Hello dear Hivers!
I celebrated my 6th Hive Birthday on June 24/ Saturday at the Open Air Festival called the "40th Donauinsel Fest-2023". It was a superlative Festival, a Jubilee and the biggest in Europe that lasted for three days (June 23-25, 2023) of fun. They haven´t released yet the data of the total visitors that came during these three day-festival but it is estimated to have reached more than 3 million people. The organizers came up with a variety of programs with top artists and musicians coming from the national and international scene. This year´s attractions were enorm that not only the younger generation were involved in the festivities but also the older generation (like me..LOL!).
The Festival was sponsored by the SPÖ-Vienna ( The Socialist Party) and there were about a dozen platforms/stages for Pop/Rock Bands, singers and other performing artists from both local and international scenes. These dozen stages were scattered within the more than 4 KM of Donau Insel from Reichsbrücke of the 22nd District til the Nordbrücke of the 21st District.
I decided to attend on Saturday which was the 2nd day of the festival. Despite the rain on the first day, still about 800K visitors came to watch the shows of rapper Raf Camora and others. The festival admins provided raincoats, but I am not sure how others survived the rain and the gusty winds on that day as they were not allowed to bring umbrella for safety reasons.
There were around eight hundred police officers and drones deployed to secure the festivities ... No boats were allowed in the area of the Danube River and the parallel New Danube, there were police boats patrolling in the area as well as choppers circling the festival grounds and more than dozens of Ambulances eveready in case of emergencies.
The weather went smoothly although there were dark clouds in the afternoon which later dispersed as the hours passed by and the sun appeared at the time it was beginning to descend.
The show began at around 6:30 PM with the local band Alle Achtung. They were really good and everyone was dancing and cheering raising hands, clapping to the beat.
Confettis were all over , it was fun and exciting to see since the audience were surprised at the falling paper band/tapes from above.
After an hour of standing, clapping my hands and stamping my feet, my legs got tired and I was hungry, so I looked for a booth that sells my favorite "Langos". It is a snack similar to a flat bread, dough of which is made from a combination of baking and potato flour deep fried and later brushed with garlic vinegar and salt.
So I moved away from the stage area and looked for the "Langos", which I found and got my piece after a long queue. Found a place to sit infront of the big monitor......
After a while, the band made a break, I did not wait for the next one, instead, I began to make stage hopping and there were so many to choose from, imagine more than a dozen stages and the visitors flocked to each of the stages in "swarm."
The food vendors and dealers have had clinging cashboxes, the visitors did not mind the so expensive prices of the food. Whether, it´s a steak or grilled fish or chicken, people were falling in line and waited for their turn. The vendors offered mostly beer for drinks and some cocktails.
The bridge here is one of many that connects the visitors from the trains to the festival areas.
Happy 6th Hive Birthday to me, cheers!!!
