A Visit to the Local Fairs

Photo: Intercolor

In the last couple of months I had the chance to visit four Viennese fairs: Wedding Affairs, Buch Wien, Ferien Messe and Trau Dich. I would like to share some impressions and
I’ll choose a particular order: the fair that I liked most will come first on my list.

Wedding Affairs at MQ, 10 & 11.11.2012, entrance ticket €12

Photo: Wedding Affairs

This fair was the best from all point of views: location, organization, exhibitors, shows, nice surprises for the visitors. I recently covered the beautiful atmosphere in this article.

Ferien Messe, 10-13.02. 2013 entrance ticket €11

Beatrice Gheorghe

A Taste of the Delicious Romanian Magiun

It was a real pleasure to be at the tourism fair! Beatrice Gheorghe, my friend, booked a stand where she presented Romanian food specialities. She invited me and our friend, Manuela Pantea, to enjoy the atmosphere, watch the Romanian shows and check the travel agencies offers. I stayed four hours almost until  closing time! We laughed, chatted, drank Romanian wine and coffee, visited the nice stands and watched the shows from the nearby stage. To my amusement, I couldn’t help but notice that some of the Austrian visitors were reluctant about trying the Romanian delicious foods. To them, Romania could be in Asia, Australia or Africa not 600km away from Vienna! Guess that they don’t know that Transilvania (Siebenbürgen) was actually already since shortly after 1600 under Habsburg rulership. The finaly acquired territory after the Battle of Vienna in 1683 and later under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867-1918).

Trau Dich, 18-20.01 2013 entrance ticket €15,

The weddings fair was exactly what I expected. I don’t wish to express my opinion but I was pleasantly surprised to meet a couple of exhibitors with high quality services: Tanja Putz Paperie,  Radisson Blu Palais Hotel and Wedding Avenue. Hope we will collaborate one day!

Despite I personally had no interest in the majority of the offers; I had a great time together with my friends, Manuela and Beatrice. We got to know new people and fully enjoyed the fashion show, entirely because of the models stage performance.

Tanja Putz

Buch Wien - Internationale Buchmesse, 21-24.11 2013 entrance ticket €7

My friend, Nadia, a real books fan invited me and Claire, our friend, to enjoy a day at this fair. Sadly, it started bad and my good mood changed to the opposite. This fair was a bad experience. Despite my high interest to visit it, I was disappointed and will never consider to visit it again. The exhibition is named International Book Fair and to my understanding it offers international books, at least books printed in the mainly spread languages. But to the organizers understanding, the fair offers some international authors in German translation. As far as I noticed, the Russian stand was the most well prepared with books written in Russian, English and German.

The reason of my initial bad mood was the negative atmosphere created at the fair’s food & drinks lounge.

This is the tea I was offered at the price of €2,90:

The next day I sent a letter of complaint to one of the organizers Nilly Nail and until today I haven’t received an answer:

Mr. Nail, 

I’ve been visiting yesterday the book fair and I would like to complain about your employees cheating methods. Together with a friend I went to the coffee place besides the entrance. My friend ordered a melange (€3,80) that came in a medium espresso cup (one size smaller than for a melange) and I ordered a tea (€2,90). My tea was sold in a half quantity of a paper cup. I asked the employee to add  water and he refused. After I insisted, he called his supervisor, o blonde woman (around 40 years old) and I also asked her to add at least cold tap water. She shouted at me and kept refusing. When I photographed the sold cup on their bar she started to scream and offend me. 

It might look like a minor issue but it left us with a bitter taste, relating this experience to the Buch Wien. 

I would appreciate if somebody would correct their cheating ways by preventing other visitors to go through a bad experience. I will also make sure to warn my contacts and advice to bring their own drinks & foods rather than paying expensive half sized items. 

Attached are two photos of my almost 3€ tea and the café's exact location. 

Thank you for your time, 

Patricia Vincent