Lyoness Seefesttage at Schwarzl See in Graz

I and Dagi headed to Graz around 7 pm, hoping to see Anastacia live. That again was not as safe as we thought as she was stuck in Miami. Over there a hurriacane was going on and the airport was closed and she hardly got a later flight who was an additional 4 hours late. But we were positive that she’d make it in time to the concert! In Mondsee we had a short coffee break but what did we spot at the parking lot? Two "Beat The Street" busses, that had to be a sign!!!
After heavy traffic and short congestion we arrived at Schwarzl See around midnight. It was crowded already and the "Masters of Dirt" were performing reckless jumps on their motorbikes. We started to build our "house", which means Dagi and I decided last-minute to camp in a tent. The weather wasn’t quite perfect for that, but who cares!! We went to "bed" around 2 am, a cold and loud night next to the highway ahead of us.

When we got up on Saturday morning and crawled out of the tent, our Italian friends were already waiting for us on the other side of the fence together with Annika from Holland! After a short shower, we explored the area.  Nothing was blocked and we sat down front row already in the morning! One of technicians seemed to like that, after a phone call he came to us, said he had to send us away for a bit but we definately deserved to be front row. So he would get us wristbands which enabled us to get to front row later and we were able to enjoy the day at the lake!
With the wristbands we went to Joe’s to get breakfast! We spent a comfortable morning with coffee and laughing tears when Federica sang Anastacia songs with a Mickey Mouse voice! In the afternoon we went back to the area and sat down on ale-benches. Unfortunately we couldn’t enjoy the lake itself because of the weather. In one moment the sun was shining, in a another clouds gathered and short rain showers followed.
At 2 pm we were allowed to go to the stage, we met the tour manager Marie there. We had a little gift for her because she helped us a lot organizing Meet&Greets so she deserved it a lot.
In the minute we talked to her, she got the info that Anastacia would land in Graz in a short. Yippay, after all the difficulties and 8 hours of delay she finally managed it to get to the concert! It was more than understandable that Anastacia wanted to sleep before the concert after all that torture.
At 3 pm i had a meeting with Bettina from Lyoness. The fanclub donated 8.000 € and Lyoness topped it up with another 4.000 €. We planned handover of the cheque and had to discuss the details. Dagi and I went back to Joe’s and talked everything through with Bettina  and Nina from Lyoness, who deserve once again a big Thank You for their support!
Unfortunately, just one of us could attend the handover because Anastacia had a few other appointments before the actual show and we only had some minutes to give her the cheque. Because of the flight delay everything got postponed.
When we came back, our friends were once again sent away from the stage, the entrance was a bit chaotic because it got repeated three times. At 5 pm we all made it to the front row and were ready to sprock!
Egon 7 fired the still small crowd up, they are a really talented Austrian coverband with a very good singer! They’ve been followed by Charlee, another Austrian singer, after her Precioso feat. Marvin performed and you can tell that the audience was well warmed up!!! Both of them fired the crowd up and cheered up the audience with songs as "Tell me why", "Let me stay" and "The Riddle"! In the meantime the area got crowded, also the visitors of the "Airpower 2011" came!
At around 9 pm I made my way backstage for the handover of the cheque and I had to tell them that the handing over had to be postponed until the very last minutes before the concert because Anastacia would not arrive before 9.30 pm. So we decided to have a drink together and they asked me what Anastacia is like and if I know her already etc.

At 9.45 pm we went to the wardrobe area and Marie greeted us with kisses and determined in which order we would go in to see Anastacia. I also gave her the presents for Anastacia that I collected from our members! First the two organizers of Lyoness, Hubert Freidl and Klaus Leutgeb, went in and then we followed them with the cheque and the last one was another artist.
When the time came, they told me to go first in the vestibule of her dressing room and i was welcomed by her with kisses and a big grin! I asked her if she got a little sleep after the trouble within the last two days and she groaned and said "Let’s not talk about it anymore"! She was in a good mood but you could tell that she was well tired and didn’t get much sleep within the last couple of days!
Because we had no time to waste, I got onto subject and told her that she already knows that the money was collected by the fanclub to and that we donate it to the Anastacia fund and we wanted to proudly present her the result. The two ladies of Lyoness turned around the cheque and the eyes behind the shades became bigger! In that very moment, I saw Anastacia being speechless for the first time of my life and she hugged me again and said: "Thanks Babs"! While she was still looking at the cheque, i explained to her that the funclub raised 8.000 € and that the other 4.000 € were donated by Lyoness. She hardly could believe it, hugged me again and thanked me again from all her heart!
Prior to the handover we’ve been told that no photos were allowed under any circumstances, I told the organizer that it would be rather smart to at least have at least one photographer because Anastacia surely wanted a picture of the handover! And it was exactly that way, Anastacia herself said that we should take a picture which the four of us eventually did! After that I told her that every single member took part in the raising of that amount of money and this is the result of all the member fees, earnings from the onlineshop and from the sales of her "Survivor Chick" Shirts! She was really happy about it and we had a short chat about future plans and I said that we would keep on supporting the fund. After that we had to leave and she hugged and kissed all of us goodbye! Then the next one was allowed to enter, Raimund Seidl of the Graz art label called "TOP-ART", he gave Anastacia an amazing portrait!
I went back to the front row and thank god, Bettina made sure I could back over the ditch! Everyone grinned when I came back because they knew what happened backstage! Shortly after I arrived the show began!
The band entered the stage and started the intro and a happy and perfect looking Anastacia sang "Why’d you lie to me"! She wore skintight black pants, a black blouse, a jeans jacket and something like a fur jacket! She sprocked and the crowd went crazy right from the start! Already with the second song we recognized that the setlist had changed compared to the one in Sursee because "I can feel you" was in again! During "Sick And Tired" and "Rearview" the audience partied all the way, especially the songs that have been released as single could be sang along by everyone what the audience did in the end. The fifth song was "Cowboys And Kisses" as another entry to the setlist.
After that Anastacia thought she wants to come a little closer to her audience and crawled with her stilettos from the stage onto the bassboxes!!! She stayed there while performing "You’ll never be alone"! When she was back on stage she said she would like to get someone on stage. She let her eyes run over the audience and pointed at Dominik, a member of our fanclub, Anastacia looked at us and said OK! Also Dominik had to find his way on stage over the ditch over the bassboxes! Anastacia said he should try hard as she did the same thing with her stilettos a second ago!
The both of them chatted on stage and Anastacia asked him how old he was. He said he was 17, Anastacia grinned, laid her arm around him and said: "Oh it’s cougar time now"! When Dominik took his camera out from under his hoody and laid it on the floor, Anastacia picked it up and wanted to make a picture! After that little chat, both of them sang "Welcome To My Truth! Until that very moment the mics of the guest singers always had been turned off, it was different this time! Anastacia recognized quickly that Dominik was a good singer and perfectly remembered the lyrics thus you could hear him via his live mic! She also let him sing one verse all by himself! They really had fun together and Anastacia was impressed with his voice! Kudos to Dominik, he mastered that very well and sang amazing! As a farewell gift he got the back of his fanclub shirt signed and three big kisses on his back!
She went on singing "I Call It Love" and hits like "Not That Kind" and "Paid My Dues", the atmosphere was amazing! The program continued with ballads like "Pieces Of A Dream" and "Underground Army". This song is sung live still a very special experience for me! I’ve never seen anybody singing a song so emotional. Anastacia had her eyes closed for almost the entire song!
Now it was time to perform "One Day In Your Life", Anstacia was on the right side of the stage, had her foot on the traverse again and I said she might do another hiking action like during the Lucca concert! But in the end she didn’t, she did change the lyrics into that direction though and sang that she might be a little crazy and break her neck when she would climb up there, but it would be so typical Anastacia. The concert ended once again with "I’m Outta Love" but she did a little encore. As always the band came back and they performed "Heavy Rotation" and "Left Outside Alone"! As per normal the show went by way to fast! As a resume to that concert I can only say: Kudos to that performance!!! Anastacia didn’t sleep much within the last two days, after all that delayed flights and closed airport and the delayed flight to Europe! Performing such a perfect show after that odyssey is an outstanding accomplishment and I can only admire that woman for her professionalism in that situation!!!
After the concert Lyoness made a huge firework for the 8th birthday of their company. Unfortunately some of us already had to leave during that spectacle to avoid the traffic chaos after everything ended! The remaining ones of us made a group picture and went for a drink. At 1.30 am another cold night in the tent was waiting for us and Sunday we went back home! Again another wonderful weekend with the fanily came to an end! But we all know another one will follow!!!