Experience the EURO 2024 in a sustainable way

Every two years since 2012, “Summer Feeling am Unistrand” has transformed the campus rondel in the heart of the university campus into a breathtaking beach setting with several hundred tons of sand. The playing field set up there provides the perfect stage for tournaments in beach soccer, beach volleyball and roundnet. Together with the Maisel's Weisse beach beer garden and the lounge area with sun loungers and palm trees, it creates a unique summer island in the middle of Germany's most beautiful campus. In this ambience, around 30,000 visitors are offered a huge program for twelve days: a colorful mix of sports, culture and lifestyle, this year with a focus on sustainability.

“The Summer Feeling at Unistrand 2024 stands for more than just sporting competitions and cultural highlights. At a time when the global challenges of climate change and environmental protection are taking center stage, we want to take responsibility for taking a sustainable path with this event,” says Louis Loeser, one of the main organizers. “By hosting the 'Summer Feeling am Unistrand' 2024, our aim is to show that organizing sports events in an environmentally friendly way is not only necessary, but also possible.”

In order to meet this requirement, the student organization team has developed a sustainability strategy with measures in ten fields of action. For example, the 800 tons of sand required for the event will be used to build new beach volleyball facilities after the Summer Feeling at the university. In addition, the event is increasingly relying on reusable crockery, waste separation and vegetarian and vegan options for catering. Even before the event began, action days were also held to support six selected UN Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) - including the Summer Feeling charity run, which raised 2,000 euros for a reforestation project in Kenya.

Before and during the twelve days of the event, the organization team is working together with Sports for Future e.V., the think tank sportainable, Klasse in Sport gem. e.V., the KinderUmweltAkademie and the It's for Kids Foundation as sustainability partners.

The 41 students of media studies and sports economics are supported by local partners: the main sponsor of the event is Maisel's Weisse, while Markgraf is also involved as a top partner and Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) as a health partner.