Version 01.04.2025 / Subject to changes Krems/Austria
02.05. bis 04.05 & 09.05. bis 11.05.2025
donaufestival 2025
02.-04.05. and 09.-11.05. | Krems an der Donau
Music, performance, art, film, and discourse. Under the guidance of artistic director Thomas Edlinger since 2017, donaufestival presents audacious aesthetics and vibes in current contemporary art. This year, a programme of around 55 events will take place on two spring weekends (Friday to Sunday) at various locations in Krems.
Confusion Is Next
Confusion Is Next is the title of a song by Sonic Youth from 1983. In 2025, the 20th year of donaufestival in its present form, paranoia, suspicion, outrage, and disinformation jungles thrive in the Need for Chaos. Donald Trump and Elon Musk are not just disruptive troublemakers who want to provide a postliberal response to the alleged rule of wokeness. Europe is being declared the enemy, US democracy is threatening to turn into an imperial presidency. The assessment of the situation in the Middle East divides the political camps and artistic milieus. In Germany, Carolin Amlinger and Oliver Nachtwey have identified a "libertarian authoritarianism" that has been able to thrive on the feeling of "violated freedom". This gives rise to cross-fronts between alternative and right-wing state allergists, flexible fascisms and sometimes curious attributions of opposition. Is this age of „Confusionism“(Philippe Corcuff) also following subversive plans in Europe and what part do inflammatory algorithms play in this?
In the documentary Schwester Courage by Kollektiv ZUGANG at this edition of donaufestival, a demonstration against coronavirus measures in Berlin is pitted against a counter-demo. The counterdemo chants: “You’re marching with Nazis!” Outraged demonstrators reply: “You’re the Nazis!“ Nothing is right, anything goes. Are we slowly going mad, and what’s up with the others? Markus Metz and Georg Seeßlen react to these questions with a multimedia show about the fabrication of rightwing political paranoia by „stupid machines“.
In this nebulous state, artists too have turned to tactics of irritation: Göksu Kunak’s installation at Kunsthalle Krems exposes the political-mafioso entanglements in Turkey in 1996, which continue to have an impact today. God’s Entertainment summons a dubious doppelganger of the Danube. Theatre and opera director Magda Szpecht presents possibilities of cyberactivism against Putin. In a stirring video opera, Ayla Pierrot Arendt investigates the tenuous fragility of peace in Georgia. The Brazilian Original Bomber Crew translates urban experiences of violence into a performative invasion – using fire and skateboards. Eman Hussein transforms construction work into a sweat-inducing choreography. El Conde de Torrefiel uses biographical fragments and flashbacks from a speculative future to associate the possible with the real. As part of a cooperation with Kunstraum Niederösterreich, Deva Schubert combines bodily fluids, sounds and whispering protests in a sound installation and accompanying choreography. Jeremy Deller smuggles a disturbing statement by author Primo Levi about our present times into the urban fabric. People Like Us drive 1001 images through our heads. In the midst of Krems’s pedestrian zone Regina José Galindo confronts the new militarism with the only appropriate direction of movement: backwards.
NÖ Festival und Kino GmbH, Minoritenplatz 5, 3500 Krems an der Donau
Version 01.04.2025 / Subject to changes
Krems/Austria
02.05. bis 04.05 & 09.05. bis 11.05.2025
The music programme reacts in its own way to a world so out of whack: electronic musician Sega Bodega, known from acts like Arca and FKA twigs, celebrates disorientation by fusing states of breakdown with outbursts of euphoria in his futuristic club sound. billy woods performs jazzy, delicately mind-expanding hiphop. Anna von Hausswolff plays organ music for vampires with a sixpiece band (and two drums). Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek are oriented towards the folk of their Anatolian family origins and infuse it with psychedelic modernity. Lankum plunge Irish folklore into deep dark drones SHABAKA (also known through bands such as Sons of Kemet or The Comet is Coming) bathes in warm, oceanic music inspired by the spiritual jazz of the 1970s. Keeley Forsyth’s trembling alto voice that calls to mind the intensity of Anohni, is the central component of her otherworldly yet transformative live show. Katharina Ernst / Michael Breyer / ATELIER-E present a complex experimental arrangement of sound, image and AI. aya and the video artist MFO cooperate to interweave vocal intimacy with abstract sound somewhere between twitchy hardcore and dysfunctional hyper-pop Richie Culvers confronts hypnotic spoken word passages with shivering industrial drones, drifting ambient streaks and anxious power electronics. Liturgy cleanses the eardrums, while HHY & The Macumbas, Nídia, and Yellow Swans knot the legs and untangle the synapses. Tristwch Y Fenywod spin cobweb electronics about the suffering of women Mala Herba together with Joanna Zabielska and Alma Bektas offers a powerful postfolk/electronic AV show.
Spiritualized, the follow-up project of Spacemen 3’s mastermind Jason Pierce promises heaven-bound, orchestral space rock with alchemical power. Kabeaushé bathes in ecstatic softness. Techno legend Jeff Mills presents the project Tomorrow Comes The Harvest with Jean-Phi Dary and Prabhu Edouard. Circuit Des Yeux returns to Krems after their acclaimed concert from 2018. Composer and puppeteer Colin Self conjours uncanny voices through their singular singing style. Visionary artists, poets and travellers of sound Moor Mother and Lonnie Holley are touring together for the first time and will close the anniversary edition of the donaufestival on Sunday, May 11th . Kim Noble, perhaps the most disturbing comedian of our time, will have congratulated us all by then. With a podcast about tears and water, the Danube and the donaufestival, his ego and the others, life and death. Confused? Of course. Confusion Is Next!
(Thomas Edlinger, artistic director donaufestival)
NÖ Festival und Kino GmbH, Minoritenplatz 5, 3500 Krems an der Donau
Version 01.04.2025 / Subject to changes
donaufestival 2025
Weekend 1 (02.-04.05.)
Sound
DAY 1 - 02.05.
Krems/Austria
02.05. bis 04.05 & 09.05. bis 11.05.2025
Katharina Ernst / Michael Breyer / ATELIER-E · Keeley Forsyth · Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek · Anna von Hausswolff · Liturgy · billy woods
DAY 2 - 03.05.
Richie Culver · Maria W Horn · aya x MFO · F.S.K. · Sega Bodega · FIFTH · Nídia
DAY 3 - 04.05.
Mala Herba feat. Joanna Zabielska & Alma Bektas · Rachika Nayar · SHABAKA
Performance
Göksu Kunak: Geçmiş Masumiyet/Bygone Innocence (Performance: 02.05. / Installation: 03.05. – 26.10.)
· El Conde de Torrefiel: La luz de un lago (02.-04.05.)
Eman Hussein: Smell of Cement (02.-04.05.)
Regina José Galindo: El Gran Retorno (03.05.)
· Deva Schubert: Silent Spills II (Performance: 03. - 04.05., Installation: 02.-04.05. and 09.11.05.)
God’s Entertainment: DU DU DA DA NA NA NAH (Performance and Installation: 02.-04.05. and 09.-11.05.)
Theory & Talk
Markus Metz & Georg Seeßlen: Die Fabrikation der politischen Paranoia (MultimediaShow/Online Q&A: 03.05.)
Jens Balzer, Kilian Jörg, Angela Richter: Die Freiheit, die wer meint? (Talk: 04.05.)
A drink with… (a get-together with artists of the donaufestival: 03.05.-04.05. and 10.05.11.05.)
Film
Easter (R: Ksenia Yurkova, AUT 2023) / Schwester Courage (R: Kollektiv ZUGANG, DE 2024)03.05.
Critical Zone (R: Ali Ahmadzadeh, IRN, DE 2024) - 04.05.
NÖ Festival und Kino GmbH, Minoritenplatz 5, 3500 Krems an der Donau
Version 01.04.2025 / Subject to changes
Weekend 2 (09.-11.05.)
Sound
DAY 3 - 09.05.
Krems/Austria
02.05. bis 04.05 & 09.05. bis 11.05.2025
Stefan Fraunberger · Nadah El Shazly · Use Knife · Demdike Stare · O. · Spiritualized · Kabeaushé
DAY 4 - 10.05.
Shovel Dance Collective · Ernst Lima · Tristwch Y Fenywod · Circuit Des Yeux · Giulio Erasmus and the End of the Worm · Lankum · Yellow Swans · HHY & The Macumbas
DAY 5 - 11.05.
Jeff Mills feat. Jean-Phi Dary and Prabhu Edouard · Colin Self · Moor Mother & Lonnie Holley
Performance
Ayla Pierrot Arendt: Death in Peace (09.-11.05.)
Original Bomber Crew: tReta – a performative invasion (09.-11.05.)
· People Like Us: The Library of Babel (10.05.)
God’s Entertainment: DU DU DA DA NA NA NAH (Performance and Installation: 02.-04.05. und 09.-11.05.)
Theory & Talk
Dietmar Dath & Julia Grillmayr: Life on Venus (Talk: 10.05.)
Magda Szpecht: Cyberactivism and Performing Arts (Talk: 11.05.)
· A drink with… (a get together with artists of the donaufestival: 03.05.-04.05. und 10.05.11.05.)
Film
· Everything But The World (R: Lauren Boyle/DIS, USA 2022) - 10.05.
Abendland (R: Omer Fast, DE, 2024) - 11.05.
Permanente Kunstprojekte und Installationen (an beiden Wochenenden)
Göksu Kunak: Geçmiş Masumiyet/Bygone Innocence
Deva Schubert: Silent Spills II
· God’s Entertainment: DU DU DA DA NA NA NAH
Jeremy Deller: Every age
Maria W Horn: Panoptikon
· Sebastián Díaz Morales: Miles marchan (Thousands March)
Kim Noble: Nah am Wasser gebaut – to weep easily: a celebration of rivers and donaufestival (Podcast)
The detailled timetable and texts on all program points can be found in the press section of the website donaufestival.at.
NÖ Festival und Kino GmbH, Minoritenplatz 5, 3500 Krems an der Donau
Pressinformation
Version 01.04.2025 / Subject to changes
Note:
Krems/Austria
02.05. bis 04.05 & 09.05. bis 11.05.2025
· The programme on both Sundays ends after three highlight concerts in the Minorite Church (no programme at the festival grounds). As usual, there will be talks, films, and performance events during the day.
· The day or multi-day passes are valid for all events on the respective days.
Due to limited capacity, free numbered tickets will be issued for some performances. Once again, there will be a shuttle bus to Vienna after the end of the last concert.
Venues:
Festival Centres: exhibition halls and Stadtsaal, Utzstraße 12; Klangraum Krems
Minoritenkirche, Minoritenplatz 5.
Others: Kunsthalle Krems, Forum Frohner, Kino im Kesselhaus; all: 3500 Krems a.d. Donau.
Press contact:
Barbara Pluch
E-Mail: barbara.pluch@noe-festival.at; phone: +43 664 60499 322
Carolin Kayali
E-Mail: carolin.kayali@noe-festival.at; phone: +43 664 60499 332
Press photos
> Sound: https://celum.noeku.at/pinaccess/showpin.do?pinCode=2025DF_Sound
> Performance, Art, Film, Talk: https://celum.noeku.at/pinaccess/showpin.do?pinCode=2025DF_PerformanceArtFilmTalk
Press tickets / Accreditation
We ask for your understanding that we cannot issue press tickets without an appropriate pre- or review. We issue a maximum of one press ticket and one half-priced ticket per festival day and medium. Please be so kind and clarify this with your editorial staff and send us a copy of your report.
Please download the ACCREDITATION FORM www.donaufestival.at/de/presse and send it to akkreditierung@donaufestival.at by April 16th, 2025 the latest!
Collection of press tickets: Please collect your tickets until half an hour before the beginning of the event. Tickets that have not been collected will be given to visitors queuing at the box office.
All details available from March 6 on: www.donaufestival.at
NÖ Festival und Kino GmbH, Minoritenplatz 5, 3500 Krems an der Donau