Confusion Is Next is the title of a song by Sonic Youth from 1983. In 2025, the 20th year of donaufestival in its present form, paranoia, suspicion, outrage, and disinformation jungles thrive in the Need for Chaos. Donald Trump and Elon Musk are not just disruptive troublemakers who want to provide a  post-liberal response to the alleged rule of wokeness. Europe is being declared the enemy, US democracy is threatening to turn into an imperial presidency. The assessment of the situation in the Middle East divides the political camps and artistic milieus. In Germany, Carolin Amlinger and Oliver Nachtwey have identified a "libertarian authoritarianism" that has been able to thrive on the feeling of "violated freedom". This gives rise to cross-fronts between alternative and right-wing state allergists, flexible fascisms and sometimes curious attributions of opposition. Is this also following subversive plans in Europe and what part do inflammatory algorithms play in this? 

In the documentary Schwester Courage by Kollektiv ZUGANG at this edition of donaufestival, a demonstration against coronavirus measures in Berlin is pitted against a counter-demo. The counter-demo chants: “You’re marching with Nazis!” Outraged demonstrators reply: “You’re the Nazis!” In a conversation with Elon Musk, AFD leader Alice Weidel declares Hitler a leftist. Historian Timothy Snyder calls Putin a schizo-fascist because he masks the Russian invasion as a campaign against fascism. 

Nothing is right, anything goes. Are we slowly going mad, and what’s up with the others? 

In this nebulous state, artists too have turned to tactics of irritation: God’s Entertainment summons us to a dubious Danube doppelganger trip on land, Göksu Kunak’s installation at Kunsthalle Krems exposes the political-mafioso entanglements in Turkey. Regina José Galindo makes a marching band step backwards through Krems, while Jeremy Deller smuggles a message into public space. All the while, river water and tears flow together in Kim Noble’s special birthday podcast for the 20th anniversary of donaufestival. You can chat about this and much more with the artists in our new morning format A drink with...The soundtrack for a world so out of whack is as motley as ever: electronic musician Sega Bodega, known from acts like Arca and FKA twigs, celebrates disorientation. The trio Tristwych Y Fenywod (Welsh for “the suffering of women”) oscillates between alien folk and cobweb electronics. Anna von Hausswolff plays organ music for vampires, Spiritualized dissolve in psychedelic parallel worlds, Kabeaushé bathe in ecstatic softness, while Liturgy cleanses the eardrums. And in their multimedia show, the author duo Georg Seeßlen and Markus Metz examine the fabrication of right-wing political paranoia by stupid machines. 

Confusion was next? Maybe! And then?

Thomas Edlinger
and the donaufestival team
February 2025