Frankfurt.
The World Club Dome in Frankfurt offers an impressive line up including David Guetta. A look behind the scenes with planner Bernd Breiter.
For the tenth anniversary, the organizers of the World Club Dome in Frankfurt are making a big splash. 250 artists belong to the line-up of the “biggest club in the world”, which will welcome at least around 60,000 fans of electronic music every day from June 9th to 11th in the stadium and on the outside area – including national and international stars such as David Guetta, Timmy Trumpet, Steve Aoki, Robin Schulz, Sebastian Ingrosso, Scooter and Lost Frequencies.
Bernd Breiter is the creative head of the BigCityBeats organizer team. In the interview he talks about the logistical and financial challenges for festivals after the pandemic, why a world star like David Guetta is part of the line up and what plans he has for the future of the WCD, including a camping district.
The tenth edition of the World Club Dome in Frankfurt will take place in just over three weeks. 93 percent of the tickets are already sold out. Will there still be a box office or do you expect the festival to be sold out in advance?
Bernd Broader: I think it will be sold out before then, so there probably won’t be a box office. We’re in very good spirits, but we’re not clairvoyant either. I’m excited to see what the next four weeks will bring.”
Did you expect the level of tickets sold at such an early stage?
wider: We had different epochs – sometimes sales went up, then they went down again, which was a bit of a shock experience for us. One hears from some colleagues in the event industry that people have become more cautious when buying tickets.”
So why are you doing better?
wider: The fact that we have come this far is certainly also due to our tenth anniversary. People like the stories we have to tell – this time it’s the Atlantis edition. In addition, we have very good conditions in Frankfurt. We are a festival that takes place in a city with many hotels nearby, good public transport connections and it only takes a seven-minute taxi ride from the big airport to the festival site. These are nice amenities because a lot of people don’t necessarily want to camp at a festival, but prefer a proper bed and shower.”
You also have a camping offer for the World Club Dome – how many guests do you plan to have there?
wider: There will be around 4,000, although all but a few container lodges have sold out camping tickets.”
With around 60,000 guests a day last year, that’s not much…
wider: “That’s why we want to expand the offer next year. The hotels in the area are quite fully booked during the WCD weekend, which means that the prices for hotel rooms have risen sharply and not everyone can afford it. That is why we are planning to set up a new camping district with a shuttle service to the festival site next year.”
Are you still struggling with the financial aftermath of the Corona pandemic or are you completely back on track?
wider: “We are already pushing a bow wave from the Corona period ahead of us. We were in a very good financial position beforehand and always made good calculations. During the pandemic, as entrepreneurs, we asked ourselves whether to stay on the gas pedal or go into economy mode. At that time we fought for our WCD Pool Session before the Higher Administrative Court and carried out the Winter Edition in Düsseldorf without adjusting the price, although it was not known whether another corona wave could come and the costs of production had already exploded. We wanted to signal to people that BigCityBeats can be relied on and that we guarantee a great show and stages despite the uncertainties.”
Many organizers complain about the increased production costs you mentioned – how do you deal with that?
wider: “It varies – there are sub-trades that have even increased the prices by up to 40 percent, where we then also questioned the reasons. We have already had very serious talks with the service providers. We can’t pass on such drastic increases 1 to 1 to the ticket buyers.”
During the pandemic, many “specialists” migrated to other professional sectors – how difficult was it for you to get the important specialist staff?
wider: “Fortunately, we have been working with many providers for a long time and have not switched to the cheapest one every year. Thanks to continuity, we continue to have very good access – and many are very happy to work for us.”
Along with resident DJ Le Shuuk, you recently announced some changes to the WCD to mark the 10th anniversary. What can your guests look forward to?
wider: “The outdoor main stage will be bigger than ever and will be the width of an entire soccer field. The zombie stage will once again represent the apocalyptic – additionally in Atlantis garb. There will be a 15 meter tall Poseidon enthroned on it. Water will play a role as a motto in numerous places – for example through small waterfalls. We will have a tent for our influencer festival Glam and a special VIP outdoor area as well as the Club Kitchen.”
Are there things that your guests should consider?
wider: “Thanks to the airport, the large motorway junction and the good public transport connections, we don’t have a bottleneck in terms of time. Of course it can get crowded at peak times – especially before we open, we expect a large rush. However, we have three major entrances on different sides of the site – from the car park, from the tram and from the trains. In addition, the infrastructure around the stadium is designed in such a way that around 60,000 spectators can come to events. We have also summarized all important information, such as the permitted backpack size, on our homepage in the FAQs.”
How does payment work at the World Club Dome?
wider: “We don’t accept cash payments – we have an electronic payment system. You can also register in advance and load your chip card with money. This saves waiting time on the festival grounds. There you can also top up your chip card with cash or an EC card.”
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Let’s get to the line up: Who are you looking forward to in particular and is there someone you had to fight for a particularly long time for the WCD?
wider: “It’s always really difficult to make a statement like that, because every artist has their own style. I think it’s really great how the friendship with Boris Brejcha has developed, that he’s now hosting the main stage at the pool session. And DJane Peggy Gou from South Korea is with us for the first time.”
Some old acquaintances are also coming to the anniversary…
wider: “I have a very close friendship with Steve Aoki and Timmy Trumpet. It’s also great that Sebastian Ingrosso from the Swedish House Mafia is there, and Marshmello has his only German appearance with us. Overall, the line up is so nicely mixed that we can offer something from every genre of club music.”
How many DJs will be performing over the three days and how many stages will there be on the site each day?
wider: “In total we have over 250 artists on 25 stages over the three days.” (up to ten stages a day) “I get a lot of texts saying we book such a good line up that people don’t even know which stage to go to. I’m happy about this luxury problem for our visitors.” (laughs)
David Guetta has scaled back his festival presence a bit – how did you manage to get the star DJ to come to Frankfurt? Is he the icing on the cake at the WCD?
wider: “David Guetta has been with BigCityBeats with his radio show for 13 years and has also played almost every event with us. That he then comes to our ten-year-old is fantastic. David Guetta is the DJ that really everyone in the world knows. That makes me proud!”
Also because of his fee demands as currently the most successful dance producer, it is no longer so easy for organizers to book the French…
wider: “If he loves events, you can talk to him openly about the amount of the fee. Last year he said he really wanted to come to the ten year old and then play a mega closing on Sunday because of his long association with the World Club Dome. David Guetta certainly gets umpteen inquiries from all over the world every day – from the wedding of the daughter of a big industrialist who doesn’t care about the fee to the biggest festivals in the world, where he has already played all of them. That means he can choose his performances and decide where he felt particularly comfortable.”
The World Club Dome was ranked 11th among the world’s most popular festivals in a readers’ poll by DJ Mag – and 1st in Germany! How proud does that make you? What do you see as reasons?
wider: “I can’t explain it at all because we didn’t do any promotion among our fans for the election. When we first heard about the ranking, we had to rub our eyes and pinch to wake up. I’m super proud of the team, which has been proving for ten years now that we don’t have to be a corporation to build something so big. We are still a family business from Frankfurt that focuses on creating a great experience for our guests, where they can completely let go for three days and disappear into a dream world.”
How international is the audience now?
wider: “We have visitors from 86 countries – a couple even come from the Fiji Islands. Many guests come from Europe, but also from the USA. They use the airport and the connection to visit other major cities from us.”
What are your further plans for the future?
wider: “The Club Kitchen, which we established during the pandemic, is slowly gaining momentum. It combines two languages that everyone understands: everyone knows how to eat and everyone knows how to move to music. We have a gastro concept there and are in talks with sponsors to establish the Club Kitchen worldwide. We were already on the ISS space station via Matthias Maurer and soon we will also be going to the Maldives, for example.”
What’s next for the World Club Dome? After the main event in Frankfurt, a date has already been set for the Island Edition from August 4th to 6th…
wider: “We want to push the worldwide expansion of the World Club Dome again – and start again in Korea, among other things.”
What will become of the winter edition of the World Club Dome in the Düsseldorf stadium?
wider: “The Winter Edition itself is a concept that I really like as a way to end or start the year. However, whether the event will remain in Düsseldorf or whether we will go somewhere else is still under discussion. We are currently in talks with Düsseldorf, but there are other options that we have on the table.”
More articles from this category can be found here: World Club Dome
