Kick-off in Krems

Danube Festival: nostalgia routine in a tartan skirt

Donaufestival or Donauinselfest? The rather stiff performance by The Jesus And Mary Chain made you think twice.

(Bild: David Visnjic / donaufestival)

If you're not afraid of overpriced schnitzel sandwiches and late autumn weather, the Danube Festival in Krems is the place to be. On the opening day of the iconic music and performance festival, The Jesus And Mary Chain disappointed and Deena Abdelwahed impressed. Today the festival continues with Jenny Hval and Clipping.

For two weekends, picturesque Krems will once again be Austria's cultural capital. For some time now, this has been thanks to the internationally renowned Danube Festival, which combines music, art, performance and socio-political events and focuses on major and minor problems in the world with an annually changing main theme. The motto for the 2024 version is "Community Of Aliens". It is "about the search for planetary alliances of life forms that defy imperial violence and the new political irreconcilabilities", as festival director and curator Thomas Edlinger summarized in advance. The aim is to open up a "space of social possibility" that does not ignore conflicts and political dissent.

Electronics against the rain
The weather gods were not exactly kind on Friday at the opening. Recurrent rainfall, late autumn temperatures of eight degrees Celsius - luckily the Danube Festival traditionally takes place indoors. The themed "aliens" included artists from different parts of the world. The first highlight in the musical segment was provided by musician and DJ Deena Abdelwahed, who was born in Qatar and emigrated to Tunisia at an early age. She perfected her mixture of Arabic folklore, technoid club sounds and urgent atmosphere on her second album "Jbal Rsas" last autumn and, together with her musical partner Khalil Hentati and paralyzing visuals, staged it appropriately in Krems.

The Reid brothers (William on guitar, Jim on mic) from The Jesus And Mary Chain showed themselves to be experienced, but without bite.

(Bild: David Visnjic / donaufestival)

Before her second appearance at the Donaufestival, she explained in the "Krone" interview that the organization of festivals is important to her when she performs as a musician rather than a DJ. "At party festivals, I would only bore the party people and would be miscast. I love it when festivals take place with a certain motivation and create their own meaning. As an artist, I see it as my duty to contribute to this and I am happy when a festival audience shows sensitivity to such issues." The 35-year-old is familiar with festival-themed outsiderism from her own experience. She has been living in France for eight years now and only moved to Lyon three weeks ago. In Europe, she can finally realize her artistic dreams.

Building on her roots
"We have an incredible number of talented female artists in Tunisia who are doing great things, but the cultural sector is highly institutionalized and very restrictive. People have great visions but can't realize them because the state puts a stop to them. So they emigrate, which causes further problems. Europeans can't even imagine what a luxury it is when someone from Tunisia can actually put their ideas into practice." From France, Abdelwahed can be back in her old homeland in just over two hours by plane, and she deliberately doesn't cut her roots. Especially not in her music. "African-American music has conquered the world in hip-hop, R&B, jazz and the like because it draws on the strengths of its ancestors. In Arabia and also in Europe, a new generation always tries to make a clear cut and take nothing from its predecessors. The influence of Arabic musical culture is important to me, I want to combine it with modernity. Even if that is more work and requires a lot of patience."

The actual headliner of the opening day: Tunisian-born DJ Deena Abdelwahed.

(Bild: David Visnjic / donaufestival)

Abdelwahed is enthusiastic about the open display of equality and the strict anti-discrimination policy that has always been the norm at the Danube Festival, adding humorously: "In contrast to Saudi Arabia, for example, we at least have equal rights here in Tunisia. As an artist, you're worth nothing here anyway. It doesn't matter whether you're a man or a woman." Earlier in the program, the local noise band Eaeres with Ursula Winterauer, among others, had a strong female presence. The lava flow-like sound could be classified as doom metal, monotonous drone influences, billowing synth pads and lots of weird noise, which was paired with sometimes guttural, sometimes screeching vocals, was the right warm-up for the most important headliner of the entire festival - The Jesus And Mary Chain.

Catchy and experienced
The Scottish cult band from the 80s has been in good shape again for some time and, after decades of quarrels between the brothers Jim (vocals) and William Reid (guitar), has also found the desire to play live again. After an ambivalently received comeback in Austria in 2017 at the Ottakringer Brewery in Vienna, they were semi-fittingly booked for the Donaufestival to boost ticket sales. As a result, a good two thirds of the audience were strongly polarized towards their idols, which was also confirmed by the abrupt exodus directly after the concert. In their set, which lasted just over an hour, they proved to be not only the catchiest, but also the most experienced act of the evening.

Austrian band with a love of the abyssal and lava-flow-like: Eaeres around Ursula Winterauer.

(Bild: David Visnjic / donaufestival)

Established, long-standing fans of the band told me in advance about past concerts with exuberant volume, shoegaze repetition and noisy noise set pieces - after the corresponding expectations came the great disillusionment. The band performed as dutifully as possible and the static on stage was more reminiscent of 80s heroes at the Donauinselfest than the Donaufestival. Immortal hits such as "Happy When It Rains" or "Just Like Honey" were mixed with songs from the perfectly adequate new album "Glasgow Eyes", which, however, elicited little reaction from the nostalgically polarized auditorium. Jim Reid held on to his microphone cable like a tamer throughout the evening - a little more indiscipline would have been desirable from this band in this setting.

It goes on
Those who are not put off by the absurd gastronomic prices (the palm-sized schnitzel roll now costs 6.50 euros) and the cold, wet weather still have five opportunities to indulge in a wide variety of contemporary sounds and art in Krems. Today, Saturday, Clipping, Jenny Hval and Föllakzoid will be performing. Experimental legends The Necks will be performing on April 21. The fun continues next weekend. On April 26, Viennese sound artist Kenji Araki will take you to other spheres of sound, while Ben Frost will be joined by metal guitarist Greg Kubacki. On April 27, Berlin-based artist Andrey Guryanov will tell the stories of Soviet and Russian national anthems before the Brits from Autechre invite you to the industrial dancefloor. The festival will be rounded off on April 28 by Joe Rainey, Huuum and Dopplereffekt. At www.donaufest ival.at you can find all the information, the exact timings and various festival tickets.