How it all began -
The story of the öKlo
It actually started a loooong time ago, in primary school to be precise. That’s when Reinhard, Christian and Niko got to know each other. We weren’t actually that good friends back then, although we were all outsiders in our own way. Christian and Reini had older brothers, Niko had moved to the country and was more or less the foreigner, mainly because of his name.
Apart from school, there were always moments that brought us together. This was probably due to the incredible lack of opportunities for children and young people in Schrick and the surrounding area – where we grew up. We were at the local soccer club, but we also tried our hand at other clubs with varying degrees of success.
We were good at ice hockey, but this fun was only possible in winter and therefore not all year round.
The first liberation came with the mopeds. During this time, we became inseparable, did a lot of things together and realized that our interests were very close in many ways.
Shortly after we got our driver’s license, we got our first VW bus, which we named Andrä. The name comes from the first time our car broke down near St. Andrä in Lavanttal, where we ran out of diesel. From that time on, we weren’t really friends anymore, we were allies, like brothers.
Tinkering with the bus to get it ready for the next festival was our only purpose in life for a while. Those were also the festivals where we first came into contact with the horrible portable toilets.
We were always proud back then if we could go three days without a toilet. But when we drove home, we always talked anxiously about our first visit to the toilet at home.
We didn’t remain mere visitors to such festivals for long. We loved the music and we wanted to be a part of it. But not – as you might imagine now – as a band.
We built a sound system and founded Shalamanda HiFi. That was a huge milestone on our journey together.
We gained our first experiences with the music business – which is only partially different from the “real” business – and that internationally, which perhaps also needed to be said at this point. We’ve been to the East, the North, the South and the West and have experienced a lot together – both positive and negative.
Incidentally, Phillip and Denis joined us during this time, as did a few others. This enriched our community so much that we didn’t want to miss them. We always got through everything together, which made us insanely strong as a group and built up a trust that remains unshakeable to this day.
We liked the music and their special lifestyle so much that we decided to organize our own festival in Austria. Our Rise & Shine Festival has been running for seven years and has become a permanent fixture in the Austrian cultural landscape during this time.
Unfortunately, the festival no longer exists since we started renting out toilets, which is due to a lack of time. We now work for ourselves all the time and have other responsibilities as well.
Our own festival was another milestone where we really learned a lot. We had 1500 visitors in one day and that was without live bands or a stage.
The focus was clearly on culture and workshops. The whole festival was very sustainable. There was no meat, no plastic, the food came from a radius of five kilometers, everything was built from hemp rope, cotton and spruce wood, naturally reusable and still stored today.
And then every year there were these smelly plastic crates. We ourselves had to go to these toilets for three weeks at a time, as we had no alternative the whole time we were setting up and dismantling. That was a real thorn in our side and in our noses.
Last year we tried out a new concept with composting toilets for the first time. We were already familiar with such toilets from Germany, France and other festivals we had played at. This last year there was a really strange development. People were no longer talking about the festival program and the location and how beautiful and sustainable everything is, as usual – they were talking about the toilets, all of them! – including the artists.
It was pretty annoying at first. We had put a lot of effort into everything, but the toilets were apparently the only thing that stood out. After a few “reasonings”, it quickly became clear that we weren’t going to develop the festival further, but that we were going to take care of the toilets ourselves. We didn’t actually want to, but we simply started with the eco toilets.
We would never have dreamed that a few months later we would be on ORF and puls4 and land an investor named Hans Peter Haselsteiner. We can really look back on a very nice and successful company launch. But it must also be said that it was extremely hard and not always easy, which also put our friendship to a new test.
There are many advantages to starting a company with friends, but there are also disadvantages. One of our friends realized that self-employment wasn’t the right thing for him.
We now have 18 employees, 200 toilets, a product range of eight products and a new website and online store as well as a new vision. Of course, we are very happy how the project has taken off, and now it is our turn to secure this project and all those who are now involved.
The journey so far has been long, but we don’t think this is the end. We want to realize our vision and offer toilets that save water, smell good and help return nutrients that are at the end of our waste recycling chain back into nature. However, this requires a modern, legal basis that allows this.
