Julian Huke
The four-day festival wrapped up its grandiose return to Neustadt-Glewe in early July.
The verdict is in: Airbeat One is a bona fide dance music lover’s paradise.
The colossal festival successfully celebrated its 19th edition this year, following a two-year, pandemic-induced hiatus. Returning to its airfield near Neustadt-Glewe in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Airbeat One 2022 united over 200,000 attendees from over 50 countries through a shared love of EDM.
With over 300 international DJs and performers across six stages, as well as a plethora of activities and vendors, this year's Airbeat One 2022 offered an escape from reality unlike any other. Taking attendees to a different destination around the world in each edition with its curated, thematic designs, the 2022 fest was inspired by the country of Italy, with four of its six stages being redesigned to reflect the theme while offering a truly immersive experience to attendees.
Airbeat One's Mainstage.
Julian Juke
Airbeat One brought together its most diverse lineup to date, booking a wide range of dance music styles that ranged from techno, house and psytrance to dubstep, hardstyle and much more.
There are very few festivals in Europe that are able to capture the energy Airbeat One exudes the moment one steps through its gates. Its gargantuan Mainstage, which sports an impressive width of 160 meters and a height of nearly 50 meters, hosted anthemic sets from a lineup of undisputed A-listers who continuously had the crowd jumping throughout.
Taking inspiration from the Milan Cathedral, the Colosseum in Rome, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Rialto Bridge in Venice, the Mainstage’s design was one of the most impressive ones to date. DJ sets from the likes of NERVO, Tiësto, Marshmello, Kygo, DJ Snake, Afrojack and many more entertained fans for almost 12 hours per day.
Kygo performing at Airbeat One's Mainstage.
Rita Seixas
A breathtaking, last-day Mainstage highlight came when a 15-minute firework show dazzled attendees directly after Armin van Buuren’s set, and before KSHMR closed out the Mainstage with his high-energy tunes and mesmerizing visuals. New and old dance music anthems were performed during those bombastic 15 minutes, while the Mainstage—having seemingly taken a life of its own—showcased its eye-popping production, electrifying the crowd with pyrotechnics, lasers and more.
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While the Mainstage was undoubtedly one of the festival’s main attractions, its numerous other genre-focused stages had fans raving until the early morning. The 30-meter tall Hardstyle stage featured a takeover by renowned events brand Q-dance. Inspired by Roman Gladiators, it was conceptualized by in-house Airbeat One designers for the first time.
Gladiator Stage (Q-dance Takeover)
Benjamin Ebrecht
Similarly, the Terminal stage featured a huge mask from the Venetian Carnival that was brought to life through spectacular effects and state-of-the-art 3D projection mapping.
The Arena stage, on the other hand, featured a takeover from Boris Brejcha’s FCKNG SERIOUS imprint on Thursday, followed by a two-day showcase courtesy of elrow. Enlisting the likes of Charlotte de Witte, FISHER, Claptone and CamelPhat, elrow immersed visitors into the Rome Olympics with its Arena design while ruthless techno sounds blitzed fans.
Finally, The Second stage—fittingly located on a separated festival area—offered a respite, transporting its audience to a psychedelic parallel world soundtracked by celebrated electronic music acts such as Infected Mushroom, Astrix, Ferry Corsten and MaRLo, among others.
3 Are Legend performing at Airbeat One's Mainstage.
Steffen Schulze
Airbeat One’s dominance within Germany is undisputed. 2023 will find the festival celebrating its 20th anniversary July 5th to 9th after organizers recently announced the intimate “Home Edition,” choosing to memorialize this occasion by bringing its annual theme back to its home country of Germany.
Advance sales for Airbeat One 2023 begin September 3rd, 2022.
Facebook: facebook.com/airbeatone
Twitter: twitter.com/airbeatone
Instagram: instagram.com/airbeatone
Website: airbeat-one.de
Konstantinos Karakolis is a freelance music journalist based in Athens, Greece. Karakolis, who also produces electronic and hip-hop music, has been a steadfast contributor to EDM.com for over four years, focusing predominantly on music reviews. He also curates the brand’s “Underground Vibes” series, where he showcases unheralded musicians representing the next wave of dance music.
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