Saturday: Erntedankfest

Rural Austrians have their own version of Thanksgiving, called Erntedankfest. Actually it's more of a harvest festival. Traditionally just celebrated in their own villages, about ten years ago they brought the festivities to Vienna where it morphed into a joint harvest fest / fair, where you can watch traditional activities like log-sawing, folk dancing, etc. and sample / purchase some of the stuff the farmers produce----different cheeses, sausages, oils, wines / spirits, breads, etc.

It's a Saturday - Sunday thing and is held at the Heldenplatz, a huge open plaza attached to the Hofburg.

It's Sturm season and I had my first Sturm yesterday at the festival. Two Sturms, actually...but it was a young Sturm and hadn't developed a kick yet. Still quite delicious, though.

There were several displays of veggies like this.

This crown, made of plants, is paraded around.

Just a few of the few hundred thousand folks they expected this weekend.

There were a lot of places to get drinks and food---and hardly any plastic cups. Almost everything was served in actual glasses and on actual plates. The few exceptions were plastic beer cups if you wanted to walk around and drink, and I saw damned few of those (despite all the happy drinking.) You buy your drink and included is a €2 deposit on each glass. Finish up, bring the glass back, and get your deposit back.

This cuts way, way down on trash. WAY down.

We bought some roedeer salami. I like wild game because it tastes good, and the animal has a natural, wild life until the hunter gets him. We also bought some pumpkin seed oil and some delicious bread.

I really enjoyed these fresh homemade potato chips----

Efficient assembly line operation. This guy carves potatoes into spirals with this machine.

These guys fry them up.

This lady takes your money then puts the chips on a plate for you.

Austro-potato goodness....

These folk dancers were called Voigasplattler and they were bad-ass.

There were a lot of people wandering around in the native costumes of their region, and some interesting folk dancing / music. For instance, one trio of guys cracked whips in time to the music, but they were tame compared to the guys above, Voigasplattler, which roughly means "Full Throttle Plattler." A Schuhplattler is a dance that involves a lot of slapping of the hands against the thighs, the shoes, the chest, etc. accompanied by much jumping around and moving in circles and other patterns. But these guys have taken it to the next level, updating it for the 21st Century.

At first, watching them, I thought: "This is going to be kind of corny and lame." But as they got into it, I saw they were pretty athletic.  Most of these guys had legs like oak trees and had cardio to spare, which I guess you would if you danced all the time at high altitude. Plus they had a great sense of humor and showmanship.

The videos below only show parts of the dances they do, but some of these things go on five minutes or so and they have to be one bunch of in-shape mofos to pull this off.