HvG: I've always seen myself in the role of host with this project. A host who on these journeys was always ready for mischief, just like the artists who came onto the boat with us with wide open ears and senses. They all inspired us a great deal, because from the very first moment they revealed to us how big and unique what we were doing was. After a few weeks on the ship you forget what an incredibly wonderful and exceptional circumstance it is in which you are living. The guests refreshed this appreciation time and again. It took five minutes on the ship at most before everyone's eyes lit up.

Now these journeys are happening in a compressed form as a festival and once more we are entirely letting ourselves in for what the guests will bring with them. The festival only lasts three days, but with the "warm up" rehearsals, it's a week. That is how long the great musicians from the east and west will be congregated in Linz. There are very exotic components, explosive joy in playing, fantastic artists and performers. More than 100 people are coming together in the smallest place and an enormous firework of creativity is going to be ignited.

Philipp Poisel & Band
Germany

He is an unbelievably sensitive, quiet, but all the more intense singer-songwriter from Swabia. Wherever we played, of course we mainly had a Hubert von Goisern audience. Then they were presented with Philipp as opener and he caught everyone from the first songs, without needing to shout, without banging a drum for himself. Philipp is a massage for the soul.

Claudia Koreck & Band
Germany

I got to know her as a young singer-songwriter. She had just released her debut album. She comes from Bavaria and so it was self-evident that she would be on stage with us at one of the "Danube ship concerts" in the Bavarian region. Meanwhile she's released her second album and I'm looking forward to being on stage with her again. Because she's a young woman who lives in the here and now and writes songs that express what young people, who are growing up now, experience and feel. Even though I'm from another generation I find her songs really fascinating.

Karandila
Bulgaria

A party. I'm really looking forward to seeing them again. They were on board with us the longest. They really became a part of our family. Since we spent a lot of time on the river with them and were able to rehearse a lot, we developed a lot of pieces together that we must now freshen up. They're the ones I'm looking forward to seeing the most.

Klaus Doldinger's Passport
Germany

Klaus Doldinger is a very great role model of mine, a great icon, an unbelievable musician and composer who is up to every trick. He exudes an enormous calm and naturalness and then suddenly he lets loose with the wildest things. He has gathered really nice, talented musicians around him. Sincere champs on their instruments. He's still the same old guy musically speaking. That means: jazz rock, lots and lots of influences from the Orient, an exotic groove. He takes you on a journey from which you can't extract yourself.

Loredana Groza
Romania

In Romania people say: she is our Madonna. Whether you like Madonna or not, she's a woman who hasn't had such success for nothing, there's something about her. I've never met Madonna, but I don't think she could be as nice as Loredana. On stage Loredana is a real limelight hog, she comes to life on stage. I saw her at the Linz-Fest three years ago. You first have to manage to put yourself in front of a foreign audience and make yourself inescapable. I take my hat off to her for the way in which she did that.

Haydamaky
Ukraine

A band from the Ukraine, an unusual sound. They sound unique - I think so anyway. Haydamaky have some exceptional musicians among their number. The whole band, the whole music has a very foreign, exotic, a downright melancholic touch that gets under your skin. After I saw them live for the first time, it was clear to me: THEY are exactly what I want.

BAP
Germany

BAP are like an American rock classic. Only the language and the stories that Wolfgang Niedecken tells aren't American, but rather "kölsch". Even if you don't know a BAP number, you still immediately get the feeling that you can sing along. They can do that! There is a relationship. When I first started playing in Germany and the first reviews were published in the papers, everyone was struggling to find an example in order to explain to people what was going on. Again and again the name BAP came up. So I bought one of their CDs to find out with whom I was being compared - and I didn't understand a word. And I thought: Aha, that's what they mean.

Haindling
Germany

Haindling needs as little description as Willi Resetarits. But what characterises Haindling is certainly this elephantine element. It applies to their Bavarian/African elephant grooves, as well as these very special brass sounds. You hear a bar of Haindling – and you know: Haindling. Hans-Jürgen Buchner doesn't even need to sing. He has simply developed his style over the years and decades and the success affirms what he does.

Stelzhamma
Austria

Upper Austria, that's where we're at home. The poet Stelzhamer gave the great description of a village in the Innviertel. "A spire in front, a spire behind and in between clumsy people!" Only someone who lives there can say that. That's how I see Stelzhamma. It's music and a way of playing music that has something very regional about it. And it's funny that the bandleader of Stelzhamma is the bandleader of Russkaja too. I wanted them with us, because they wanted to be there!

Willi Resetarits & Stubnblues
Austria

What can you say about Willi that nobody already knows? Nothing. We began the journey with Willi. He was on board in 2007 when we cast off. If he wasn't with us now I'd have the feeling that we'd lost him and I don't want to go into the last round with that feeling.

Zdob si Zdub
Moldova

Ethno punk. The guys have unbelievable energy. When they let rip it just takes your feet from under you. I feel a great affinity with them too. On the one hand they're good friends with tradition. And on the other there's also something riotous and unadjusted about them. They're a good example of the individualness and authenticity I wanted with all the guests.

Konstantin Wecker & Spring String Quartett
Germany/Austria

Wecker is a storyteller and a singing poet. You can see Wecker in Vienna at least once a year: but what happens when we play together and stand on stage together (and develop a programme, as will be the case here) then it's something quite different. Something really exceptional arises. The way Wecker sings and plays when he plays with us only happens when he plays with us.