Although the boys have never visited Austria, there are lots of Directioners there. Fans’ messages on Twitter have trended worldwide; they tweeted ‘Gotta be Austria’ and it was tweeted thousands of times by all the fans in the country because they want 1D to visit them so much. Austrian fans often do joint events with fans from their neighbouring country, Germany. They meet up to discuss the boys, make posters and dance together.
For the Bring Me to 1D contest, Austrian fans had to take a photo of themselves in their favourite place in Austria and mix in something to do with 1D. A thousand fans entered but there could only be one winner – and that was 16-year-old Victoria from Korneuburg. She made a life-size cardboard phone box with her friends, who would each be playing one of the boys in the photograph. Victoria received a Go1Den ticket, which would take her, a friend and her mum to meet the boys in New York!
Victoria says, ‘When I found out about the competition, I thought, “That’s my only chance to see my favourite band in the whole world so I really have to win this thing.” I recruited my four best friends at school to help me and together we came up with the idea of making a life-size telephone box out of wood, but that was too expensive so we made it out of cardboard. After days of planning, calculating and figuring out who was going to make which part of the telephone box, we had to take the different pieces on the underground in Vienna; people stared at us as if we were aliens. We finally built the telephone box in a small village outside Vienna. Afterwards we took the picture, with us wearing traditional Austrian dresses, which are called Dirlds. We chose to be under/on a tree because we love to be outside. We had lots of fun taking pictures.
‘I entered the best photo into the competition and then had to wait weeks before I found out whether I had won. When I got the call saying, “You have won the golden ticket and you are going to fly to New York to see One Direction,” I started to scream/jump through the whole flat. I couldn’t believe it and my whole body started to shake in shock.
‘The hardest thing was that only one friend could come with me and we had all worked so hard on the project together. In the end, the fairest way was to pick a name from random, so Sonja was chosen (she plays Zayn in the picture).’
Victoria and Sonja loved their whole trip to New York but the highlight was obviously getting to spend some time in private with the boys. ‘As we walked in, Harry pointed at me and said my name (I know that someone said that there is a Victoria from Austria coming, but still he pointed at me and not Sonja, even though he just heard the name),’ Victoria recalls. ‘Then I showed them the picture and he said he could remember it and that it was amazing. Harry asked me if I liked the concert … it was just awesome. I even got my book about my BM21D experience signed.
‘The only thing I didn’t do was hug them. I’m not sure if it was a good thing or not. On the one hand, I think it was good because they have to hug all of their fans and I don’t think it’s that much fun to hug strangers all the time (especially when you have a girlfriend), and it also meant I had more time to really talk to them. On the other hand, I surely won’t have a second chance to get a Horan hug or even touch them. But, anyway, it was just awesome and I loved how Zayn kept smiling at me. I’m proud of myself because I didn’t cry and I think it was good for the boys to see a normal girl who just wanted to talk. The whole day was just amazing. They gave us, like, a little private concert and answered a lot of questions. They even answered ours (“What would you do if you could travel in time and where would you go?” – Liam said, “Back to Madison Square Garden,” Zayn, “To the future,” Harry, “To Egypt to see how the pyramids were built.”). In the end we even got to see the new “Kiss You” video, which, by the way, is my favourite.’
To see a video clip of Victoria meeting the boys in New York, search on YouTube for ‘One Direction – BM21D – Austria’.
Martina is 15 and from Styria. She has been a Directioner for just over a year. She hasn’t got a favourite song, she’s got 15: ‘Moments’, ‘Everything About You’, ‘Stole My Heart’, ‘Taken’, ‘More Than This’, ‘Same Mistakes’, ‘Rock Me’, ‘Summer Love’, ‘She’s Not Afraid’, ‘I Would’, ‘Still The One’, ‘Heart Attack’, ‘Little Things’, ‘Irresistible’ and ‘I Should’ve Kissed You’.
Martina explains, ‘They have had so much of an effect on my life. They make me feel loved and happy. I know I am just one of millions of people who love them for who they are but every time I see a picture or a video of them, I am so proud of them and it makes me smile.
‘If I ever get the opportunity to meet them, I will say a big thank you to them. I am so grateful for the friendships I have made with other Directioners, because we’re a family.’
Martina and her friends took part in a flash mob and hope that one day the boys will visit their beautiful country. The flash mob was held on 10 November 2012 and took part in different parts of Austria, including Vienna, Carinthia, Lower Austria and Tyrol. To see the video just search for ‘Live While We’re Young Flashmob Austria’ on YouTube. The Austrian fans also organised a fan event in Vienna in May 2012 and hope to hold more meetings in the future.