PANTHER takes on the Parookaville challenge: consistent sound for 70,000 people

Parookaville celebrated its 11th edition from July 17–19 at Weeze Airport in Germany. The festival welcomed nearly 225,000 attendees and featured performances by more than 300 electronic music artists. The lineup included Armin van Buuren, Hardwell, W&W, The Chainsmokers, and Timmy Trumpet.

POOLgroup, the festival's longtime production partner, handles the design and full production of six of its main stages, with Meyer Sound systems deployed at the Mainstage, Bill’s Factory, Cloud Factory, Power Plant, and Time Lab.

POOLgroup Production Director Robert Sommer oversaw production design and technical direction, while Technical Managers Jan Flerlage and Simon Jermer led an audio team of approximately 40 engineers and technicians.

Adapting the sound to a new scenic design every year

Every year, Parookaville transforms the airport site into its City of Dreams, an immersive festival metropolis made up of themed stages, streets, buildings and landmark spaces, scenic structures, lighting, and video, with a configuration that continually presents new challenges for the audio team.

The stage design is new every year. That is one of the tasks for our audio team: integrating a sound system that we know works into a new design. If you simply put a PA tower in front of the stage, you destroy part of that design, Flerlage explains.

At the Mainstage, with capacity for an audience of approximately 70,000 people, the challenge is to preserve that visual experience while delivering the direct, high-impact sound audiences expect from electronic music. "You want everyone to have the same direct sound, like in a club, across this huge area", says Flerlage. "Everyone should feel like they are part of the experience".

For the fourth consecutive year, POOLgroup designed the Mainstage system around PANTHER line arrays. The 2026 deployment comprised 180 PANTHER loudspeakers, 30 2100-LFC and 66 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements, 16 LEOPARD line array loudspeakers, and six UPQ point source loudspeakers. In recent years, the POOLgroup team has worked closely on the sound design with Meyer Sound Senior Technical Support and Education Specialist Merlijn van Veen. Mainstage system calibration and tuning were handled by Systems Engineer Matthias Pelz.

PANTHER's compact profile and low weight continue to provide the team with considerable flexibility as rigging, lighting, video, and scenic requirements evolve.

When PANTHER arrived, it gave us a new tool and more possibilities for solving problems. It is very lightweight and smaller. Viewed from the front, it is not as wide. That is one of the advantages for the stage design, Flerlage explains.

Small refinements, not a new system

Rather than reinventing a system that already works, POOLgroup uses each edition of Parookaville to introduce targeted improvements based on measurements, engineer feedback, and changes to the site. "We have been working with PANTHER for several years now and have a lot of experience, but every year we make small changes", Flerlage explains. "Sometimes you have to work on very specific details and realize that, for example, a little more headroom in a particular area would be useful".

Those refinements cover system coverage, subwoofer deployment, and delay systems, as well as controlling acoustic energy outside the audience areas. "The audio design begins months before production, with very detailed work by our system engineers", he says.

Beyond the Mainstage, PANTHER systems were used at Cloud Factory, Power Plant, and Time Lab, while Bill’s Factory featured LEO and LYON line arrays as its main system. According to Flerlage, visiting engineers at the festival can be confident that what they hear at the FOH position is reproduced consistently throughout the audience area.

From what I've heard, they were satisfied with the consistency of the coverage from virtually any position. That is one of the most difficult things in such a large space: achieving the same sound for everyone.

That consistency has helped make Meyer Sound a reference point within Parookaville's large-scale production, according to Flerlage. "Everyone who comes to Parookaville knows they can expect a high-quality, fully operational PA system".

Image credits: © Julian Huke