Danube Island Festival has begun in a pandemic – wien.ORF.at

As a festival leader, Steinbach, who sings in the Viennese dialect, did not have an easy time, as about 36 fans attended the concert. The fact that his new song is called “Das Leben is hoat”, of all things, will still be a coincidence.

In general, the flow to the festival site was very modest, at least before 6 pm. It was far from standing in line in front of the ticket and testing the controls. The crowd just flocked to the festival stage area. The first act audience, Peppa, who falls somewhere between rap and pop, only stood in groups in front of the stage.

Entry only with a negative PCR test

The festival area exudes a certain atmosphere of the exclusion zone: the Danube has only seen several kilometers of barriers. In this way, theater areas were delimited over a large area so that unauthorized persons had nowhere to hide. Separate locks are set up to control access.

Free tickets have already been withdrawn; Without exception, the area can only be accessed with a negative PCR test. This also applies to those who have been vaccinated. During the three days combined, a maximum of 42,000 people are allowed to visit the island – a fraction of the up to three million guests at “normal” festival times. In addition, the public is not allowed to move freely on the site. Because tickets are for each stage or specific region.

Four stages, only Austrian verbs

The three-day live programme, made up entirely of Austrian works, is shown in only four stages. The festival stage is operated by FM4, Radio Wien and Ö3. On Friday Avec, Kruder & Dorfmeister will perform there, on Saturday – there is “Radio Wien Festbühne” – eg Maddy Rose or a number of Schlager and Austropop actors accompanied by the orchestra and directed by Christian Kolonowitz, “Best of Donauinselfest” and Sunday Lisa Pac and Josh, Seiler & Speer.

Ö1-Kulturbühne mainly focuses on cabaret and literature. Thomas Maurer, Victor Gernot (Friday), Christoph Fritz and Nadia Maleh (Saturday), Stephanie Sargnagel and Lucas Recitalets (Sunday) will cover the spectrum. There is also a children’s show on Sunday mornings.

The GÖD / ARBÖ radio stage and the operating stage are combined into one area. The line-up here on Friday includes Wiener Wansen and Simino Rossi, Saturday’s Hot Pants Road Club and the Daredevil and Sunday’s Andy Lee Lang, Reinhold Bilgerie and Mark Bircher.

ORF III broadcasts live with time delay

However, if you don’t have a free ticket, you can watch the highlights of the festival on TV. ORF III will broadcast the highlights of the program live on all three festival days with delay. During the day, the most important events from previous years will be shown, for example the documentary “Soundtrack Austria” on the history of Austrian music on Saturday. In addition, Ö3, FM4 and Ö1 are broadcast live from Danube Island for several hours.

Performances by cabaret artists Thomas Maurer (8:15pm) and Victor Gernot (8:50pm) can be seen on Fridays on ORF III, as well as Kruder & Dorfmeister (9:40pm) and AVEC (10:45pm). “Best of Donauinselfest” will air with stars like Ina Regen and Marianne Mendt on Saturday at 8:15 p.m. On Sundays, you can catch up on shows by STS (1:50 p.m.), Rainhard Fendrich (3:20 p.m.) and Pizzera & Jaus (4:30 p.m.), followed by a Seiler & Speer concert at 9:15 p.m.