When I got the chance to photographically document the creation of the Palapa Stage at Fusion Festival in the summer of 2024, my passion for photography merged with my enthusiasm for festival culture. As a long-time fan of the Fusion spirit, I became an observer of a small piece of festival history.

My camera accompanied the transformation of a quiet meadow into a pulsating urban cosmos. Over several weekends, I made pilgrimages to the festival grounds, watched steel and wood grow into buildings, observed how bare facades blossomed under creative hands. The Palapa area emerged as a dense labyrinth of possibilities – an architectural thought experiment, nourished by the chaotic urban canyons of Kowloon, the neon lights of Tokyo, and the dystopian dreams of Blade Runner.

The construction process was impressive in its complexity. In organized collaboration, up to one hundred people worked simultaneously – screwing, hammering, painting, wiring. Amidst the scaffolding, a sense of community emerged, as people shared skills, stories, and moments of creation. Each facade, each corner suddenly told its own stories, while discarded materials from abandoned factories and houses were brought back to life.

When the festival opened its gates, the magic was complete. The 1,200 square meter tent filled with thousands of visitors, whose movements, dancing, and amazement were the final missing ingredient for this urban utopia. Music, light, and crowds merged into that unique festival moment for which everything was built.

This photo series is my attempt to capture the creative spark – that magical moment when a temporary parallel world emerges from an idea, lots of sweat, and even more creativity. A city that exists for only a few days but will live on in the memories of its inhabitants.

Wanderzirkus e.V., a collective founded in 2014 by childhood friends from Hannover and Berlin, was the creative crew involved in this project. As a decentralized network of people from various professional backgrounds and nationalities, they create immersive experiential spaces, rooted in the electronic music and festival scene.

When I got the chance to photographically document the creation of the Palapa Stage at Fusion Festival in the summer of 2024, my passion for photography merged with my enthusiasm for festival culture. As a long-time fan of the Fusion spirit, I became an observer of a small piece of festival history.

My camera accompanied the transformation of a quiet meadow into a pulsating urban cosmos. Over several weekends, I made pilgrimages to the festival grounds, watched steel and wood grow into buildings, observed how bare facades blossomed under creative hands. The Palapa area emerged as a dense labyrinth of possibilities – an architectural thought experiment, nourished by the chaotic urban canyons of Kowloon, the neon lights of Tokyo, and the dystopian dreams of Blade Runner.

The construction process was impressive in its complexity. In organized collaboration, up to one hundred people worked simultaneously – screwing, hammering, painting, wiring. Amidst the scaffolding, a sense of community emerged, as people shared skills, stories, and moments of creation. Each facade, each corner suddenly told its own stories, while discarded materials from abandoned factories and houses were brought back to life.

When the festival opened its gates, the magic was complete. The 1,200 square meter tent filled with thousands of visitors, whose movements, dancing, and amazement were the final missing ingredient for this urban utopia. Music, light, and crowds merged into that unique festival moment for which everything was built.

This photo series is my attempt to capture the creative spark – that magical moment when a temporary parallel world emerges from an idea, lots of sweat, and even more creativity. A city that exists for only a few days but will live on in the memories of its inhabitants.

Wanderzirkus e.V., a collective founded in 2014 by childhood friends from Hannover and Berlin, was the creative crew involved in this project. As a decentralized network of people from various professional backgrounds and nationalities, they create immersive experiential spaces, rooted in the electronic music and festival scene.