Image: Antje Wolm
Ten years are enough – that’s what Anita Katzengruber and Michaela Reisenberger thought. But they made the calculation without a married couple on Herrenstrasse. Because they thwarted the two women’s plans to hand over the Herrenstrasse Festival, which they had shaped for a decade, to someone else. And that has nothing to do with ambition or a lack of trust in others.
“We were met with so much appreciation from both of them that we couldn’t help but keep going,” says Reisenberger. “They thanked us for our commitment, wanted the festival to continue and promised us their financial support.”
New ideas and many comrades-in-arms
And so the Herrenstrasse Festival on July 7 from 12 noon to 10 p.m. once again bears the signature of the two organizers, who have been close friends since they came up with the idea for this festival together. However, this year’s festival marks an end and a beginning.
“It will be a gap year this year,” says Reisenberger. What she means by that: This year there will be another theme that will run through the festival. It’s been like this since day one. But you will already be able to see where things are headed in the coming year at one corner or the other. The organizers don’t want to and can’t talk about it in detail yet, only this much: “The new idea inspires, we have many new comrades-in-arms who are more involved, and a lot of energy has been created.”
The Herrenstrassenfest has been conveying fun and joie de vivre for more than a decade, and even if Corona forced a break, the desire to party in the street has not disappeared. And that is also because everyone who is at home on the street pulls together. “It’s a grown neighborhood.”
Kick-off with a mini concert
The program, which this year is all about women, begins at 1 p.m. with a mini concert by the Playschool. During the day you can see the great Zelda Weber, Crystn Hunt Akron, Korli, The Singing Schauschis, Anna Katt, Avel, Pia Denz (she plays a concert “out of the window”) and Frau Tomani live. All business neighbors are there, the catering trade caters for the hungry and thirsty, and there is also a health check for cuddly toys (where the children are taught in a playful way how important it is to take care of themselves and their health), games tournaments or a photo box.
Good things are being done again in the Bishop’s Court. The Rotary Club Linz Schlossberg sells lots, serves little things and wants to use the proceeds to support the Institute for Sensory and Speech Neurology headed by Johannes Fellinger, who takes care of children with multiple disabilities. Of course there is a program in the Bischofshof during the festival, ranging from meeting the dragon Sebastian to the concert of “Intact”.
What has driven Katzengruber and Reisinger from the start will remain in the future. “It’s the people who live and work here that make this street so special.” People like the couple who made the two women change their already made decision.
Source: Nachrichten
