It was a very special event that drew over 25,000 people to Frankfurt's Stadionbad this past weekend: After the festival industry was in lockdown for 598 days, the WCD Pool Sessions were allowed to celebrate from Friday, 03 September to Sunday, 05 September. These would actually have been part of the BigCityBeats WORLD CLUB DOME. After the latter had to be cancelled due to strict Corona regulations, at least a little bit of festival feeling could be brought back with the WCD Pool Sessions. It was the first big electronic event since the BigCityBeats WORLD CLUB DOME Winter Edition in Düsseldorf at the beginning of January 2020.
This of course had to be celebrated: Over 25,000 visitors over three days from all over Germany came to the Main metropolis for this. Despite the approval of the event, the realization of the event was still on the line until one day before the start due to an appeal before the Hessian Administrative Court in Kassel. However, thanks to an agreement between the Frankfurt Health Department and event organiser BigCityBeats, the event was finally able to become a reality. The prerequisite for this was, of course, the hygiene and infection protection concept developed with experts for the major event, which was based on the 3G principle and only allowed fully vaccinated, demonstrably recovered or negatively PCR-tested.
Together with his team, Dr. Peter Tinnemann, Head of the Frankfurt Health Department, gained a personal impression of the protective measures at the event. He was impressed by the high technical effort with which the organizers have implemented a 3G concept. "The percentage of vaccinated and recovered people at the event was almost 90%, I would also like to see that in the general population," said Tinnemann.
The health department plans to scientifically investigate the protective measures implemented in the coming weeks together with the organizer. Thus, the tireless efforts of BigCityBeats CEO and WORLD CLUB DOME creator Bernd Breiter and his team, who had fought until the end for the festival in Frankfurt's Stadionbad, paid off.
Oliver Schwebel from the Frankfurt Economic Development Agency praised Breiter for this on Sunday at the reception in the Stadtbad: "What Bernd Breiter has achieved is incredible. Some have said, that's not possible. Bernd said it could be done. Together we had the courage and finally did it." Patrik Meyer, the Managing Director from Deutsche Bank Park was also full of praise for the event: "The WCD Pool Sessions are a milestone."
The thousands of visitors stuck to the set requirements and were thus able to party exuberantly for three days to electronic DJ greats such as Andhim, Boris Brejcha, Claptone, Felix Kröcher, Fritz Kalkbrenner, Monika Kruse, Nina Kraviz, Reinier Zonnefeld, Sven Väth or Wolfgang Flür (ex-Kraftwerk).
"I am simply overwhelmed. This energy that has been created here, when thousands of people got to experience again their culture that they missed so much, was impressive. I would like to thank my team, the authorities and the city of Frankfurt for allowing us to make this possible under the strict conditions and requirements we imposed on ourselves. It is the first step back to normality, to live with a virus that will never go away," explains Bernd Breiter.
By the way, many celebrities did not want to miss the first festival of the year. Giulia Siegel, Gina-Lisa Lohfink, Matthias Mangiapane and Hubert Fella, Michael Groß, Nico Schwanz, Tessa Bergmeier, Reiner Meifert and many more came to Frankfurt especially for this occasion.
At the closing show on Sunday, the winter edition of the BigCityBeats WORLD CLUB DOME was announced. This is scheduled to take place in Düsseldorf on 7/8/9 January 2022. After the success in Frankfurt, Bernd Breiter is extremely confident that he will be able to celebrate the first festival of the year there.
