The FM4 Frequency Festival, also Frequency Festival or just Frequency, formerly Vienna City Festival, is a music festival that takes place near Salzburg, Austria, usually every August. It is promoted by one of Austria's national radio stations, FM4, and is generally associated with the alternative part of mainstream music. The lineups accumulate acts of various genres such as rock, electronica and hip hop, usually covering great parts of the German and Austrian alternative, indie and guitar pop scenes, but also featuring well-known international acts.

Contents

1 History 2 Past lineups 3 2005 lineup 4 External links

History

The festival was established in 2001. The first year it took place as a rather small event featuring six artists on each of the two days of the festival, which were Friday, the 8th and Saturday, the 9th of June. Musicnet , the company that organizes the Frequency festival, rented the open air stage of the Arena Wien , one of Vienna's leading concert locations. The festival, called Vienna City Festival at that time, became an instant success - not only financially, but it was also very much liked by the audience. This quickly lead to the decision of moving it to another location, which would also feature camping facilities.

For 2002's festival the Salzburgring , normally used as a motor-bike racetrack, was selected. Salzburg was an optimal choice, since it's both centrally situated within Austria and can also easily be reached from Germany. It's also close to the A1, Austria's main autobahn, and is surrounded by grass fields that can be used as camping and parking facilities. The festival scored over 10.000 guests on both days (the 14th and 15th of June) and featured nearly 40 bands on two stages - one open-air (Main Stage) and one tent (Alternastage).

2003 was both a success and a disappointment. One of the major Austrian concert organizers/promoters and business rivals of Musicnet, Wiesen , who are also in charge of famous Austrian festivals like the Jazz Fest , Forestglade and Two Days A Week , decided to have Metallica perform in the stadium of Salzburg, only about 20km away from the Salzburgring, on the second day of the Frequency festival. Musicnet feared loss of audience due to the Metallica concert and after several days of negotiation, Metallica were booked to headline the second day of the FM4 Frequency festival, bringing their tour support Alien Ant Farm as well as their huge fanbase along. Remaining tickets were sold out immediately and the festival was massively overrun. Over 45.000 tickets were sold for both the 14th anf 15th of August, but it is estimated that between 55.000 and 60.000 people attended the Metallica day in the end. Organization was devastating as the masses could not be handled by the security personnel. Logistic and sanitarian problems were the result and it was seen by many critics as a miracle that there were almost no serious injuries and not even a single death. Even Musicnet thanked the audience for being disciplined as they were and not panicing when they were stuck in the masses. According to many guests the situation was critical during a rain shower, when the audience was seeking shelter under the tent. It is rumoured that financially the festival was more of a break-even business than a success and Musicnet has refused to supply any information regarding this.

2004 was the back to the roots year, with 40 bands playing on the 13th and 14th of August. Many fans of the original Frequency festival were disappointed about it becoming just another huge mainstream festival, and so Musicnet tried to re-estabilish the situation of 2002. Not mainly by allowing less attendance, although ticket contigents were limited now, but by expanding the area and replacing the tent stage by a second open air stage. Indeed the result was an overall success, which was partly because of a cooperation with FKP Scorpio, producers of big German festivals like Southside, Hurricane and Highfield . The festival was overshadowed by a huge storm with winds up to 140km/h during the first night and constant, intense rain showers during the second day. This severe storm that lasted 25 hours without respite caused many guests to leave early.

Past lineups

• 2001: 2Raumwohnung, Afrob, Blumfeld , Echophonic , Eins Zwo , Fiva MC & DJ Radrum , Heinz aus Wien , Nina , Seeed, Slut, Stereo Total, Total Chaos

• 2002: Die Ärzte, Attwenger , Bauchklang , Blumentopf , Chima , Curse , Das Pop , Donots, Emil Bulls , Fiva MC , Gentleman , Heinz aus Wien , Jugendstil , Kosheen, Lambretta, Naked Lunch , Naked Raven, Rival Schools, Schönheitsfehler , Shyne 11 , Slut, Sneaker Pimps, Son Goku feat. Thomas D. , Sonic Youth, Sportfreunde Stiller, Die Sterne , Such A Surge , Telepopmusik, The (International) Noise Conspiracy, The Leaves , The Tarantinos , Tocotronic, Turntablerockers , Zeronic , Zuka

• 2003: 3 Feet Smaller , Absolute Beginner, Alien Ant Farm, Ash, Bauchklang , Beck, Biffy Clyro, Blackmail , Blumfeld , Bright Eyes, Caesars, Christoph und Lollo , Comaah , Console, De Phazz, Die Goldenen Zitronen , Grandaddy, Heather Nova, International Pony , Jugendstil , Kante , Kettcar , Kinderzimmer Productions, Ladytron, Louie Austen , Main Concept , Metallica, Nova International , Petsch Moser , Placebo, Puppet Mastaz , Seeed, Sportfreunde Stiller, Tahiti 80 , Terrorgruppe, The Notwist, The Seesaw , Tomte, Travis, Wir Sind Helden , XPloding Plastix

• 2004: 2Raumwohnung, 3 Feet Smaller , Adam Green, Apocalyptica, Die Ärzte, Ash, Blumentopf , Coshiva , Crash , Curbs , The Dandy Warhols, The Darkness, Dashboard Confessional, The Delays, Donots, Faithless, Die Fantastischen Vier, Groove Armada, Guadalajara , Hörspielcrew , Jellybeat , Jugendstil , Julia , Keane, Kings of Leon, Lockdown Project , Mando Diao, Max Herre , Mondo Generator, Olli Schulz und der Hund Marie , Patrice , Radio 4, The Roots, Seeed, Slut, Die Sterne , Tigerbeat , Turntablerocker , Whyte Seeds

2005 lineup

2005's lineup will feature the usual 40 to 44 bands, and currently consists of: Beatsteaks, The Blue Van , Bolzplatz Heroes , The Bunny Situation , Fallout Boy, Foo Fighters, Gentleman , Incubus, Infadels , Julia , Kante , Kosheen, Oasis, Moneybrother , Queens Of The Stone Age, Shemale Trouble , Sportfreunde Stiller, Stereo Total, Tocotronic, Die Toten Hosen, Farin Urlaub and When The Music's Over .

The event will take place from Thursday, the 18th till Saturday, the 20th of August, 2005.

External links

• http://www.frequency.at - Homepage of the Frequency festival (German)

• http://www.musicnet.at - Homepage of Musicnet