1. It’s Free
+ Love: that it’s free. Free parties are always good. As its claim to fame goes – it’s the biggest free festival in Europe!
– Hate: that free means hundreds of people crowd the island, making this the largest amount of drunk people to be found on one island (except maybe on Phi Phi island in Thailand).
2. Langos
+ Love: the taste of the must-have Donauinselfest snack – the greasy, garlicky langos
– Hate: the lethal, toe-curling, toxic burps and garlic-nfused sweat that follows. Try getting a date with that breath, Langos boy/girl!
3. The music
+ Love: that you can discover local up-and-coming bands
– Hate: that most acts are bands that play every year, once had a song on the radio, and you wouldn’t even torrent their music for free
4. The People
+ Love: that all sorts of people come together at this festival
– Hate: that all kinds of people coming together includes random gangs of bored young guys looking for trouble, and your mother being at the same music festival you are, as she comes to throw her panties at Hansi Hinterseer, or any other Schlager Sänger*in performing there.
5. The wigs
+ Love: the colourful wigs for sale
– Hate: the colourful wigs for sale
6. Backpack beer sellers
+ Love: the illegal backpack beer sellers
– Hate: that they always show up 5 minutes after you’ve spent 5€ on a flat and warm beer
7. It’s in the open air and out in nature
+ Love: that it’s in nature and on an island
– Hate: how people go all primal in nature leading to vomit and pee pool booby traps all over the island, and sex in the bushes (this is ok if it’s us, of course)
8. The lucrative beer cup deposit money-making business plan
+ Love: how you can make a profitable night out by collecting the abandoned plastic beer cups with a deposit on them at the end of the night
– Hate: that this is still our main source of income
9. The passive weed smoking
+ Love: the passive weed smoking at Reggae music acts (or let’s be honest, at any music act)
– Hate: that you have to sit through a Reggae music act to passively smoke weed
10. The FM4 stage
+ Love: the FM4 stage
– Hate: how it’s so far away from everything else that you fail to make it sometimes
11. The Dixie Klos
+ Love: people watching the queues in front of the Dixie Klos and putting bets on if they’ll make it, or give up and disappear into the bushes
– Hate: when it’s us in the queue going to the ‘Can-you-stand-the-stink-long-enough-to-pee’ Dixie Klos