Hive Festival Germany: What It Is, Why We Went, and How to Survive It

 

Hive Festival Germany: The Uncensored Feral Review

Hive Festival has been on a steady rise in Germany’s electronic scene, evolving from its psytrance-leaning beginnings into something much broader and much heavier. Over the last few years, the festival has shifted deeper into techno and hard dance, pulling in a bigger and more mixed crowd. Their bookers clearly know what they’re doing: every genre they touch feels intentional, every stage feels curated, and the lineups keep getting better.

In 2025, our FERAL team went out to Hive as press. We’ve done a lot of festivals, and Hive sits very high on that list, probably the best overall experience we’ve had so far. Here’s what stood out, what went down, and what to expect if you’re planning Hive 2026.

What Hive Festival Actually Feels Like

Hive is hosted at Ferropolis, which is one of those places that already looks like a set design before anyone adds a stage. It’s surrounded by lakes, packed with giant industrial machinery, and has enough open space that the festival feels big without ever feeling messy. You can swim during the day, wander into a forest at night, and dance next to iron structures that look like they’re from another century.

The crowd is a major part of the experience. People go feral, but not chaotic feral (mostly), they’re just genuinely there for the music. The energy doesn’t dip. Ever. It’s one of the few festivals where dancing at 3 PM and dancing at 7 AM basically feel the same: everyone’s still moving, still smiling, still going feral in the best possible way.

The 2025 Stages & Lineup Highlights

Hive 2025 had eight stages, each locked into its own realm of sound. The diversity was incredible: hard dance, rawstyle, psy, disco, techno, hard techno, you could drift into whatever mood your body felt like following.

Some of the core stages included:

• Techno Castle: Straightforward, relentless techno; clean production and consistently packed.
• Rage Cage: Rawstyle, hardcore, harder industrial techno and sets where you basically don’t get a break.
• Junkyard: Groove, hypnotic and darker sets, surrounded by industrial structures.
• Psy Lagoon: Lakeside, colourful, under the trees, and a great break from the heavier stuff.
• Talent Factory: Upcoming artists; some of our favorite surprises played here.
• HiTech Stage: For everyone who enjoys their BPM pushed into the stratosphere.

Our personal highlights:

Mika Heggemann b2b, Cleopard2000 closing Groove Beach, and Creeds at Rage Cage (yes, Andie climbed on the speakers). A.N.I. had one of the strongest sets of the weekend, full force from start to end.

Then the final closing happened. Hive was meant to end at 9 PM on Sunday. Instead, it kept going until 9:30 PM with a spontaneous back-to-back-to-back run between artists like Hades, A.N.I., Byorn, IGDA, NotMyType, and others jumping in with USBs. Full energy, with just artists playing their favourite tracks for a crowd that wasn’t ready to leave. It was a great way to end a weekend that didn’t slow down once.

Between the lakeside dips, the wandering, the food, the endless side quests, and the sheer quality of the stages, everything just worked. Even the bathrooms and water points were surprisingly accessible the whole weekend, which is something you only notice when festivals get it wrong.

The Hive Crowd: Pure Energy

It’s rare to feel a crowd that is so dialed in. No pushing, no weirdness, just thousands of people who want the exact same thing you want in that moment: a good sound system, good music, and the freedom to lose yourself for 52 hours straight.

We’ve never seen so many people go that hard for that long with such steady energy. You look around at 6 AM and everyone is still moving. Not half-dancing. Actually moving.

If you like being around people who are real on the dancefloor and unapologetically themselves, Hive makes sense.

Our Experience as FERAL Press

We were there to shoot, document, and get a feel for the full experience from a media point of view. Ferropolis is insanely photogenic; every corner looks like a campaign backdrop. The industrial structures, the lighting, the crowd density, shooting content here is easy because the environment does half the work.

We shot our new jersey at the time too in the open abyss of the festival. As well as some iconic team pics where we all look hella slay.

Survival Guide: What to Wear to Hive Festival

Hive is a marathon. Your outfit needs to survive dancing, sweating, dust, mud, lake water, and walking more steps than your phone can count. Here's what worked for us and for pretty much everyone who looked comfortable out there.

1. Comfortable shoes

Critical. Don’t experiment. Don’t break in something new. You’ll find dust in your shoes three days after the festival ends. That’s fine. But you want something that can handle dirt and uneven ground.

2. Layering pieces

Day is warm, night gets chilly near the water. That weather swing hits hard after dancing for hours. Think: loose layer + tight base.

Examples that worked:

• FERAL tee on top your bikini fit
• Hoodies or zip-ups for sunrise sets
• Bikinis  under everything for those much needed lake swims

Feral hats, if you're as pale as Andie, we suggest some sun protection in the 30-degree heat with high UV.

3. A solid small bag & rave fan 

You need:

• A solid crossbody bag to survive the elements. 
• Phone
• Earplugs
• Wipes/ Hand sanny
  
• Lip balm 
• Portable charger
• Card/ID
• A hand fan is a must. One that is strong and can survive your bender (made from bamboo).

4. Swimwear

That lakeside dip in the middle of the day? Essential. Even if you’re “not a water person,” you probably will be after 20+ hours of dancing. Bikinis under your fit = smart.

Hive 2026: The Updates & Lineup Announcements

Hive announced 3 new stages for 2026:

• Pirate Bay
• Bounce Temple
• Sleepless

That brings them to 10 total stages, which is wild but completely believable considering how fast the festival is growing and how many scenes it now draws in. It’s clear they’re doubling down on diversity: more genres, more subcultures, more ways to tailor your weekend to whatever you’re in the mood for.

The FERAL team will be back next year, camera gear and bikinis packed.

Hive hasn’t held back with its first wave of 2026 announcements, and somehow they’re already managing to outdo an extremely strong 2025. Onlynumbers is returning, no surprise there, the crowd basically demanded it after last year, and Kobosil has been invited back to take over Techno Castle once again, keeping that heavy Berlin backbone firmly in the mix.

Nikolina landing at the new Sleepless stage feels like a perfect match for a schranz-driven, no-rest zone, while Dimitri K joining Rage Cage guarantees absolute chaos on the harder end. Over at Bounce Temple, Giø b2b Dice is set to be one of those sets everyone talks about afterward, and Odymel bringing his groove to Groove Beach adds a cleaner, sunnier contrast to the lineup. And of course, the one and only KETTAMA joining the roster just cements the feeling that Hive 2026 is already shaping up to be bigger, louder, and somehow even better curated than last year, and they’ve only just started announcing names.

Final Thoughts

Hive Festival isn’t trying to be the biggest or flashiest. It just does everything well: the curation, the stages, the crowd, the environment, the flow of the weekend. If you’re into techno, hard dance, psy, or anything adjacent, it’s a festival that makes sense to experience at least once.

We left Hive 2025 dusty, exhausted, and pretty certain we’d found a new yearly team bonding festival.

See you on the dancefloor, at Hive 2026. We’ll be the ones in FERAL.

Find your 2026 HIVE Ticket here!