The largest (free) open-air music festival in Europe takes place on an island in Vienna, a city not exactly famous for its ocean vistas.
Ah, but Vienna does have the mighty Danube river, whose long artificial Donauinsel island hosts the Donauinselfest – a weekend of music, fun and bleary-eyed Monday mornings.
- Annual music festival with mainly local performers and the occasional international star
- Typically attracts well over 2.5 million visitors in normal years
- Loads of other festival activities
- 2021 dates: Sept 17-19 (shifted from its usual June date and significantly downscaled)
- Expect organisational changes this year, too. For example:
- Stricter capacity limits (42,000 visitors in total)
- You need to register on or before Sept 5 for a chance of a ticket
- See also: Events in Vienna | Where is the Danube?
The music festival
(Photo by Andreas Jakwerth | Click photo for copyright info etc.)
Technically, the 21km long and 250m wide Donauinsel (Danube island) is a flood regulation measure, a description which has all the sex appeal of a broken exhaust pipe.
However, this artificial island also serves as a recreational park, where you can hike, swim, cycle, trampoline, climb, eat, drink and generally be merry. For one weekend each year, a chunk of it turns into a huge open-air music festival: the Donauinselfest (Danube Island festival)
And entry is free.
As you can imagine, the word “free” next to the word “festival” has a certain attraction to it; the Donauinselfest pulled in some 2.7 million visitors across all three days last time the full event took place.
(Photo by Andreas Jakwerth | Click photo for copyright info etc.)
The music typically covers various genres, including rock, pop, rap, hip hop, electronic music, swing (yep), folk, metal, and all things in between.
Although most performers ply their trade in Austria, the roll call of international stars from past events includes the likes of Mando Diao, Lisa Stansfield, Amy Mcdonald, Michael Bolton, Sean Paul, Bob Geldof, as well as a who’s who of the wider German-speaking music worlds.
All sorts of other activities help keep you occupied between performances, too, not to mention a host of stands to ensure you stay fed and watered (not free, obviously).
The Donauinselfest normally features around 13 stages, 600 hours of music, and 17 themed activity areas. Get a feeling for a typical festival from the video at the bottom of the page.
(Curiously, a political party organises everything: the SPÖ has more or less formed the city government for decades.)
The 2021 Donauinselfest
The 2021 event returns partially to the traditional format while repeating elements of the 2020 pandemic version.
Instead of a mammoth 3-day event at one location, the 2020 festival took place across 80 days all over Vienna. A double-decker bus with a built-in open-air stage toured the city to give over 200 short concerts in parks, tram depots and other locations.
The bus returns in 2021, but so does the three-day island festival.
The final format for the main weekend will depend on public health developments, but the plan is to offer a downscaled version of the normal event. At the time of writing, this means, for example, no more than four stages on any one day, small audience numbers and local acts only (understandable given the obvious difficulties with booking international acts at the moment).
2021 dates and tickets
Dates are usually in June, but the 2021 Donauinselfest takes place September 17th to 19th. The bus will tour through August and September.
You don’t need to buy a ticket because entrance is, as mentioned, free. But in 2021, rather than just turn up, you need to register in advance for a day/stage ticket at the official website (which also has full programme information). Registration is possible up to and including September 5th.
Entrance requirements on the day are also stricter than the prevailing requirements for such events: you need a valid negative PCR test no older than 48 hours (72 hours if aged between 6 and 12). The test requirement applies to everyone (including, for example, those who have been vaccinated). Further restrictions may also come into effect, depending on how things develop, so keep an eye on that website.
How to get to the Donauinselfest
For the events on the island, don’t take a car. Jump on the subway to the Donauinsel or Handelskai stations.
The Donauinsel subway station is on the U1 line that traverses the city centre. Use the U6 line to reach Handelskai. The trains run at very short intervals into the night during the standard 3-day festival. In 2021, there is a single point of access to the festival to allow for entry checks.
Address: Look for the long, wide watery object that passes through Vienna:
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