Working Class Festival

St. Pölten, like many other European cities, has undergone a transformation process from a classic working class city to a city of education and culture. The entire development of the city is closely linked to companies such as Glanzstoff, Voith, the main workshop of ÖBB railway or Harlander Coats. The recruitment of guest workers, especially from Turkey, the former Yugoslavia and Tunisia, from the mid-1960s onwards, has shaped the structure and culture of the city. 

What of these traditions is still relevant today and which new forms can be discovered and experienced? Proud history and an uncertain future are represented in the “Working Class Festival”. For two days, the Tangente will bring together lectures, exhibitions, performances and concerts of different genres on the topics of the world of work, the workers’ movement and guest workers at various locations in St. Pölten. Starting at the Arbeiterkammer, at the Freiraum, the “Working Class Festival” moves into the public space of the city centre on the second day and ends at the annual “Höfefest” (courtyards festival) in and around the festival centre in Linzer Straße. 

Esra Özmen is an Austrian artist and rapper from Vienna-Ottakring. In her rap she describes herself as the granddaughter of guest workers.  

Thomas Kern is a musician, DJ, organiser and cultural worker born in St. Pölten. One of his favourite quotes is: “Without the work of the individual, the economy is nothing.”