Status: 04.07.2021 12:43 p.m.
Nightlife in Austria stood still for more than a year. This weekend the clubs opened for the first time. Club operators fear, however, that the country opened too early.
From Nadja Armbrust,
ARD studio Vienna
It is shortly before midnight on the Vienna Danube Canal. Gabriel Lackner and his friends are waiting at the entrance to the “Grellen Forelle”. Today they are going to party again for the first time. “This is my first day in freedom. And it feels completely safe,” says Lackner. He has already received a vaccination. It was really time that the nightlife could come back.
Night clubs in Austria have been able to reopen since July 1st. The curfew has been abolished and there is no need for a mask. Anyone celebrating indoors must provide their contact details. The clubs may not be occupied to more than 75 percent. Guests must be vaccinated, tested, or recovered.
No chance without a test
Shortly before the openings, the City of Vienna tightened the rules even further. “Living room rapid tests” are not accepted as evidence – a PCR gargle test or an official antigen rapid test is required.
At the entrance to the “Grellen Forelle”, the doorman sends a group of young men away. Evidence of vaccinations or tests is not sufficient here. The club only lets in those who have bought a ticket in advance until at least 1 a.m. So the queue is shorter, the admission is faster. The “garish trout” demands more than what is required by law.
Gabriel Lackner and his friends have tickets. You can be there within a few minutes.
Club scene fears the next lockdown
The Viennese club scene is cautious, too much is at stake. Martina Brunner from the “Vienna Club Commission” service point explains: “We don’t want to be the scapegoats that have to be closed again in September.”
The “WERK” is just around the corner. Here, too, people are being sent away again. Here, too, an antigen test or digital proof of vaccination is not sufficient. The owner Stefan Stürzer is leaning against the entrance, he has no mercy. “Nobody comes in without a negative PCR test result. End!” Stürzer is noticeably angry.
“We shouldn’t have opened for two months”
“I think that we opened two months early in Austria. In our country, the mistakes from last year are being repeated. We are now walking on very thin ice.” Stürzer and other club operators have advocated waiting until more young people have been vaccinated and then not opening for two months.
We have to pull our brains together now, the next two months will be crucial.
In Vienna it is much easier to do a PCR test. The city offers all citizens as part of “Alles gurgelt!” the opportunity to regularly test yourself free of charge using PCR gargle tests. The PCR tests are available in drugstore chains, the result comes digitally.
If all goes well, the club operator wants to allow antigen tests in a few weeks, but that is still too early for him.
Local bands play at the Austria Center Vienna every weekend. But there is no party going on here.
Image: Nadja Crossbow
Vaccination center with live music
Because too few young people are vaccinated, the City of Vienna is now organizing live concerts with local bands next to the vaccination center at the Austria Center Vienna for the second weekend.
A real party is not going on here, people want to be vaccinated. Melike and Reyyan Celikel did not know anything about the live music, but wait in front of the stage for their turn. It is vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson. In addition to live music, this should be another incentive for young people who want to go abroad in the summer, because one shot is enough here. But for the time being they do not come to particularly strict Viennese nightclubs even with vaccinations.