Donauinselfest

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The Donauinselfest (German for Danube Island Festival) is a 25 year old annual, open air, free music festival on the Donauinsel in Vienna, Austria. In most years it has taken place in June. However, in 2008 the festival was in September to prevent clashing with the European Football Championship which was co-hosted by Austria.

[edit] The Event

According to numerous media reports (including Wikinews) the Donauinselfest is Europe's biggest open air event; soon expected to reach the 3 million visitors mark. Some 1500 volunteer assistants and visible police presence help make the Donauinselfest one of the most secure big events.

There are some 21 areas (called "islands" as well) which are normally sponsored by radio stations newspapers and other companies. These are spread out over a 6.5 kilometer area of the total of 21 kilometer island. Musicians of an extremely broad range of genres perform

The layout is roughly the same every year, with some stages being removed or added. The musicans also tend to come back every year, or being replaced by other ones that are popular. One is the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, which performs one of its rare open air concerts on Monday evening after the pop events.

To ensure safety of visitors, "house rules" were introduced in 2007 and checkpoint controls established to help control certain items (such as glass and liquor inside the festival perimeter. ^[1]

Food kiosks serve various national and alternative dishes including Thai, Greek, Italian, Indian, Turkish, Vegetarian and Austrian cuisine. Although all concerts are free, financial experts calculate Vienna's economy benefits from this event by almost € 40 million, due to the increased tourism.^[2]

[edit] History

In 1983, SPÖ politician Harry Kopietz, promoted the organisation of a one day party near the Floridsdorferbrücke, in order to promote the attractiveness of the Donauinsel as a recreational area. Organizers expected some 15,000 people, but 160,000 showed up. The event became annual the following year (300,000 visitors)^[3] and meanwhile always attracts more than two million people during three days of fun and music (2.9 million in 2006, "only" 2.6 in 2007, as, due to a heavy thunderstorm, a few concerts had to be cancelled on opening day).^[4]

[edit] Years

1993
A most memorable^{[citation needed]} concert was Falco's in 1993, in front of roughly 100,000 fans: The weather was so bad on that evening that part of the stage was flooded, the following cut of the power finishing the performance.

2006
2006 performers included Bloodhound Gang, Juli, Silbermond, Christina Stürmer, Fettes Brot, and Tocotronic

2007
The 2007 Donauinselfest was partly successful

2007 performers included Master Blaster, Gianna Nannini, Zucchero, Willi Resetarits, Hubert von Goisern, and Rainhard Fendrich whose concert attracted an audience of 200,000 people. Due to thunderstorm warning, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra concert had to be canceled.
(Der Standard on 2007-06-25, in German)</ref>

2008
2008 for example there were Gigi d'Agostino, Basshunter and Gabry Ponte On same stage, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra performed one of its rare open air concerts on Monday evening.

2009

The roads that were flooded in 2009 visible on the right next to the river.

The 2009 Donauinselfest was on the verge of being canceled due to flooding. It had rained consistently for the last previous days, making it necessary to open flood protection, which leveled out the water level on the sides of the Dounauinsel, but being enough to flood the side paths, that would have provided an important escape route should it be necessary. Luckily, the water level sunk and the roads were cleared, saving the event.