Karlsruhe Trade Fair Center's upgraded multifunctional area offers unique infrastructure for top-class outdoor events

After about a year of construction, the Peter-Groß-Bau area of the Karlsruhe Trade Fair Center was officially opened on Tuesday, October 1st. Whether outdoor events with exhibition and show areas, open-air events or pure parking areas: the outdoor area, directly connected to the exhibition halls, can be used all year round, regardless of the weather, and is multifunctional for a wide range of events. The infrastructure provided on 82,000 square meters, with installed water, electricity and technical connections, is currently unique in Germany. Messe Karlsruhe now has an outdoor area totaling 105,000 square meters, which is one of the third largest outdoor areas of a German trade fair company, and the largest in Baden-Württemberg.

“The upgrade is an investment in the modern development of the trade fair center. Thanks to its excellent technical infrastructure, the upgraded Peter-Gross-Bau area can be used for a wide variety of events and offers open-air cultural events or outdoor trade fairs an ideal setting for emotional live experiences. Messe Karlsruhe is already a recognized organizer of professional live demonstration trade fairs. With the new outdoor area, we will be able to demonstrate our market-leading expertise in this segment even more strongly and in a customer-oriented way in the future. Our thanks go to everyone who has made this investment possible and implemented it,“ says Britta Wirtz, Managing Director of Messe Karlsruhe.

”Messe Karlsruhe has been successfully hosting a wide range of event formats for decades. With its events, it brings new ideas and innovations to Karlsruhe and Karlsruhe to the world,” says Lord Mayor Dr. Frank Mentrup. “The Karlsruhe Trade Fair Center team has already impressively demonstrated its expertise in outdoor events at trade fairs such as RATL, and I am therefore very pleased that the upgrade of the Peter-Gross-Bau area will enable it to further expand this expertise and thus its portfolio of outdoor events – be they trade fairs or cultural events. It will also greatly enhance Karlsruhe's reputation as a trade fair and conference location.”

Ideal conditions for outdoor trade fairs

The upgraded area will be used, for example, for outdoor trade fairs such as RecyclingAKTIV & TiefbauLIVE (RATL), which feature demonstrations of machines and vehicles. The permeable soil conditions, a stable electrical and water supply, a new traffic management concept, fencing around the entire site including video surveillance and illumination of the entire area, as well as a broad WLAN infrastructure, create the conditions for an ideal trade fair appearance. It is also possible to combine the outdoor area with the exhibition halls. For example, the commercial vehicle trade fair NUFAM is planning to expand its outdoor presentation for its 2025 edition. The truck parking spaces that are also available will significantly improve the construction and dismantling logistics for events.

Optimal setting for open-air cultural events

The use of the area for cultural events is also possible again in the summer months, away from the trade fair business. In recent years, the area has already been used for cultural events, attracting numerous music fans to Rheinstetten, for example to the Hook Up Festival or the Kulturbühne. Now it also offers space for events with up to 36,000 visitors.

Car, bus, e-mobile or camper van: plenty of parking spaces available

Particularly in the autumn and winter months, when there are a lot of events, the area is used as a parking area that is not dependent on the weather, which have a great need for parking spaces, or use the upgraded East Entrance as their entrance. These include art KARLSRUHE, Einstieg Beruf, offerta and TIERisch gut. Up to 2,500 cars, 80 e-charging points, sufficient parking spaces for trucks and buses, as well as parking spaces for recreational vehicles, including supply and disposal stations, and taxi and bus stops have been created. During event-free time slots, the site is also used for other purposes. For example, Karlsruhe Trade Fair Center rents the area to the Bosch company for Bosch Secure Truck Parking (BSTP), in response to the increased demand for secure overnight parking for trucks near the A5 motorway.

Sustainability in focus

In order to be able to provide the area all year round, regardless of the weather, and at the same time to develop it in an ecologically sustainable way, the surface is permeable, except for the roads that will be created. About 70% of the surface is green and looks like a gravel lawn. In addition, there are generous planting areas with 120 trees and 800 shrubs to separate it from the adjacent industrial area.