Poolbar Festival

The poolbar festival is an annual music and culture festival in the city of Feldkirch in the Austrian province of Vorarlberg with 20,000 visitors each year.[1]

Placed at the geographical interface between Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, the "Altes Hallenbad" (old indoor pool) in Feldkirch becomes a cross-border hotspot every summer, when the poolbar festival opens its doors to all its visitors, cultural disputes and events for several weeks during July and August. It was first held in 1994 as a cultural summer-academy and is through organization and implementation of landscape and architecture very different to other open-air events.

In addition to concerts and parties, the festival offers for six weeks a broad variety of cinema & short films, cabaret, poetry slam, pop quiz, fashion performances, discussions, etc. It takes place in the city center in the former indoor pool of the Stella Matutina in the Reichenfeld Park. The furniture, which is renewed every summer, is determined by an international architecture competition. The competition is organized by the Vorarlberger Architekturinstitut (VAI; Institute of Vorarlberg architecture) as well as the local Chamber of Commerce.[2] Art and fashion competitions are also held at the festival.[3][4][5]

In 2020, the first Vorarlberger music prize "Sound@V" was awarded at the Poolbar Festival. Despite Covid-19, 10,000 visitors were able to attend the festival.[6]