Donauinselfest
The Donauinselfest (Danube Island Festival) is a yearly open-air music festival held at the Donauinsel, Vienna. It usually occurs at the end of June, lasting from Friday through Sunday. However, in 2008, the festival would be held on September 5 to 7 as Austria and Switzerland would be hosting the Soccer World Cup.
The festival has no entrance fees. Since it is one of Europe’s most popular and largest open-air events, the Donauinselfest is expected to hold 3 million visitors in 2008. Over 1,000 volunteers help out each year with the assistance of the local police, making the Donauinselfest one of the most secure and successful events in Vienna. To ensure the festival’s security, the newly established house rules disallow visitors to bring in liquor and glass bottles into the festival area.
The Donauinselfest began in 1983 when politician Harry Kopietz thought of organizing a one-day part along the Floridsdorferbrucke in hopes of promoting the Donauinsel as a choice of recreational venue. Organizers estimated 15,000 people during the first show, but over 150,000 people showed up. As a result, the Donauinselfest became an annual event starting 1984 with 300,000 visitors. In 2006, 2.9 million people joined the festivities, while only 2.6 million arrived in 2007 due to a heavy storm resulting in a few cancelled shows during the opening day.
In the middle part of long island, 21 areas, colloquially known as “islands” and over 20 stages are sponsored by local newspapers and radio stations to cater the event. Musicians from all types of genres perform, including names such as the Bloodhound Gang, Christina Sturmer, Tocotronic, Silbermond, Juli, Master Blaster, Zucchero, Gianna Nannini, Hubert von Goisern and Willi Resetarits.
One of the popular Donauinselfest events was when Rainhard Fendrich played in the concert, attracting 200,000 people to the main stage. Another memorable event was in 1993 when pop star Falco (Johann Hans Hölzel) attracted over 100,000 fans even if the stage was flooded and the power was cut right after his performance.
The annual event includes countless of food kiosks servicing Indian, Greek, Italian, Turkish, Thai and Austrian food with other stalls selling purely vegetarian dishes. Also, souvenir stalls and information booths are available to assist the thousands of visitors from all over Europe and the world.
Financial experts estimate the extra profit of Vienna’s economy from the Donauinselfest of up to €40 million. Since the event is free, the country’s profit mainly comes from a dramatic increase in tourism during this time of year.
