‘Cultural champions’ not expecting Euro heroics

“We are not a footballing nation — we are a winter sport nation,” said Dariusz Hoefer, 47, a city-centre shop owner. Student Christian Hofstadler, 21, agreed. “I guess the Austrian football team is to blame — they have been very weak historically,” he said. The Austrian team are ranked 101st in the world.

But the Austrians say they are determined to impress visitors with what are they are good at — culture — if not their footballing prowess. “We are already the European champions of culture,” smiled author Reinhard Prenn, organiser of a football and literature festival for Austria and its immediate neighbours.

A fan zone accommodating up to 70,000 visitors is taking shape in the historic heart of the city, nestled between theatres, squares and prestigious museums — in an attempt to introduce fans to Vienna’s cultural heritage.

The Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Vienna boys’ choir and Austrian pop singer Christina Stuermer will open the fan zone, with rousing classics such as Johann Strauss’ Tritsch-Tratsch Polka on the programme. There are many sceptics. “The soccer fans will have a Bratwurst and a beer — they are hardly going to go to a fancy restaurant, a Mozart opera or a theatre play,” said Hoefer. “They should have put the fan zone on the Danube island,” he said, referring to an uninhabited location outside the city centre.

Vienna’s Burgtheatre, finding itself right next to the giant fan zone has even decided to shut down for a month. “Due to the fan zone, the Burgtheatre will be closed from June 4 until the end of the season,” reads a blunt notice on the theatre’s web site. According to Austrian media, the theatre’s director Klaus Bachler said it was a “cultural disgrace”.

Excitement stirs

In a recent survey of 1,000 Austrians by market research institute Spectra, 37 percent said they had “absolutely no interest” in the football tournament, almost twice as many as those who were “very interested”.

But Georg Wagner, working at a souvenir shop insisted his range of Austrian flags, fan scarves, and football trinkets were beginning to sell. “Anything Gustav Klimt-related is always very popular of course,” he said, pointing at plates, glasses, ash trays and t-shirts.