We’re really looking forward to the City for All Camp 2025 in cooperation with St. Marx for All.
Click here for the website of the initiative St. Marx für Alle!
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About a fallow land that’s no longer fallow.

Vienna’s 3rd district, St. Marx, Karl-Farkas-Gasse, right next to the ‘Tangente’: It’s the cheapest public open space in the city of Vienna. No other park in Vienna requires so little active maintenance. Yet this area isn’t truly brownfield. Various clubs, residents, and city dwellers use and shape the area. Especially in light of the challenges ahead, this space can be seen as a free urban planning testing ground. Without the need for a planning office, people are finding ways to collectively create spaces that meet their needs and remain adaptable to accommodate new arrivals. Incidentally, hardly any resources are consumed (apart from a tiny amount of concrete for the skate park). People are learning to create public spaces where caring and togetherness replace profit maximization – simply like that, without planning, in everyday practice. 

But this valuable open space is now finally coming to an end. The Wien Holding AG has chosen the site for the construction of a new event hall and, contrary to public opinion in the district and without any semblance of participatory, transparent planning, plans to build a commercially used mega-event hall. 

The desired audience isn’t arriving by tram, but by plane.

The private-public partnership with the major German corporation CTS Eventim aims to attract international stars to Vienna using the latest event technology and powerful marketing strategies. According to Wien Holding, this is being done for the benefit of Vienna’s event-hungry population. However, with City Councilor for Economic Affairs Peter Hanke and Co. simultaneously emphasizing that they want to assert themselves with a “must-play arena” against event venues in Munich, Hamburg, Bratislava, and London, it quickly becomes clear that the needs of the Viennese population are not the focus of this project.

Rather, it’s about competition in international city competition. The expected audience is unlikely to arrive by tram, but rather by plane (or long-distance public transport). Ticket prices for such mega-events are clearly aimed at higher earners. They advertise exclusivity and VIP experiences, for which the audience pays extra for an upgrade.

Meeting place for neighbors instead of landmark architecture

The hall’s landmark architecture is intended to help residents develop a local identity. However, the neighborhood and the area’s users don’t feel any longing for architectural identity.

Quite the opposite. For the people in the neighborhood, the open space, in its undefined nature and vastness, has very special qualities. It is both a parkland and a sports field. It offers peace, wildness, seclusion, and a distant view. It is a place for shared activities, a place to meet, a place for neighbors. The open space attracts a wide variety of people for a variety of reasons; A quality that few urban spaces have and that is urgently needed in Vienna.
150 million in tax money as a financial injection for a multinational corporation?

On the topic of sustainability and future viability

If one believes City Councilor for Economic Affairs Hanke, the construction project, which is expected to cost half a billion euros, would strengthen the local economy and create jobs. To properly assess this, one would have to look at the value chain in detail. At first glance, however, it is clear that globally operating event companies such as CTS Eventim or its inferior competitor OVG Bristol are trying to keep the entire value chain under their brands – ticket sales are now largely handled online, catering options are offered at exorbitant prices within the venue, and merchandise is unlikely to be produced locally. The business of the surrounding Viennese restaurant operators will not benefit from the Wien Holding Arena.

Regarding the ecological footprint of an event arena, even without the relevant data, it can be said in advance that 1.2 million cups (= planned annual number of visitors) can be produced as ecologically as one wants; the arrival and departure of guests will produce enormous ecological damage, for which neither the event company nor politicians will take responsibility. In the general construction frenzy, it is also naturally forgotten in the public debate that the construction of such a monstrosity itself consumes far more resources than its operation. While the ecological catastrophe is studiously ignored, Vienna’s city government instead boasts about creating precarious jobs.
Quality work, urban planning, and environmental protection look different!

CTS Eventim as a corporation

The Eventim corporation has been sued several times in Germany, including by the Federal Cartel Office and the Consumer Protection Agency. During the coronavirus pandemic, the corporation received over €272 million in coronavirus aid from the German government, while making a profit despite the pandemic. The corporation is also well-known in Austria, as it operates the online ticket sales company OeTicket. The decision to allow this corporation to build the hall means a further expansion of its monopoly-like position and thus further dependence on it for consumers and artists. Fair competition also remains questionable in the procurement process when two bidders apply for a tender, the second and last bidder then sues the first and thus wins the procurement process.

On the topic of Entertainment – ​​Unforgettable Moments in St. Marx

‘Unfortunately’, there are no exclusive offers for wealthy audiences in St. Marx today.

Instead, there will be low-threshold cultural offerings, shared and creative leisure activities for children, young people, adults, and seniors, self-designed community spaces, a skate park, a basketball court, a community garden, flea markets, a circus, and concerts.

If City Councilor Peter Hanke seriously wants to “add an attractive facet to Austria’s rich cultural landscape,” he must abandon the hall project and instead support local cultural initiatives, clubs, collectives, and organized neighbors in their community-oriented activities. Unforgettable moments cannot be created in technologically advanced cabinets of curiosities, but rather arise when people pursue meaningful activities together.

In places that are open to EVERYONE!