Erstellt am: 29. 5. 2014 - 16:42 Uhr
Cycling To The Tomorrow Festival
More on the story on FM4 Morning Show & Update on Friday 30th May
My little group of cyclists ride into the rain on the Donauinsel. A fierce wind blowing across the Danube is causing the multi-coloured rain ponchos to flap like Tibet prayer flags. Hours of this wet struggle lie ahead.
I shout through the rain to Matthias who is riding beside me "Why are we doing this?"
"Because it is fun", he shouts back, "And because it is for a good cause."
chris cummins
I am more convinced by the latter reason than the former. In a way we are on an environmental pilgrimage to a monument of ecological protest.
It is only 50 kilometers, an easy day’s bike ride, from Vienna to Zwentendorf, which was set to become Austria’s first nuclear plant until, in 1978, popular protest led to a referendum which eventually stopped the plant from ever going into operation. Plans for five further plants were scrapped and Austria has remained nuclear-free ever since.
A Green Festival
The hulking nuclear complex at Zwentendorf now plays host to the Tomorrow Festival, which claims to be Austria’s premier ecological festival. The concrete complex looms large over the flat landscape by the Danube in Lower Austria, but now it has been turned into a museum, security training centre and a solar power plant.
And once a year it hosts a music party that is relaxed, eclectic, colourful and seemingly always plagued by rain.
Chris Cummins
Chai and Yoga
I find the Tomorrow Festival as charming as it is wet. While the larger festivals seem dominated by beer brands and giant kebab stands, the Tomorrow Festival, which is fronted by the environmental group Global 2000, offers organic food and giant cups of Chai tea.
B Köppel
Hey, I’m a BoBo and I know it.
There are also stands fronting environmental causes, visits inside the former power plant, yoga workshops and humorous performance art highlighting recycling and waste reduction.
But to make it a truly green event, you can also arrive there by the greenest mode of transport available - the bicycle. And that’s why I arrived at the Donauinsel this morning to join an event called Festival Radln- a sedate procession from Vienna to the festival grounds by pedal power co-organised by Austria's Radlobby.
chris cummins
"The Tomorrow Festival is all about highlighting sustainable issues from organic food to waste reduction", says the ride’s co-organiser Sarah Haas, of the Global 2000 Tomorrow Festival team, "so we thought why not get there in a sustainable way."
As one group sets off from Vienna, another convoy of bikes sets off from St Pölten and they meet at the festival grounds. On the way from Vienna there is an organic picknick and a Critical Mass event in Tulln. "It’s about raising awareness too. It is a crazy idea to build nuclear plants near cities. But that is the reality in much of Europe now."
Cargo Bikes Packed Like Mexican Mules
chris cummins
The 50-kilometer-ride from Vienna is not far, but cycling to a festival requires a lot of planning. Where do all those rubber boots, tents and extra pairs of socks go?
"Well luckily we have a lot of cyclists with cargo bikes who are taking other people’s bags so they don’t have to deal with that problem," says Sarah.
Impressed, I go to search for these selfless weight-carriers and find Martyn, whose cargo bike is already packed down with bags and boxes. He says he can take up to 100 kilos: "Yes, we are the heroes of the day", he agrees.
There are many roles to be played. A young mechanic called Petra is testing everyone’s bikes - repairing small defects, all part of a Green Party initiative called Radrettung. And then there are the music wallahs. Some cyclists are pulling trailers carrying solar-powered speakers playing the bike-themed music chosen during the Radpublik.at’s Super Cycling Song Contest.
chris cummins
I cycle alongside one of the music chariot riders. "Don’t ask me anything about it, it’s not mine", she warns me.
"But it’s solar powered. Does it work in the rain?"
The beat thuds alongside loudly behind us and she gives me a pitying look. "Obviously."
chris cummins
Hippie Bikes
There are some bikes festooned with flowers. Once you went to festivals in a hippie camper van, now you go on a hippie bicycle. I call that progress.
But what is it that I see in a water bottle carrier at ten o’clock in the morning? A beer? I can’t imagine the police would approve of this: "It’s a Radler!" exclaims Antonia with a smile.
That’s what I admire about Austrian culture. It has managed to turn a shandy into a sport’s drink.