Björn Grimm on Nibirii Festival's Sixth Year and Building a Beach Rave

From Bootshaus to the Beach

Björn Grimm, co-founder of Nibirii Festival, traces the event's origins to a chance encounter with a Vini Vici track. The music sparked an idea: create a platform at Bootshaus in Cologne for sounds that were underrepresented at the time. The event series found quick success, and when someone offered the team access to Dürener Badesee, they decided to scale up to a full festival format.

Watching It Grow

Grimm admits he struggles to see the festival's growth in traditional metrics. "To be honest, it is really hard for me to see it growing because it was huge for me right from the beginning and I am not the person counting and comparing numbers," he says. He compares the experience to raising a child—so close to the process that the transformation only becomes clear in retrospect.

Booking in a Fast-Moving Scene

This year's lineup includes Dimension, Hannah Laing, I Hate Models, and Vini Vici. Grimm describes booking as a difficult task in an environment where artists can gain massive attention within days. "Trying to look into the future is nearly impossible," he notes, crediting the festival's strong artist relationships and booker Paul, whom he calls "maybe one of the best in Germany."

The Unreal stage, introduced last year, returns as a centerpiece for the techno programming in 2026, while other stages have received visual updates. For Grimm, the stage experience extends beyond production design—it's about the people, the sound, and the shared moment. "You can have the best stage in front of you but if you can't share this with someone this stage is worthless," he says.

When asked to distill Nibirii into three words, Grimm offers: "MUSIC, BEACH, FRIENDS." The festival's sixth edition takes place at Dürener Badesee in 2026.