In Austria there are plenty of festivals that showcase experimental and (post-)club music. Plus something else. In the following series I will discuss three of them. They happen in springtime: donaufestival, hyperreality and the heart of noise festival.
This will happen at different platforms. Part I is published on the blog of the shituationist institute:
Experimental music festivals in Austria. Part I: DONAUFESTIVAL
Here is a teaser:
If you like cutting edge electronic and experimental music mixed with art or performance Austria is the place you should visit for festivals that offer an intense program of trans-artforms and in-betweens. The Viennese Pop connoisseurs who prefer some experimental, electronic and non-electronic avant-garde sounds come in numbers on two weekends at the end of April and beginning of May to the donaufestival in Krems, Austria. It is about an hour train or car ride from Vienna. They say with the donaufestival the summer starts in Vienna. And the weather was warm and sunny. Last year temperatures at night were around zero, but this year camping was no problem. Usually you need to camp, because Krems is small and there is at the same time an annual biker meeting going on and some other spring events so hotels need to be booked in advance. If you prefer to decide on the spur of the moment to attend the festival you will need to camp or take one of buses the festival provides back to Vienna.
You might wonder what the donaufestival is anyways, as it is not too established outside of Austria. It is a festival for music and performance art and tends to showcase avant-garde rock, noise and electronica artists. It exits since the late 1980s but took a new direction in 2005 with curator Tomas Zierhofer-Kin, who reinvented the festival into what it is known for today. It is well funded by the region and people expect quality. Zierhofer-Kin was followed by Thomas Edlinger two editions ago, who is well known in Austria because of his progressive radio show Im Sumpf which he is doing since almost two decades. We will hear more about Zierhofer-Kin again later, since he took over the Wiener Festwochen in 2017. Edlinger hasn’t changed much of the well running concept Zierhofer-Kin established. Which is a program comprised of performances, some media art and concerts in different venues around town. One innovation is the format Stockholm Syndrome, where it is not known in advance what will happen, if it will be music, performance or both. I couldn’t find out too much about it because you have to reserve the tickets in the morning online or by phone, after 30min the tickets are out, since Stockholm Syndrome happens in small venues and I am usually still sleeping then and I only made it to one edition, which was a concert last year. This should be organized differently so more people get the chance to see those events.
Continue reading on si-blog:
Experimental music festivals in Austria. Part I: DONAUFESTIVAL
