Event crew life: where we were and what we built in summer 2026

Varberg, on Sweden's west coast. The wind never stops, and within a single shift the sun can turn to rain and back again. Our scaffolders are putting up the stage, wings and rigging for the pyro. Working at height, every lift and every anchor point is a call: do we go now, or do we hold?

In short: event work in summer 2026 meant six major productions across four countries for our crew: Rock am Ring and Southside in Germany, A Day At The Park in Sweden, Łódź Summer Festival, the Esports World Cup in Paris and BitterSweet Festival in Poznań. Stagehands, scaffolders, steelhands, riggers and equipment operators were all on the ground.

IMBAstaff is a Polish company that has been building its own technical crew since 2008 and sending it out to concerts, festivals, trade fairs and esports tournaments in Poland and abroad.

Summer 2026 season in numbers

Where and when

Event	Dates	Location
Rock am Ring	Jun 5–7, 2026, 10 working days	Nürburgring circuit, Germany
Southside Festival	Jun 19–21, 2026, 6 working days	southern Germany
A Day At The Park	Jul 3–5, 2026	Varberg, Sweden
Łódź Summer Festival	Jul 24–26, 2026	Łódzkie Błonia
Esports World Cup Paris '26	Jul 6 – Aug 23, 2026	Paris, France
BitterSweet Festival	Aug 13–15, 2026	Cytadela Park, Poznań

Crew and scope of work

Event	Crew	What we did
Rock am Ring	64 people	build and teardown, followspots, forklifts
Southside Festival	23 people	building Blue Stage from the ground up
A Day At The Park	24 people	stage, wings, rigging, changeovers between acts
Łódź Summer Festival	115 people	technical support for two stages
Esports World Cup Paris '26	100+ people plus a transport crew	technical services and transport, 88,000+ hours
BitterSweet Festival	12 people	technical support, build

June: two German festivals to open the season

Rock am Ring: 64 people around the Nürburgring

The festival spreads out around the Nürburgring race circuit in the Eifel mountains. We were there for 10 days with a crew of 64. Stagehands handled build and teardown, followspot operators tracked the artists with light, and forklift operators made sure equipment kept moving without delays.

Rain, heat, wind – the patchy weather didn't cut us any slack, but it didn't stop us either.

Southside: Blue Stage from the ground to the roof

At Southside we took on the whole Blue Stage. First the ground pads, then the Layher scaffolding structure, then the mother grid, and finally the roof build and lift. Over 6 days, 10 scaffolders, 10 steelhands and 3 forklift operators worked on it.

We wrote about how we prepare our crew to work on Layher scaffolding in our piece on our crew training.

July: wind in Sweden, crowds in Łódź, and 49 days in Paris

A Day At The Park: 18-hour days during the shows

24 people went to Varberg: 16 stagehands and 8 scaffolders. The scaffolders built the stage and wings, along with rigging for the pyro and lighting. We were also asked to stay on for the show days and handle the changeovers between acts.

The wind never let up for the whole stay. Working at height in those conditions means constantly reassessing the situation, and on show days, with changeovers, shifts ran up to 18 hours.

Łódź Summer Festival: two stages, 32 hours of music

Over 35 artists, two stages and 32 hours of music on Łódzkie Błonia. Mata, Sean Paul, Timbaland and Bastille were among the acts on stage.

Backstage, our crew built and struck sound, lighting, LED screens and stage structures. We handled the changeovers between acts, set up barriers and Mojo crowd control systems, and kept equipment logistics running. On site were stagehands, riggers, forklift operators, runners and coordinators.

Esports World Cup Paris '26: 88,000 hours in Paris

The tournament was held outside Riyadh for the first time. Over 2,000 players, plus concerts and fan zones. We were responsible for technical services and transport.

Over 100 people worked across ten areas, from stages to logistics and IT. A separate crew drove players, crew and on-camera talent around the venues and to the airport. Together we logged over 88,000 hours.

August: a zone you look at up close

BitterSweet Festival: every detail on camera

Three days at Poznań's Cytadela, over 40 artists, headlined by Gorillaz. We built the PKO Zone there – the same one we'd previously built at Open'er and Audioriver.

Building a branded zone is a different standard than building a stage. A stage has to stand stable and safe. A zone gets looked at from arm's length, in photos and on camera, so clean edges and a tidy finish matter. Scaffolders, machine operators and stage builders worked on it.

What roles make up a festival crew?

A large production has dozens of people on site, and in Paris we had more than 100. Here are the roles from our 2026 season:

Role	What it did in summer 2026
Stagehand	build and teardown of stage and equipment, changeovers between acts (Rock am Ring, Varberg, Łódź)
Scaffolder	scaffolding structures: the Blue Stage, the stage and wings in Varberg, the zone in Poznań
Steelhand	building the Blue Stage structure at Southside
Rigger	rigging for pyro and lighting, stage structures in Łódź
Forklift operator	keeping equipment moving at Rock am Ring, Southside and in Łódź
Followspot operator	tracking the artists with light at Rock am Ring
Runner, coordinator, crew leader	logistics, liaising with production, running the team on site

New to the world of events? Read about what a stagehand is and what their day looks like.

What does working a festival look like for us?

Since 2008 we've held to three things: people, safety and keeping our word. We're on site on time, we do what we agreed with the production, and we stay until the project is done – from the first phone call to the last case loaded into the van.

Everyone owns their piece of the job. No passing blame, no excuses. When something goes wrong, we don't disappear – we stay and fix it. Same for a festival with a 64-person crew and a small conference.

Frequently asked questions

Do you need experience to work at events?

No. We're looking for crew across Poland, with or without experience. You'll find registration details and available roles at imbastaff.gg/crew.

What roles are on a festival technical crew?

In summer 2026 our crew included stagehands, scaffolders, steelhands, riggers, forklift and followspot operators, runners and coordinators. A single festival ran from 23 to 64 people, and in Paris over 100.

Does event work mean traveling abroad?

Yes. In the 2026 season our crew worked in Germany (Rock am Ring, Southside), Sweden (A Day At The Park) and France (Esports World Cup in Paris), as well as in Poland in Łódź and Poznań.

How long does work on one festival last?

Usually longer than the festival itself. Rock am Ring ran for 3 days, and we were on site for 10. At Southside, building the stage took 6 days. The longest project of the season, the Esports World Cup in Paris, lasted 49 days.

Join the crew for the 2027 season

Next season starts now. We're looking for crew across Poland, with or without experience. Join the crew and find out where you'll be headed next year.