Linz Europe Harbour Festival, Day 2

1 August 2009

It was Saturday and the festival started at 2.30pm, rather than 5pm – lots more music to fit in today! Like the day before we had mostly hot sunshine with some rain and while the sun shone I tried to stand in people’s shadows to give my sunburned shoulder a bit of relief. The trouble being of course that in the middle of the day, people’s shadows aren’t all that long. Damn you, science!

We arrived at the harbour in time to see Loredana Groza doing her soundcheck before she later opened proceedings. She’s very popular in Romania, where she’s known as their Madonna. She has a great voice and wears all kinds of fantastic costumes, adding or subtracting a piece here and there – a wraparound skirt, or a jacket – to suit the song.

Hubert came back on stage during her set and together they performed Hasta Siempre:

Next up were our Ukrainian friends, Haydamaky with their Carpathian ska. They don’t just sound cool, they look cool and I loved photographing Ivan the accordion player. While the day before I’d not managed to get anything sorted to stand on at the front, so that I could see/photograph better, today the lovely Hannes, Hubert’s backliner, constructed me a little hill from two wooden palettes and one of the band’s flight cases. Perfect, I had something to perch on at the front.

Press photographers and cameramen were in and out of the pit at the front, getting a tap on the shoulder from security if they outstayed their welcome. However I was in there the whole time, as was another photographer. A guy in a hat, with a couple of Canons slung around his neck. Gradually we’d started to acknowledge each other – a nod of the head became a smile, a smile became a little wave. Then at some point he was next to me as I was crouched by my hill changing something on my camera. I indicated the structure and offered use of it to him, “Du kannst das auch verwenden”. He looked blank and said, “English? Mein Deutsch ist schlecht.” Ok, English I can do! “I’m English! Where are you from?” “Sydney” was his reply. Well, for heaven’s sake. So the two photographers working full time in the pit at this Austrian festival were English and Australian.

Hubert’s set with his band followed Haydamaky’s and they came back on stage to play “Poika” with him:

There’s a song of Hubert’s I love called “i bi ån” (pron.: ee bee on). “I bi ån” means you’re fine, you’re a-ok and have everything you need. The song is like one big party – and when you’ve had some help translating the lyrics you also discover that it’s also quite concerned with, well getting it on. It’s a great song for collaboration with other artists and when Hubert was sailing up and down the European rivers in 2007 and 2008, his guest musicians and bands would often join him for this song. This time Loredana came back on stage “to smoke it”, as Hubert puts it:
(and that behatted head you see at the bottom of the video? That’s Mr Australia.)

The Bavarian group Haindling were up next, and though the rain had started to come down, the audience stayed, many now donning the glamorous plastic ponchos given out by the radio station partner Ö1. As I headed back from the ship having had a bite to eat, I could hear the elephantine sound for which the band is known, somehow produced from all their brass instruments. Later in the set, as a greeting from Germany to Austria, the Linz audience was coaxed into an ironic “schunkeln” – linking arms and swaying in time to the music. It was Suzy’s first Schunkeln and we were both so proud.

The last band – and Suzy and I were both so exhausted by now – was the Cologne group BAP, whom I’d seen perform with Hubert last August in their hometown. In fact it was at the concert that I took the photo that ended up being used for the harbour festival posters. Now here we were back together again. They played a rocking set and then finally Hubert and his band joined them on stage for a couple of songs to bring the evening to a close.