzko performed on stage – all broadcast live and for free via MagentaMusik, MagentaTV, and Deutsche Telekom’s social media channels.

The client, U-Need GmbH, planned a heartfelt musical event as a curtain-raiser to the European Championship. The aim was to show that football and music could be a unifying force while at the same time embedding the event in UEFA’s global communications strategy.

Carefully reconciling the different expectations of the international artists’ management teams ahead of time was a particular challenge. But it was the only way to ensure all the stars could perform at their best – one after the other, on the same stage, on the same day. In addition, strict UEFA regulations had to be met, along with incorporating a global live broadcast.

The POOLcrew assumed total responsibility for technical and organizational implementation.

• Audio systems, lighting, rigging & stage automation, media technology & IT/server infrastructure.
• Technical planning, logistics, event management & consulting, event production

Careful advanced planning and close collaboration with U-Need, the artists, and other partners meant the concert not only ran smoothly but was recognized as an outstanding event format – distinctive in both scale and impact.

The audience enjoyed a concert that combined stadium-scale entertainment with a festival vibe – with Ed Sheeran as the highlight of the evening. MagentaTV and MagentaMusik carried the Fan Fest worldwide, while for many the atmosphere on the ground was “the perfect prelude to EURO 2024”.

The opening concert set a high bar: It demonstrated how sport, music, and branding can be combined to create an event that thrilled both the live audience and streaming viewers. At the same time, POOLgroup were organizing further UEFA fan festivals – including public screenings in Stuttgart, the “Stadium of Dreams,” the EURO Inclusion Day, and the Trophy Tour.