HOSI Salzburg runs its punch stand on the Alter Markt, right next to the oldest Christmas market in Europe. No pink market on the outskirts, no parallel event — the community has its place at the same table. Why the trip to Salzburg is worth it.
It is the last Thursday in November, just after three. On the Alter Markt a few volunteers fold open the shutters of a wooden stand, hang up a rainbow flag and set the first cauldron of punch on the fire. What happens next is remarkably unspectacular: people come, drink, talk. That is exactly the point.
For 21 years HOSI Salzburg has run this stand in the middle of the old town. Among crib carvers, gingerbread hearts and tower trumpeters, the rainbow simply sits at the same table — and that is the real punchline of the story. “Faith and tradition on one side, queer life and openness on the other — the two can go hand in hand,” says Conny Felice, managing director of HOSI Salzburg.
Salzburg’s Christmas market is one of the oldest in Europe. Its forerunner, the Tandlmarkt, is documented on Domplatz in the late 15th century; in the 17th century the Nikolaimarkt was named in the same breath as Vienna, Paris, Amsterdam and Nuremberg. In its present form the market has existed since 1974: around a hundred stalls, and above them a light installation hanging like a starry sky.
Anyone staying longer finds more than mulled wine. In the Volksgarten the Winterfest puts up its theatre tent, a festival of contemporary circus with international companies. Out at Hellbrunn, 700 trees and 10,000 red baubles transform the palace park. The façade becomes an Advent calendar with 24 windows. And in the Grosses Festspielhaus the Salzburger Adventsingen celebrates its 80th edition.
In the evening nothing is far. The scene sits compactly in the Andräviertel, a few minutes from the market. The HOSI bar opens on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, the bar and club Mexxx counts as a fixed star of the city, and the Dark Eagle has Salzburg’s only darkroom.
On Saturday 5 December there is the monthly queer city tour in the morning and, in the evening, the last HOSI party of the year — the biggest queer clubbing night in the Salzburg region. From 9 to 11 December HOSI is at the Alter Markt with its punch stand, on 18 December the fetish scene meets, and on 20 December there is the festive Sexy Sunday Afternoon, both at the Dark Eagle. Current information on queer Salzburg: queersalzburg.at
Salzburg in Advent
Photos: Tourismus Salzburg GmbH, HOSI Salzburg
