Two hours from Vienna, the “Grape Festival” took place in mid-August at a former airport in Slovakia – it was an indie dream with an unparalleled affinity for art!
That Friday afternoon we made our way to Slovakia in a leisurely manner – perhaps almost a little too leisurely. This time we decided to book an apartment instead of camping, and arriving at our apartment was only possible within a certain amount of time. Everything would have been super easy, we just hadn’t taken the traffic jam into account. In any case, we arrived at our apartment much later than expected and also got to the festival much later than planned. Oh well.
At some point we managed to find the way to the festival (the route wasn’t very well signposted), picked up our tapes and were immediately overwhelmed by all these art installations. As soon as you entered the grounds, the grape festival showed off its wide range of possibilities: from the aforementioned art installations and photo spots, to sports activities such as skateboard ramps and mini golf courses, to party stages, fairground attractions and, of course, concerts. And of course you shouldn’t forget the culinary delights: there was so much to eat!
I was a bit glad that we didn’t have much more to do on that Friday evening. It was, so to speak, a soft start to the festival events. After a lap around the area we arrived at the big stage, the main stage, and secured good seats. The next band on each stage were the “foals„!
And the performance was, like a few weeks ago at the Gasometer in Vienna, incredibly energetic and rousing. I found it particularly nice that the visuals in the background were so crazy and colorful, and of course it was even nicer that singer Yannis once again sought closeness to the audience – it will always be a highlight when he sings in and with the audience !
After the “foals” we strolled on to the stage in the tent. there was next the “bad boy chiller crew“ and well, I saw a song, then I sat down on the floor somewhere further back because I was so tired. I probably didn’t miss much in terms of the show anyway.
and then it was time for the last concert of the festival day: “moderate“ on the main stage! I gathered my last strength and went into the middle of the crowd and enjoyed every note and especially every beat. “Moderate” is simply an audiovisual event thanks to the visuals that are perfectly matched to the music. I danced, I was amazed, I enjoyed the concert to the full. It was a perfect end to our first, very gentle start to the grape festival.
The second and therefore also the last day of the festival got off to a really comfortable start. We slept really late and made our way to the site in the afternoon. Our first item on the agenda that day: check out the entire food offering! and then it went straight to “ekkstacy„!
At first I wanted to hide in the shade a little further back because the sun was beating down so badly. But it soon became clear that I had to go straight into the crowd – the Canadian singer had a lot of bangers in his luggage and I wanted to experience it more intensively. And then I was in the middle of the crowd and, in addition to the very good songs, I also enjoyed a very good show with full physical effort.
We moved on to a slightly smaller stage because the Norwegian singer was there next “cut“It’s your turn. I had already been able to check them out once as part of the Waves Festival and knew what a good concert we were in for. And that’s how it was: the lady delighted us with rousing pop music and not only made us sweat, but also herself.
But well, their long-sleeved and apparently non-breathable clothing was anything but suitable for the inhumanly high temperatures that prevailed. Sometimes I couldn’t even look at her; if I were her I would have suffered a heat stroke five times. but still she continued without complaining. You have to show that much professionalism!
The sun was really our final enemy that day – it was incredibly hot and there were few to no shade areas. But we didn’t have time to rest in the (non-existent) shade anyway, because we had to go on to “king gizzard and the lizard wizard„.
The nice thing about this band: you really never know what to expect. Due to the band’s excessive musical output, each concert is completely unique. That afternoon they holed up in the psychedelic 60s corner and it was a dream. They put emotion but also madness into their performance and they brought out the flute. It was very logical that not only we danced, but also everyone around us. From the very young to the very old, everyone present was thrilled!
I allowed myself a break after dancing while my partner “discopunk“ on a smaller stage. And that was a good thing, because it meant I could fully concentrate on the sunset that was slowly setting over the festival grounds.
When it was eventually dark, we went back to the main stage – “m83“We were already waiting for us there, with a lot of screaming and an almost exaggerated light show. But maybe that was the intention, first to overload the stimuli and then bang out the hits? And then it actually happened like this: for a long time I thought that it would really only be indefinable, loud music, until they finally calmed down and still had a few bangers up their sleeve for us. and they were even more intense than expected!
My partner actually wanted to drive home after M83, but I persuaded him to play a few more songs from “yungblud“to take with you. So we stayed to find out what actually happened to Yungblud. We saw him at the waves festival in 2017 and back then he was already wild, but could still be classified as more of a leisurely indie. But that had changed fundamentally – his attitude, his appearance and his music were now more in the direction of “very cheeky pop-punk”.
So we stood there, a bit speechless and also a bit sad, and had the realization that we would probably never hear the old indie songs from back then again. Instead we saw an excited guy who was tearing around the stage like crazy and throwing fingers at everyone. On the other hand, it was also nice to see how well he had his audience under control. Still, it breaks my heart a bit that I will probably never hear songs like “King Charles”, “I Love You, Will You Marry Me” or “Tin Pan Boy” live again.
We left the festival grounds slowly and with wistful looks. It was a wonderful trip that was really worth it. So much great indie music, so much good food and, above all, so much art all around – that was a real treat!
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