PollerWiesen Opening 2023 Cologne | Review
PollerWiesen is an electronic music festival that takes place in Cologne, Germany. The festival is known for its diverse line-up of electronic music artists, including techno, house, and other electronic music sub-genres. It has been running for 30 years and has grown into one of the most popular electronic music festivals in Germany, attracting both local and international visitors.
Location:
The Open Air takes place on the “Müllheimer Insel” directly at the water and next to the Bootshaus Club.
In my review, I rated the location of Bootshaus with a 7.5/10. However, since at Pollerwiesen direct access to the water is possible (security in place, since swimming is prohibited), making for a wonderful atmosphere I am gonna up the score.
Due to the long walk to the public transport (-0.5) and a difficult parking situation for such a large event (-0.5), the result is: 9/10
Sound-system:
The industry standard L-Acoustic was used. The main Line Array looked like a K2 system and the Subwoofers used are the SB28. If I am not mistaken there have been 7 blocks with 4 of those Subs placed individually with one Sub firing to the back. The delay towers have been equipped with what looks like Kara II.
I and my friends have been very satisfied with the sound. It was pretty homogenous where ever we have been and sounded great for an open-air. Obviously, it is hard to create the same dynamic and warmth as inside a club. The loudness was also on a good level being neither too high nor too silent throughout the whole event. As always I recommend a good pair of earplugs! The bass felt incredible and powerful, and overall it was a pleasant experience.
Nothing to complain about 10/10
Lights and atmosphere:
The lighting was mounted to towers, where some of those also functioned to hold the Soundsystem. On them have been placed some moving heads, an LED blinder, and an LED screen.
Considering that the lighting only played an important role for 45 minutes to 1 hour (21 o’clock was the sunset and at 22 the event ended), it was quite a nice setup. It looked and felt pretty trippy and someone in an Instagram comment said they looked like some “Alien Towers” which I find amusing but fitting. It should be noted that the same setup was used in the previous year.
Towards the end of the night, the LED screens have also been used as XXL strobes and the moving heads created a “net” above the heads, which was a crazy effect. In my opinion, they haven’t been used to their full potential which was a bit sad. During the day when the sun was up they have been the main effect but only showed some visuals that reminded me of Windows Mediaplayer. I would have wished for some more creative use of them in the direction of a proper 3D animation like they are known from Afterlife or Eric Prydz.
Overall it was great and the amount of gear was more than appropriate. Though it wasn’t used to its full potential: 9/10
Organization:
When we arrived (15 o’clock) we were greeted by an approximately 150-meter-long line of people waiting to pass the security. Luckily we could skip it, but the security and ticket check itself wasn’t quick either. If we would have waited in line regularly I estimate that it would have taken us ~ 45 min to 1 hr, and maybe we would have even missed DJ Gigola. The security search wasn’t very strict. Lockers were available (6 Euro — small).
There have been permanent toilets in place with pissoirs, running water, and sinks (to refill water). Additionally, ~50 portable toilets have been placed on the festival grounds. Unfortunately only porta potties and no mobile urinals and no dedicated water point. The result was that from some moment during the party most men just went peeing into the bushes. However, I doubt that someone minded, as the area was pretty large. Overall it was enough and waiting times have been fine.
The security was mostly looking out that no one jumped into the water. Otherwise, they seemed unintrusive. A dedicated awareness team and some paramedics (with a medical tent) have been on site which is a huge plus.
There is one organizational specialty with Pollerwiesen that I need to go into detail about here. Since the party is taking place during spring it might be, that the weather will be bad. Due to that, there is one main date announced and usually three alternative dates on consecutive weekends. If it takes place on the current weekend it will be announced on Wednesday and not always canceled for logical reasons. This year the first weekend (09.04.2023) was pretty good weather-wise, but the event was still postponed. This resulted in it happening on the final date (30.04), which means that it got postponed three times. That by the way is why I was able to buy tickets for cheap on Ticketswap, because after each reschedule a huge amount of people unload their tickets. I myself had the issue of buying tickets last year and Pollerwiesen being postponed to a date when I couldn’t attend (weather on the original date was fine again).
It is understandable why this is done and that the goal is to have optimal weather conditions for the guests, however, it makes planning to attend a horror! Look at this year: worst case three times rescheduled. How often do you don’t have plans for four consecutive weekends? There are some rumors that this is also used to better manage ticket sales, but I won’t comment further on that.
The whole organization seemed pretty spot-on and experienced. Easy security, enough toilets, an awareness team, and medics… still, the overall picture was a bit flawed by the rescheduling dilemma and some long waiting times to enter. I think 7.5/10 is a fair score for this category.
Music:
As always music doesn’t play into the rating as it is highly subjective. However, here the line-up completely got to me and featured everything I wanted. It was a breath of fresh air amid all the Hard Techno movement that is very prevalent in Cologne. A solid opening with the PAL residents Epikur, some hyped and fun music from DJ Gigola, groovy hard-house from THC B2B AGY3NA, fast eurodance/trance served from Job Jobse, and a classic techno closing from the Ostgut legend Marcel Dettmann.
We arrived a bit late, so unfortunately I can’t comment on Epicur and we only saw the last 30 minutes from DJ Gigola. I was pretty excited about the B2B as I am constantly listening to the HÖR sets from THC. It was pretty much what I expected and hoped for: extremely groovy. Perfect for a sunny Sunday! Maybe a few too many tracks I knew from previous sets.
Job Jobse turned up the energy two notches. He started quite fast but didn’t get much faster during his set, which was good. Even without major tempo increases the energy got heated up a lot and by the end he was playing a lot of currently popular modern trance tracks like a Renegade Master remix (if I am not mistaken) and I’m Bringin’ Sexy Back. It suited the crowd very well and in the last 30–40 minutes everyone was jumping around and overall ecstatic.
While Marcel Dettmann was very precise in his mix and created a constant flow, it kind of felt like a sharp cut from Job Jobse and I didn’t have the feeling as if he pulled in the crowd 100%. It was objectively still very good and classic deep techno (which I like a lot). Also a good slot for him to play when it got dark, but personally, for me it was a bit too much of a contrast and he tried to push his own sound onto a crowd which just came from a different vibe. In my opinion, an act that could continue in a similarly melodic direction as Job Jobse — e.g. CAIVA — or faster (not hard) techno — e.g. ANNĒ or D.Dan— would have fitted the program more.
Pricing:
The original Ticket price including the service fee was 42.5€. For such a one-day event — with the overhead it brings and the high-quality lineup that was provided — that is a fair price in my opinion and compares to other organizers that play in the same league like The Third Room (Essen) or Back to the Woods (Munich). It is not an exceptionally good price, but I would be willing to pay it.
As already mentioned there was a token system in place with the conversion rate of 1 Token = 2€. At least it was easy math and I appreciate that. Here is the full list of drink prices. In my opinion, it was alright. A small 0.3l beer for 4€. Water 0.5l for 3€ and the possibility to drink tap water from the sink was also fair. It would have been cool if beer and long drinks would have been in 0.4l cups (served with lids) but overall it wasn’t overpriced.
There were lots of food options: Fries, Burgers, Asian Noodles, and Crepes. All vegetarian. However, the food at times felt overpriced, and even though there was a good variety 5€ for some simple fries felt expensive. My friend ordered Asian noodles which basically only have been a box of noodles without tofu or vegetables for 8€ which is quite steep. The portion size itself was ok, but he himself described the taste and quality as low.
Cheaper is always better for the average partygoer, but overall it felt like a coherent package (except for the food prices): 7/10
Conclusion:
You can sense that the organizers are really experienced. Happy 30 years anniversary Pollerwiesen! Technically there were no hick-ups. Except for some smaller issues the organization was well done. The pricing was comparable to other events in the one-day-festival category in Germany and it was reasonable for what was offered. The only major downside is the rescheduling and alternative date process. This makes it very hard to plan in advance, especially with friends. I recommend only getting tickets shortly before (after the date is confirmed). Otherwise, if you are in Cologne during the date(s) Pollerwiesen for me is definitely worth it and I can recommend it! Strong 8.5/10.
My state of mind:
I was at the party mainly with two friends (of course one always bumps into other friends or acquaintances). One of which I haven’t seen for a while and who was driving home after the event. Since I am not drinking much at the moment I decided to “join” him and experience the party pretty sober. Additionally, it was my focus to spend time with them and not run around all day as I sometimes tend to do — definitely less outgoing this time.
Being there with friends and spending some quality time together was the main goal and set the initial mood high. It was also a rather spontaneous decision as I saw a lot of people unloading their tickets at the beginning of the week for cheap. I paid 25 Euro per ticket which was basically a no-brainer.
Otherwise, nothing really influenced me in a positive/negative way. The next Pollerwiesen in Cologne is taking place on 24.06.23 and I managed to grab some well-priced tickets on Ticketswap again (25 Euro) so I’ll probably be in for another ride on that date. I hope the experience stays this positive.
