2024 was my first time at the event and but probably not the last. Let me tell you why.
As it was my first time at the Austrian Butterfly Dance Festival and I had not found too much information about it, I decided to write a short summary of my experience. It might be of interest to some first-time visitors.
The Butterfly Dance, as you probably know, focuses mainly on music genres like trip-hop, acid jazz, drum and bass, which were popular 2-3 decades ago, but still attract a large number of people.
In 2024, the line-up was fantastic for lovers of these genres: Thievery Corporation, Galiano, Koscheen, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Bonobo, plus Waldeck and Gewürztraminer from Austria. It has been officially announced that one of the headliners in 2025 will be Morcheeba.
The crowd is mainly Generation Z (it’s both surreal and uplifting to see grandmothers dancing to drum and bass), but there are younger people here too. This is definitely a time warp of sorts, but this kind of music and its fans ara pretty timeless, so there is very little classic nostalgia in the air.
Relaxed atmosphere
The best thing about The Butterfly Dance, apart from the line-up, is that it is a music festival and a picnic in one.
The stage is at the back of the picturesque Esterházy Palace, the audience is in the “Schlosspark”. The viewing area is divided into two parts. The smaller one is in front of the stage and is for the standing audience and the dancers, while the larger area, which is a gentle hill, is actually a picnic area where people, groups of friends, lay their blankets, eat, drink and socialize. It makes the event comfortable and practical.
The first act (Jürgen Drimal) started at 1.45pm, Kruder & Dorfmeister finished their session after midnight, so the program is long, maybe too long, and without some sitting and resting it would be more than challenging.
So most of the time people are sitting or lying on their blankets, and when their favorite band comes on stage, or they just want to be more involved, they get up and go to the area in front of the stage, leave their stuff behind and later come back to the picnic blankets.
Food and drink
According to the Austrian newspapers, 8-10 thousand people attend the festival, so it is neither too big nor too small.
As far as catering is concerned, there are food and drink stands around the audience area where you can buy food from hot dogs to hamburgers (8-12 €). A pint of Ottakringer beer costs €6.8, and a glass of quality wine is €4.5. Apparently, the sparkling drinks are very popular, 0.5 litre Lemon Spitzer is €7.8.
Accommodation, Travel
There is an area where you can pitch your tent or park your caravan for a small fee. Alternatively, you can take the shuttle buses from Vienna to Eisenstadt. We wanted to book a room in the city, but we were too late and all the rooms were sold out months before the event. We did not want to drive after the festival, so we rented a room in the nearby Hungarian town of Sopron, took public transport to Eisenstadt and organized our trip back to Hungary after the event. A room in Eisenstadt would have been better, so if we go to the Butterfly Dance in 2025, we must be quicker with booking accommodation.
Fun fact: a few weeks before the festival I wrote a letter to the organizers asking about the after party, so that we could kill the time until the first morning train back to Hungary. They replied that there would not be after party this year. But later they announced that they organized a free one at a nearby venue. Anyway, we were so tired after the long program that we just ignored it.
