Parookaville festival brings Germany together for epic sixth installmentParookaville 1

Parookaville festival brings Germany together for epic sixth installment

Located at Germany’s Airport Weeze, Parookaville Music Festival returned this year for its sixth installment since 2015. Idling patiently for the last three years, Germany’s biggest event has returned with a vengeance, welcoming back more than 200,000 attendees and 300 performers including Oliver Heldens, KSHMR, and Amelie Lens, across their 10+ stages. As someone who has been to plenty of North American festivals but never any European stages, the built-out city of Parookaville has certainly exceeded all expectations.

A far cry away from any major cities in Deutschland, Weeze offered an enclave-like festival experience that developed a sense of community among Parookaville citizens. Fostering a sense of togetherness that expanded across attendees from more than 40+ countries, the aptly named City of Dreams is truly a town entirely of its own. A 25m swimming pool, dozens of fair rides including bungee jumping and rollercoasters, sky diving, a tattoo parlor, wedding chapel, and much more, Parookaville goes far beyond a run-of-the-mill music festival.

Parookaville festival brings Germany together for epic sixth installmentParookaville 3 1

In addition to the plentiful extracurricular activities, the stage production as a whole is a sublime sight to behold, especially for eyeballs accustomed to small-scale stateside efforts. Towering over the packed crowd gathered at the Mainstage lies two gigantic speakers extending into the sky on either side of the performing acts, highlighted by LED lights, laser beams, pyrotechnics, along with perfectly timed fireworks. While the Mainstage clearly sees the most action, the smaller stages more than live up to the hype. Providing both indoor and outdoor listening experiences with all the bells and whistles, other stages boast the same bombastic allure including huge LED lights extending across the ceilings, fog machines, fire spurting up 10 feet in the air, and, of course, more lasers.

The festival felt like a collection of dance music’s most loyal devotees all joyfully communing under the spiritually charged rural German sky. Chock full of variety, the stages were dedicated to nearly every sub-genre of dance music, as well as stage takeovers from Spinnin’ Records, Mixmash, and more. The Mainstage saw performances by Parookaville veterans Steve Aoki, Armin van Buuren, Afrojack while other stages like Time Lab, Desert Valley, and Cloud Factory welcomed powerhouses such as Purple Disco Machine, Luude, WHIPPED CREAM, and many more. If any readers have an interest in attending this festival of epic proportions, it’s important to get a head start on the day—the multi-natured adventures are kaleidoscopic and ripe for the plucking. Once you check into Parookaville, citizens are able to get their own Parookaville passport with which attendees can get a stamp for each activity they take part in. This allows them to leave the experience with a physical copy of everything they’ve accomplished as well as receiving full citizenship as a Parookavillian.

The people of Parookaville are emphatically full of love (and beer), and the four-day event was a robust, electric experience, customizable for any dance music loyalist. For those looking to attend within the coming years, it should be noted that this is an experience grand enough for every bucket list.

Featured images: Jonathan Braash

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