The traditional national holiday exhibition of the armed forces on Heldenplatz in Vienna will not take place this year either, but the military has at least virtually upgraded. Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner announced on Monday some highlights in the run-up to the celebrations and also for the day itself. As usual, the official program items will be broadcast by ORF.
Also this year there is no event with thousands of visitors and guided tours through ministries and parliament due to the corona pandemic, but the military is marching virtually. Interested parties can already fly a Eurofighter on an online platform until October 27, fight as a Jagdkommando soldier or extinguish a forest fire as a helicopter pilot, as Federal Army spokesman Michael Bauer announced on Twitter.
If you upload a photo of yourself to the website nationalfeiertag21.at, you can also help decontaminate a vehicle as an ABC soldier or defend Austria from a tank. If you share a video of your “mission” on social networks, you can win real little adventures with the armed forces.
Visitors can also take a virtual tour of Heldenplatz or Ballhausplatz on the website in the run-up to the national holiday – and sit in the cockpit of a Eurofighter.
Eurofighter and Hercules over Heldenplatz
The approximately three-hour live broadcast by ORF on the national holiday itself includes the laying of wreaths by Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen and the federal government at the Outer Burgtor and the swearing-in of 100 recruits at Heldenplatz. Then two Eurofighters and a Hercules transport aircraft are to fly over Heldenplatz, four parachutists want to land on Heldenplatz. A live connection is planned in a Eurofighter cockpit. Something similar had been planned last year, but the weather hadn’t played along.
“I appeal to you not to come to Heldenplatz”
“We are looking forward to an exciting and interesting event,” said Defense Minister Tanner (ÖVP), who wants to stick to the hybrid format in the future, at a press conference on Heldenplatz. Last year the event had an “unbelievable range”. The Viennese military commander Kurt Wagner appealed to the population not to come to Heldenplatz, but to follow the event from home.