Austria

There can be few events in Europe of such elegance and tradition as the famous Vienna Kaiserball.   What more refined and yet opulent way is there to see in the New Year? Known throughout the world as the highlight of the winter ball season in Vienna, for which it is the curtain-raiser, the Kaiserball takes place in the State Rooms of the Imperial Hofburg Palace in Heldenplatz at the heart of the city.

Some guests, who all attend in traditional formal evening wear, will arrive at the Palace in a traditional fiaker – horse-drawn carriage – to be greeted in the sumptuous Entrance Hall by the historic Imperial Guard.    There is the opportunity of attending the pre-ball dinner, at 7.30 pm, served, in the ornate splendour you would anticipate, by silk-clad waiters.  Alternatively, admission for the Ball itself begins at around 10.00.

After the first cocktails of the evening, guests will ascend the Grand Staircase to be officially welcomed by ‘Emperor Franz Josef and Empress Sisi’, with ladies receiving a small gift from the liveried footmen.    The dancing will take place in the luxuriously appointed State Rooms, with no fewer than ten orchestras providing the music.   At midnight, heralded by the Pummerin bell of nearby St Stephan’s Cathedral, a volley of shots welcomes the New Year, followed, of course, by the Blue Danube Waltz.    Immediately after this, the Viennese Operetta Gala begins in the Grand Festival Hall, with an hour of wonderful song and dance from members of the Vienna State Opera and the Volksopera.

Dancing continues until 3.30 in the morning, and there is a mouthwatering traditional buffet of cold delicacies to nibble away at during the early hours.

Famous as one of Europe’s cultural centres, Vienna is a spectacular city – and at new year it has an extra-special atmosphere.    As well as the usual firework display across the city, there is waltzing throughout the streets – especially along what is known as the Silvester Path.   Of course, on New Year’s Day itself the Vienna Philarmonic Orchestra plays its annual celebratory concert at the Musikverein.

Vienna’s airport, the largest in Austria, is to the south-east and has easy access into the city.   The locals are inordinately proud of their public transport infrastructure, an integrated system of buses, trams and trains.   It is also a destination that has long since been used to accommodating visitors and, as a result, has a wide range of hotels and hostels– both within easy reach of the centre and slightly further afield.

There are several ticket options available for the Vienna Kaiserball.   For example, you can purchase a ticket for the ball along with the four course Gala Dinner, champagne at midnight, luxury buffet later and a table reservation in the Grand Festival Hall.    The basic entrance to the ball itself, with a glass of sparkling wine at midnight and no reserved seat in the main hall is likely to be the cheapest choice.   Details of these tickets, along with further useful information, can be found on the Vienna Kaiserball website.   You will also be able to find many holiday companies and hotels in Vienna which offer packages of room and ball tickets combined.

If you are a fan of dancing and decadence, in a truly unforgettable setting, then a trip to the Vienna Kaiserball could be a gloriously unique way to start a new year.

The Vienna International Dance Festival (or Vienna ImpulsTanz) is a five-week intensive contemporary dance festival which takes place every year in Vienna, Austria. Thousands of professional dancers, dance teachers and choreographers attend this festival each year, with over 40 productions in ten theatres held over these five weeks, and over 80 workshops in contemporary dance, modern dance, ballet, improvisation, repertoire and composition, Butoh, jazz, hiphop, world dance, and theory, as well as coaching sessions with budding choreographers.

The festival began in 1984 when Vienna’s cultural manager Karl Regenburger and choreographer Ismael Ivo launched the Internationale Tanzwochen Wien (International Dance Week Vienna), with over twenty workshops offered by six teachers for a week.  In 1988, the organizers decided it was high time to infuse a performance element to the workshop festival and the event came to be known as the ImPulsTanz Vienna International Dance Festival, pioneered with works by Wim Vandekeybus, Marie Chouinard and Mark Tompkins.

Currently, the festival has several components aside from performance and workshop, most notably a research aspect including the CoachingProject, where new choreographers are being mentored by older, more experienced professionals, the ProSeries, for professional choreographers to further explore philosophies and processes, and the Choreographers’ Venture, which is a group project with a facilitator, meant to explore new concepts and collaborations. Another aspect of the festival is the danceWEB Europe, a scholarship programme which has, since 1996, offered over 650 young dance artists from all over the world the opportunity to enjoy the full benefits of the Vienna ImpulsTanz Festival for free.

Aside from all these programs for professional dancers and choreographers, ImpulsTanz is also directed to beginning dancers. There are several levels available among the offered workshops, and workshop classes are tagged as either open for all levels, or particularly tagged for beginning, intermediate, advanced and advanced* levels. Beginning levels workshop classes offer mainly basic knowledge and practice, and do not require previous dance experience. Performances may charge between 7 to 70 euros, depending on who is performing.

ImpulsTanz happens every summer in Vienna, with final schedules for that year announced as early as March on the official Impulstanz Festival website. Scholarship hopefuls should begin looking for information at the danceWEB Europe website by September of the previous year, as scholarship applications close in January of the year of the festival.

Participation in workshops may be booked by workshop, with special fees for packages of workshops. Participants are also required to pay a one-time registration fee. There are discounts for young practicing professionals, Golden Age participants, Youth and Kids. Online reservation of workshops usually begins in May.

Most of the ImpulsTanz workshops will be held at the Arsenal, Burgtheater-Probebühnen

The Salzburg Festival of Music and Drama has firmly established itself as one of the most prestigious annual world musical events.   Originally established in 1877 but then completely revitalised after World War I by such luminaries as Richard Strauss and Max Reinhardt, this mammoth 5 weeks festival has become, for many, the highlight of the summer.

As the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Salzburg has always naturally focussed on the great composer’s works but the Festival itself takes great pride from its dedicated commitment to our entire classical heritage.   Consequently, each summer – from the end of July and continuing throughout August – about 170 different performances take place in front of about a quarter of a million spectators.   The area at the foot of the Mönchsberg district – a hilly, wooded area covered by a picturesque park with great panoramic views over the city – becomes Festival District for the whole of the five weeks, housing some highly impressive venues.

The imposing, 2177 seat Festival Hall, inaugurated by von Karajan in 1960, is the location of many operas and headline concerts.   The House for Mozart, part of the Festival Hall complex, seats almost 1500 and was opened as recently as 2006.   The open-air Rocky Riding School (Felsenreitschule) is by far the oldest theatre used by the Festival.   Constructed more than 300 years ago, and with a superb 700 square metre fresco in the foyer, and seating more than 1500 people, the Riding School is a breathtaking place to be enthralled by quality operatic or theatrical performances.

As well as these main venues, the wonderful setting of Cathedral Square is frequently adopted by the Festival – especially for the famous and traditional ‘Everyman’ performances.   The Landestheater, the Large Hall of the Mozarteum and the University Church also host various productions.

The traditional Salzburg Festival has in recent years been joined by its ‘young cousin’, the Salzburg Whitsun Festival (Pfingstfestspiele) which offers music lovers  a long weekend of both operas and works taken from the baroque orchestral repertoire.

Salzburg is a wonderfully preserved city, with internationally recognised baroque architecture at its heart, but also, having three universities, it has a lively, exciting atmosphere of its own.   It certainly is a wonderful setting to host such an esteemed event as the Salzburg Festival of Music and Drama.

The city is also, perhaps a little belatedly and reluctantly, beginning to market its connections with the von Trapp family and film of The Sound of Music and there are opportunities to take tours of locations used.

Flying to Salzburg has become more common during recent years because low cost airlines such as easyJet, RyanAir, Jet2.com all now have scheduled flights to the modern W.A.Mozart Airport, which is connected directly to the city centre by, amongst other things, the line 2 trolleybus. As well as being accessible by plane, there are extremely good rail connections with the city and, once you have arrived, there is a splendid bus and trolleybus system to get you around.

In the city itself, there are many fine hotels – there is a Best Western opposite the Mirabell Palace and a Radisson as well as some wonderful old hotels in and around the centre.   There are also many smaller hostels as well as four good camp sites around the city.   Information about all of these can be taken from the Salzburg Tourist Board website.

There is an official Salzburg Festival website where you can receive all the latest details about the performances scheduled for the next Festival.   Those wishing to purchase tickets are advised to make their applications before the January of the year in which they wish to attend – precise details are given on the site – and there are various subscription possibilities available.

The Donauinselfest, or the Danube Island Festival as it is more commonly known in English, is perhaps Europe’s biggest outdoor music event – it’s certainly Europe’s largest annual free festival.  Taking place in Vienna over three days at the end of June, more than 2,000 musicians perform on no less than 19 stages on these islands in the River Danube – or Donau, to the local Viennese.  No wonder as many as 3 million people flock to Vienna for this annual celebration, which held its 25th anniversary in 2008.

Like all the best festivals, Donauinselfest is an enticing melange of live music and dancing, varied food and drink outlets and totally off the wall entertainment.   Many of the venues are open air, although there are numerous tented areas dotted around the island.   And, at 20 kilometres in length and between 70 and 210 metres wide, the Danube Island can’t be beaten as a festival site, attracting visitors from around the world and then providing them with both well-known artists as well as those looking to break through.

The music on offer ranges ranges from pop to rock and jazz and hip hop and there are many local bands playing alongside world-famous international acts.   Groups such as The Backstreet Boys and Simple Minds have been amongst past headline acts here.The food kiosks located all around the festival site include Austrian, Greek, Italian, Indian, Thai and Turkish foods – as well as the ubiquitous burger bars – but vegetarians are also always well catered for.

There are a number of useful Information Kiosks, in addition to stalls selling souvenirs and craft objects.The Donauinsel islands were actually man-made between 1972 and 1988 with the main purpose of improving Vienna’s anti-flooding measures.   The whole area, though, has evolved into a recreational paradise.   Throughout the year, the Donauinsel is a green haven for the people of Vienna, with its bars, restaurants, skating tracks and there is even a water ski lift.

There is a fabulous beach that the locals regard so highly they know it as CopaKagrana – Kagrana being the district of Vienna in which it is to be found.  And for lovers of naturism, there is a section where nude sunbathing is permissible.However, at the end of every third week in June, it is taken over by the festival, which becomes just one gigantic three day party.

Bearing mind the huge numbers of people who flock to Vienna for the festival, visitors need to reserve any accommodation well in advance, as hotels around the city become completely full at festival time.   If you’re interested in camping near the festival site, then please note that only official camping is permitted but there are three camp-sites at Vienna West, South and Neue Donau.

It is then easy to travel to the site of the festival on the underground system, heading for the Donauinsel station.The full programme of events is usually available on the official Danube Island Festival website from around the middle of May.

Even though music and dance festivals are now regular features of many European countries, the Vienna festival has managed to maintain its pre-eminent position. A five-week programme of over 200 performances of music, dance, theatre and the visual arts is the highlight of Vienna’s cultural calendar and, for many visitors, an annual delight to be long anticipated. Taking place during May and June, the Vienna Festival is a wonderful beginning to the Austrian summer.

It was in 1927 that the first Viennese Festival Weeks took place but it was in 1951, when the city was still occupied by the four allied forces, that the Festival really began to establish itself. Now, the traditional free opening concert – held in front of the Town Hall on Rathausplatz and formally opened by a stunning Werner Pirchner fanfare– is known throughout the world.

One of the undoubted strengths of the Vienna Festival is the variety of artistic expertise that is presented each year. In 2009, for example, performers came to Vienna from 28 different countries and there were some stunning productions. Ranging from high profile productions of world-renown operas, plays and orchestral pieces to major exhibitions and absorbing film retrospectives, the 14 different venues are sure to sell out for every performance. The musical programme is divided into four categories – Classical, Modern, Jazz and World Music – and the performing arts side of the festival has everything from classical stage productions to up-to-the-minute exhibitions of installation art and video performances.

Two recent innovations in the Festival programme include Festwochen jugendFREI and Into the City. The former is a series of activities designed for young people of 12 years old and upwards to stimulate their interest in theatre. Into the City is a programme initiated in 2006 that is radically different to anything else the Vienna Festival has to offer. Aiming at the younger, urban inhabitants of the city, it offers themed weekends of music and art.

An enduring quality of the Vienna Festival is that some of its venues are amongst the most beautiful buildings in a beautiful city. The Theater an der Wien, for example, is a building from 1801 that, after several years neglect, became a full-time Opera House in 2006, to commemorate Mozart’s 250th anniversary. Perhaps even more impressive is the recently renovated Konzerthaus, with four concert halls including the largest, the 1840 seat Grober Saal. The Burgtheater, or Imperial Court Theatre, is a fabulously imposing building with a wonderful reputation. Pride of place, though, undoubtedly goes to the Vienna State Opera House, the Opernhaus, a Renaissance style building from the 1860s and one of the busiest Opera Houses in Europe. With venues like this and a programme to match, it is little wonder that the Vienna Festival has become such a worldwide attraction.

Vienna has a very pleasant summer climate – it’s seldom too hot and has only a moderate amount of rain. It is, therefore, a perfect place for a visit during May or June. The airport, just to the south-east of the city, is Austria’s largest and, once you are in the city itself, the public transport system – trams, trains and buses – is one of the best you’ll ever come across anywhere in the world. There are, as would be expected, hotels, hostels and self-catering apartments available and many websites offering good deals. Vienna additionally has a host of superb camp sites for visitors – look at Camping Wien West and Camping Wien Sud, for example. Both of these sites not only have first class facilities but are also within easy reach of the city centre by public transport.

One of Europe’s most thriving cultural capitals, Vienna is a city full of spectacular squares, imposing palaces, echoes of some of the world’s most famous composers and yet also completely contemporary. A city to enjoy; especially at the time of the incomparable Vienna Festival.

More information about the programme can be found on the official Vienna Festival website which also has full details of how to purchase tickets.

Festivals in Austria consist not only of the elegant and prestigious musical events in Salzburg and Vienna that are known throughout the world – significant though they are.   In Austria you will also find modern music festivals to rival any other country in Europe, as befits one of its wealthiest countries. Long known as one of Europe’s most beautiful countries, with a selection of architecturally stunning cities, Austria is also regarded as one of the cultural centres of the continent; and this is reflected in the number of wonderful Austrian festivals to be found in the calendar.

For many years now, more than a billion people have shared, on their television screens, their New Year celebrations with the people of Vienna at the Vienna New Year’s Concert from the majestic Musikverein on the morning of January 1st.  New Year is a spectacular occasion in Austria’s  calendar, and celebrations take place throughout the country.   Vienna, of course, is very much at the centre of these celebrations with attractions as diverse as waltzing in the city’s streets and extravagant firework displays.    The famous Vienna Kaiserball, a sumptuous and ornate ball in the State Rooms of the Imperial Hofburg Palace would be, perhaps, one of the most elegant ways greet the coming year.

Austria, throughout the entire year, has many captivating balls, with Carnival (Fasching) and Corpus Christi having their own masked processions and dances.    The famous Vienna Ball Season, with more than 150 public balls in total, including the prestigious Opera Ball, Imperial Ball and Philharmoniker Ball, offers visitors to the world’s musical capital city, a truly stylish and unforgettable experience.

Vienna prides itself on its own special Festival during May and June, which has drama, opera and concert recitals for all ages, and there is also the highly regarded Vienna Jazz Festival at the end of July.

Salzburg is known throughout the world as both the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and also as home of the highly regarded Salzburg Festival of Music and Drama, established as long ago as 1877.    For five glorious summer weeks, the very best musicians perform in front of about a quarter of a million spectators in this wonderful celebration of classical music.    During recent years, the Salzburg Whitsun Festival has emerged on to the scene, offering a weekend of high class opera and orchestral performances.

Although nowhere near as well-known as the two previous Austrian festivals, the Tirol Easter Festival and the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music, held every July and August, both have won great acclaim for the quality of their respective programmes.

Not all Austrian festivals of music are quite so ‘highbrow’, however.   Indeed, probably the largest free festival in Europe, Donauinselfest, takes place on islands in the middle of the River Danube in Vienna every June.    With everything from pop to rock, and jazz to hip hop, and more than 2,000 musicians on the 19 different stages, it’s little wonder that this is such a popular gathering.

And finally, for something completely different, why not consider the European Body Painting Festival, in Seeboden, where people from at least 40 countries gather to participate in this colourful and fun-filled event.

Austria is a spectacular country to visit – with stunning natural scenery (half the country is dominated by the Alps, after all) and some architecturally enchanting cities.   Add to this, the variety of fascinating festivals in Austria and it’s certainly a place worthy of the greatest consideration.