Festival kick-off
Rolling Loud: The rap paradise in an expanded Vienna
The US rap franchise Rolling Loud will be held in Austria for the first time over three days this weekend. Travis Scott, Nicki Minaj, Shirin David and co. will be playing in front of 60,000 fans each day in what is predicted to be sweltering heat. In addition to sunscreen and good ears, you also need a lot of patience.
Around two hours by car from Rennweg in Vienna to the media parking lot in Ebreichsdorf. That is the result of the self-test for the first edition of Rolling Loud to be held in Austria. The world's largest hip-hop festival, which was founded in Miami in 2014 and has also been held in Europe since 2021, attracted around 50,000 fans a day to Munich in 2023, according to the organizers. After riots broke out there and the organization did not work perfectly, this year's event will be held in the newly created concert metropolis in Lower Austria, where around 60,000 fans are expected. Top US stars Nicki Minaj, Playboi Carti and Travis Scott have been booked as headliners. Top performers such as Shirin David, Ice Spice, Gunna and Viennese local hero Money Boy round off the colorful three-day event.
Information policy lacking
Special attention was paid to the traffic concept on the opening day. At "Racino Rocks" at the beginning of June with Metallica, chaos reigned at times. Despite adaptations, it was not possible to prevent travel to Rolling Loud from being completely uncomplicated. Visitors had to reserve a specific time slot for the train or shuttle bus journey in advance using a "travel ticket" to prevent excessive chaos. In addition, shortly before the start of the festival, visitors were advised to travel by car, which was not very sustainable, as the public transportation options were obviously quickly overloaded. Visitors criticized the information policy in particular. The festival app and Instagram stories sometimes contained information about adaptations. However, anyone looking at the festival's homepage or standardized social media pages was left in the dark.
So, too, are some fans waiting for their favorite artists who then don't get to take the stage. As is usual in the rap game, there are also a lot of last-minute cancellations and line-up changes at Rolling Loud that are not visible on the website or in news sections. For example, Flo Milli and Billa Joe are missing on the opening day, and Sexyy Red, Chief Keef and City Morgue have also canceled their participation in the festival at short notice. As bumpy as the preparations may have been, the opening day itself went off without a hitch. There are no long toilet queues, and the beer situation has also calmed down considerably compared to the Metallica gig, which is of course also due to the fact that the audience is not so hard-drinking and the unbridled heat tends to lead towards water.
Winter boots and skulls
The free drinking water points are important, but rare. A total of four are spread across the entire site, and the queues of people are correspondingly long in the midsummer temperatures. The majority of fans celebrate their heroes in front of the main stage. The first big highlight is US rapper Ski Mask The Slump God, whose DJ samples his way through the vegetable garden and occasionally plays harder sounds à la Slipknot. The crowd is easily carried away by the mixture of trap and punk rap and creates an excellent atmosphere. Where Ski Mask enters the stage in elegant winter boots, his successor Gunna opts for stylish white branded rubber boots. His form of rap also touches on the trap subgenre and attracts even more people to the stage. In between, he presents his collection of mic stands, which even includes a model with a skull.
While fans in the hip-hop segment in the USA like to go to events in basketball or ice hockey shirts, in Austria the soccer kit dominates. Due to the European Championship quarter-final between Germany and Spain, the German team shirt was seen particularly often. But Arsenal, Manchester United, Rapid and Inter Milan shirts are also scattered across the dusty grounds. On the second stage, the "Snipes Stage", the acts alternate every half hour, but the artists on the main stage are also only given 45 minutes playing time each, apart from the headliner. Osamason, for example, fires machine gun salvo samples across the area, two enthusiastic female fans film, fall into ecstasy and sing along to every word.
Vienna or Ebreichsdorf
In between, one of the US managing directors of Rolling Loud makes an appearance on stage and proves to be just as geographically unfamiliar as the organizers in terms of advertising. "What started as a small idea has already developed so far. Now we're even here in Vienna." No, not really. But the 27.43 kilometers as the crow flies between the two locations are often undermined anyway. The official merchandise is also sold with "Vienna" printed on it, which also confused international guests on social media: "Where the hell is this Ebreichsdorf? You were talking about Vienna," was one comment on Instagram. Not insignificant information if, like some guests, you're flying in from the USA and think you're falling off your hotel bed onto the festival grounds.
aThe star power comes into its own for the first time at sunset. Hamburg's successful rapper Shirin David enters the stage half an hour late. Just last fall, she wowed her audience in the completely sold-out Wiener Stadthalle and she can also count on her loyal audience at Rolling Loud. Wearing a simple undershirt and jeans, she and her dancers put on a well-choreographed show and, unlike the US stars before her, did without pyrotechnics. Instead, she performs the Helene Fischer Ballermann hit "Atemlos" and an abbreviated stage show. "Unfortunately, she didn't make it to Austria," the artist apologizes to her fans. As the sun sinks, the temperatures slowly return to normal and the party crowd can raise the mood level once again. European rap is more accessible, more dignified, more suitable for the general public than American rap, but it also lacks some of the compelling stringency. It's all in the mix, but after the US bad boys, Shirin seems a little out of place.
Points winner from Vienna
Thanks to the postponements, the biggest fear of some fans that superstar Nicki Minaj would duel on the main stage and Austria's rap hero Money Boy on the side stage did not materialize. This gave the Viennese artist the opportunity to present his almost half-hour set to a really impressive number of fans, who not only ensured mosh pits and a great atmosphere, but also proved to be remarkably confident with their lyrics during some of the songs. With a few guest rappers and an adult freestyle, Sebastian Meisinger, as his real name is, raps his way through a colorful oeuvre of his career, which includes the YouTube hit "Monte Carlo" as well as newer material or his legendary breakthrough song "Dreh den Swag auf" in a thoroughly self-deprecating version. A victory on all fronts.
It's no secret that superstar Nicki Minaj is a proven diva. She recently posted a short video in which she mocked the fact that she had to take the few steps up to the shuttle on stage and was not provided with an elevator. In Ebreichsdorf, she leaves her numerous fans to suffer for a long time. In between, a DJ interjects with a few beats and a short announcement, then it gets quiet again. The first shouts of "boo" begin to circulate and some in the Wavebreaker area at the front lose patience - probably also to slowly make their way back to Vienna and avoid the inevitable traffic jam as best they can. When, after a delay of just under an hour, she does make her way onto the stage, at least the performance remains good. Glittering, constantly posing, with a thick stage set and fire effects. Plus hits from "Beep Beep" to "Anaconda" and "Starships" - a conciliatory ending after all.
No Rolling Loud breather
There will be no breather, because today and tomorrow it's back to the beat. Among others, Playboi Carti, Lil Tjay, Ufo361, the booming Ice Spice and superstar Travis Scott will be causing a sensation. The departure from the Ebreichsdorf site may remain a sensitive issue - according to initial social media comments on the first night, it didn't work well again. For those who have not yet been there, there are a few important basic rules to bear in mind. The merchandise is expensive (T-shirts cost up to 60 euros), there is a well-hidden amusement park, you have to pay with festival money (i.e. upload the money to the chip band at the charging stations) and there are fewer places in the shade than at Lido Sounds in Linz. A summer festival is not a luxury event.
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