DÜSSELDORF GOES LIVE
Ten Backstreet Boys concerts, Invictus Games Germany, Japan Day and the Ice Hockey World Championship: D.LIVE Managing Director Michael Brill told VIVID how he and his team managed to make Düsseldorf one of Europe's most important event locations.
Michael, you have been Managing Director of D.LIVE since 2018. How did it come about?
I've been involved in live entertainment for 35 years, helping to set up the Arena Oberhausen and planning and operating the stadium in Wroclaw for the 2012 European Football Championship, among other things. In 2016, the city director Burkhard Hintzsche called me and asked if I would be interested in rethinking live entertainment in Düsseldorf. In August 2018, we founded D.LIVE with the city of Düsseldorf as the sole shareholder, venturing into a completely new start in the areas of music, sports and modern culture. We now operate nine event venues, have 182 employees, have tripled our turnover since our founding, and have fundamentally changed the quality and density of events as well as the visitor experience..
You not only play at large venues, but also at small ones. These include two of Düsseldorf's most iconic locations: the Ratinger Hof and the Rheinterrasse. How did that come about?
The credibility and development of a cultural location have a lot to do with what happens at the grassroots level: If we don't ensure that Düsseldorf provides the conditions for music to emerge from the grassroots, too much of its potential will be wasted. We are now at the forefront of the major German concert venues. Taking over the Ratinger Hof was therefore an absolutely logical step, because only with a strong club scene can we be credible for the big shows.
As operators of the Ratinger Hof, you have installed a protagonist of the Düsseldorf music scene.
We have created the framework conditions that allow operator Bernie Lewkowicz and his concert team nrw to work well. The demise of clubs has a lot to do with high rents and increased labour costs. Added to this are regulatory requirements, many of which we have taken on; we also support the Hof financially.
How did the lease of the Rheinterrasse come about?
For us, the Rheinterrasse is Düsseldorf's most iconic event venue. Not every city has a meeting place so close to the city centre in such a great location, with 100 years of history and so much glamour to offer. We leased it in order to break new ground and revive the Rheinterrasse. And we have succeeded in doing so.
What kind of programme can we expect at the Rheinterrasse?
The Rheinterrasse is primarily suitable for social occasions and corporate events. But we also want to host iconic cultural events there, such as the ‘Prize for Pop Culture’, which we were able to bring from Berlin to Düsseldorf last year. There will certainly be other award shows with national reach in various genres.
Let's talk about the large venues you operate: this year, there will be ten Backstreet Boys gigs, their only performances in Europe, and Robbie Williams' only concert in Germany, among others... How did you manage to bring these big names to Düsseldorf?
Mit drei ausverkauften Shows im letzten Jahr bricht Ed Sheeran mit insgesamt rund 195.000 Besucher:innen einen Zuschauerrekord: Noch nie waren so viele Besucher:innen bei einem Einzelkonzert in der MERKUR SPIEL-ARENA zu Gast.
This is the result of a clear strategy. We now operate 18 specialist departments with highly qualified staff – from security, building management and marketing to event production. We also have nine event venues in our portfolio, which enables us to offer all our customers a wide range of services and to work together to decide where best to place artists. We provide a complete event service at all locations, including technical staff, and are willing to take risks and offer flexibility. All of this has made us a strong player.
Düsseldorf is also getting a new open-air venue, which will open this summer: the OPEN AIR PARK DÜSSELDORF, a flexible, state-of-the-art event space for up to 80,000 visitors. The opening concert in July will feature System Of A Down with Queens Of The Stone Age and Acid Bath – an absolute highlight!
Düsseldorf is the only city in Germany that can offer a space permanently designed for large-scale events. With this location, we have a fully developed and therefore sustainable open-air site without diesel generators or portable toilets, but the decisive factor is its capacity of 80,000 visitors. This naturally brings us into the spotlight of the major concert organisers. System of a Down will be playing the entire venue for the first time this year. This also brings us, as a city, attention and a completely new position – both with the audience and with artists.
What is your vision at D.LIVE? Do you want to restore Düsseldorf to its former glory as a music city, as it was in the days of Creamcheese, Kraftwerk and the old Ratinger Hof?
I believe that the new glory shines at least as brightly as the old. We have become a location that radiates self-confidence because it has undergone a transformation: music, modern culture and live entertainment have been given high priority – and you can't talk your way into something like that. Only when great, large events take place here will the scene take notice of us. We have the infrastructure, the understanding, the opportunities; that's why the number of producers and creative people in Düsseldorf is increasing year after year.
ABOUT D.LIVE
• 9 venues: OPEN AIR PARK, MERKUR SPIEL-ARENA, PSD BANK DOME, Mitsubishi Electric HALLE, CASTELLO Düsseldorf, Club MTV, alltours Kino am Rhein, Rheinterrasse and Ratinger Hof.
• With capacities ranging from 400 to 80,000 guests
• More than 9 million visitors
• More than 500 events
• As one of Germany's leading live entertainment providers, D.LIVE organises and produces the city's most important major events – from Japan Day and the Düsseldorf Christmas markets to the fan zones during UEFA EURO 2024.
• With D.SPORTS, D.LIVE also aims to showcase sport in all its facets and is an organiser, partner and sponsor of top-class and popular sports as well as individual sports clubs in Düsseldorf.
We've mainly talked about music so far – what about live sport in Düsseldorf?
Sport is just as important as live entertainment and music, and Düsseldorf has now become a real sporting city. Here, too, we need flagship projects such as the Grand Depart of the Tour de France, EURO 2024 or the Ice Hockey World Championship in 2027.
What other event highlights are there in the pipeline?
We have been awarded the 2029 Women's European Football Championship. So you can see that we have managed to bring almost all major sporting events, whether in football, handball or ice hockey, to Düsseldorf. Here, too, D.SPORTS allows us to offer everything from a single source in terms of organisation – as with the Düsseldorf Marathon, an event with 25,000 people that we organise entirely ourselves.
„If we don’t ensure that Düsseldorf provides the conditions for music to emerge from the grassroots, too much of its potential will be wasted.“
A piece of cake compared to Japan Day, which you also organise...
...and which already had 650,000 visitors. We are also responsible for the Düsseldorf Christmas markets and the Hofgarten concerts, and we are constantly developing new concepts. One example is Invictus Germany, which we founded on our own initiative. It is very valuable work to support soldiers wounded in war, and in January it was awarded the ‘Bundeswehr and Society’ prize by Defence Minister Boris Pistorius.
With so much success, what else is there to come?
A lot! Every day, many people come to our city, and we want to make a difference for them. In times when we have to go through everyday life with many worries, fears and uncertainties, culture and sport will play an increasingly important role. Accordingly, there is certainly a lot more to expect from D.LIVE! •
Words: Katja Vaders
Pictures: D.LIVE/ Norman Keutgen, Ed Sheeran: D.LIVE/ Kai Kuczera, D.LIVE/ Peter Weihs