Zalando: Fashionpalooza concept dropped?

By

Bruno Joly

Published
Sep 16, 2015

Zalando had great ambitions on the events front this year. The e-retailer, which acquired the Bread & Butter show, is also the main sponsor of Lollapalooza Berlin, the first European edition of the Chicago festival, which took place on 12th and 13th September. 

The concept of Fashionpalooza, combining fashion and music, was announced last June. Hangar 4 at Tempelhof airport, well-known to the fashion world as the venue for Bread & Butter since 2009, was meant to be dedicated to fashion, welcoming about a hundred brands and young designers keen to connect with customers, to discern their tastes in fashion and even their personal information. In the end, Fashionpalooza was reduced to a digital photo booth that allowed festival-goers to 'share their style', the tagline of Zalando's current campaign.

The festival enjoyed a capacity crowd, with 4 sets, three of them on the tarmac and one partly housed inside a hangar. The airport building was only used for the VIP, press and materials areas.

Seen from the outside, a lounge open to the public, as once imagined by Karl-Heinz Müller, made complete sense, and Tempelhof airport was an ideal location. "A festival is like a shopping mall... the same bands are always the headliners. The real pleasure is being here, in this historic location," a festival-goer commented.

But brands are at a loss: which tune should they dance to? Fashionpalooza was postponed or discreetly called off, while the January edition of Bread & Butter was cancelled, officially because the venue has been requisitioned to create a reception centre for refugees. Meanwhile, the Lollapalooza teams have already given the date for the September 2016 edition. It remains to be seen who will sponsor it.