RTL Group | Gütersloh, 09/18/2023

‘Toggo Tour’ in Gütersloh Attracts 50,000 Visitors

Some 50,000 people came to last weekend’s “Toggo Tour” event in downtown Gütersloh – even more than the last time in 2018, when the event attracted about 40,000 visitors. Fans young and old celebrated their favorite “Toggolino” and “Toggo” characters. The event featuring performances by well-known artists was organized by Bertelsmann, Super RTL, and Gütersloh Marketing.

What glorious weather, what a spectacular program, what a fantastic mood: Over the weekend, the “Toggo Tour” organized by Bertelsmann, Super RTL, and Gütersloh Marketing attracted a crowd of 50,000 people to downtown Gütersloh – a city that rarely experiences an event of this magnitude. The youngsters in particular came to celebrate their “Toggolino” and “Toggo” heroes on Hans-Werner-Henze-Platz in front of the theater and on adjacent Theodor-Heuss-Platz. And naturally, the parents who accompanied them were infected by their children’s enthusiasm when well-known stars took to the big stage and really got the crowd in the mood. Some were even lucky enough to win a “meet & greet” with a celebrity through social media, including TikTok/YouTube star Jannik Freestyle.

“It’s a real pleasure to see the enthusiasm the ‘Toggo Tour’ was again received with in Gütersloh the second time around,” says Karin Schlautmann, Head of Bertelsmann Corporate Communications. “The fact that even more families came with their children this year than five years ago shows how well this kind of event format featuring content from Super RTL’s programming works. I’m sure we’ll be bringing the ‘Toggo Tour’ to Gütersloh in the future, too.”

Giulia Maria Mühlhaus, Simón Albers and Moritz Bäckerling emceed the event

At the “Toggo Tour” event, which ran from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., children got a chance to really let off steam, whether doing Woozle’s tricky “Buzzer Run,” cleaning the seas with SpongeBob or on the “Toggolino” bouncy castle, climbing the “Paw Patrol” headquarters, or with Peppa Pig on the adventure parcours. Cool new themed attractions in the “Toggo” world, such as the dragon’s lair from “Dragons – The 9 Worlds,” challenging NFL football parcours to introduce children to the sport in a fun way, and a skateboard simulator with Alvinnn completed the program. The activities were complemented by a colorful stage program featuring dance, music, and popular stars like the “DSDS” semi-finalist Daniele Puccia, who performed his new single. A colorful stage show with other artists such as Iggi Kelly, Eske Hohlen and Haofx animated the families on the public square to join in the celebrations. And in the interactive “Woozle” quiz on stage, families could compete against each other in two groups or test their own knowledge. Well-known “Toggo” presenters Giulia Maria Mühlhaus, Simón Albers and Moritz Bäckerling were the live emcees of the program, which could also be followed live from Gütersloh on “Toggo Radio” in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland from noon to 5:30 pm.

Gütersloh was one of ten stops on this year’s “Toggo Tour” – the ninth and next-to-last, to be precise. “Next weekend we’ll be at the Weissenhäuser Strand holiday and theme park on the Baltic Sea, and then we’ll be done for the year again,” said tour manager Marcel Götzke. The preparations for this “Toggo Tour” began last November with initial ideas and concepts, before the schedule of cities was decided on in January. “And Gütersloh was one of the lucky winners,” said Götzke with a chuckle. “We also feel particularly at home here,” he added. “There’s enough space here for our 50-strong team, and our two 40-ton trucks can easily reach the site. And as on our last visit five years ago, the fans here were fantastic – as, in fact, they are in all the other places we visit, too.”

As always, the program also included “personal” encounters with protagonists from the Super RTL formats in the form of live “walking acts” roaming the area in front of the stage, and heading towards the “Fotopoint” selfie spot – one of the most popular booths with long queues in front of it, where guests could have their picture taken with their favorite characters. Due to the heat the “walking acts” had to retire fairly quickly so as not to overheat in their bulky costumes. Still, it was a lot of fun, as actress Sandra Pretzmann assured us: “I’m a regular on the ‘Toggo Tour’; today I was Peppa Pig. And I’m always thrilled by how much love the children have for my character – sometimes I’m literally drowning in hugs,” she said with a smile, wiping her face dry after one of her walking-act performances. Meanwhile, ten girls from Gütersloh dressed in black and aged between seven and twelve climbed the stairs behind the stage. Together with a second group of also ten girls, they had practiced three “dance acts” for weeks under the guidance of choreographer Marc, which they were about to perform in front of an enthusiastic audience.

Win balls autographed by Jannik Freestyle

Sarah and Philip Imkamp and their two sons Levi and Elia from Rietberg are particularly fond of Nilsen – and admitted that they could hardly believe it when they stumbled across the Instagram competition in which Bertelsmann was giving away a chance to meet the children’s pop singer. They were lucky enough to win, and on Sunday at noon they actually met their star backstage. Nilsen was in an excellent mood, having just finished his live performance on stage. “Cool music with great lyrics that also have a good message,” the proud father praised him on behalf of his whole family. As a highlight of their meet-and-greet, the family was to climb onto the roof of the stage equipment truck with Nilsen and get a bird’s eye view of the goings-on.