One novelty of this year’s VIENNA DESIGN WEEK was the educational format the Beisl Tour. Well-known Meidling faces took visitors on a tour of their favorite ‘Beisl’ or pubs – for where does one get to know a neighborhood better than in its pubs?

On the final day of the festival, the performer Denice Bourbon was able to fulfill a secret wish – by being a city guide for the entire evening. She was invited by VIENNA DESIGN WEEK to lead a tour through her beloved home district of Meidling, enthusiastically sharing personal anecdotes, pointing out courageous shop window designs and well-hidden monuments, and passing on impressively researched historical information about the district while she wandered with her group from bar to bar. The first stop was the first Lady Diana memorial in the German-speaking region, a white marble bust of the princess, whom we toasted in a Meidling park with the help of a stepladder. We had our second drink in and in front of Café Nahid on Meidlinger Hauptstraße, where Denice enthused, in an amiable mix of German and English, about Meidling’s nightlife, local personalities, and such pop-cultural references to the district as the Alkbottle’s cover song “No Sleep Till Meidling” (No Sleep Till Brooklyn, Beastie Boys) and “I wockl durch Meidling” (Walking In Memphis, Marc Cohn). Thanks to the mild autumn evening, the Beisl group enjoyed its final drink in the garden of Willy’s Beisl, where they raised their glasses with the regulars to the sound of a jukebox. Cheers Meidling!