The Wiener Festwochen | Freie Republik Wien 2024 were „the most exciting thing that theatre currently has to offer,“ (Die Welt) and „’an institutional revolution’ that no other festival in Europe has delivered.“ (AFP)

The festival achieved an uptake of 96% and had around 100,000 visitors to artistic projects, discourse and workshop formats and the exhibition in the Kunsthalle.

There were around 430,000 views on the streaming of A Speech to Europe and the Vienna Trials as well as the televised transmission of the opening ceremony. The Wiener Festwochen reached another 1.5 mio. users via their own social media channels. The demand for U30 tickets rose to around 5,000, an increase of 20 percent on the previous year.

Structural change and the democratisation of the festival were furthered by the committed work of the Council of the Republic, culminating in the Vienna Declaration. This was adopted in the House of the Republic, the festival center in The Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art in cooperation with the Klima Biennale Wien.

The Academy Second Modernism, the womxn composers platform of the Wiener Festwochen, brought over fifty representatives of international music promoters and ensembles together in order to kick off systematic change in the music business, as the New York Times and others reported.

More than 2,800 media reports have appeared in 25 countries worldwide, including the New York Times, Stage Raw, The Stage, AFP, De Standaard, Delo Daily, NZZ, SRF, FAZ, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Zeit, Die Welt, taz, Nachtkritik and Deutschlandfunk.

‘An institutional revolution” that no other festival in Europe has delivered.’ (AFP)

‘It’s the most exciting thing theatre currently has on offer.’ (Die Welt)

‘Today, the Swiss Milo Rau and the Austrian Florentina Holzinger are the world‘s most important directors.’ (DIE ZEIT)

‘Frustrated by the stubborn gender imbalances in classical music, the directors of the Wiener Festwochen, a prestigious arts festival in Vienna, have this year formed the “Academy Second Modernism”, an initiative that will showcase works by 50 female and nonbinary composers over five years.’ (New York Times)

‘The range of international productions is wild and colourful.’ (NZZ)

‘This is Milo Rau‘s first year as artistic director of Wiener Festwochen and he has plans to shake things up.’ (The Stage)

‘The artistic director from Switzerland has enthusiastic admirers and profound adversaries; he seems to leave no-one indifferent, which is definitely an advantage.’ (FAZ)

‘The trials and the invention of the theatre republic have made the Festwochen the talk of the town throughout Vienna.’ (Süddeutsche Zeitung)

‘That’s what I like about Milo, there’s no fear of a certain kind of provocation. Vienna isn’t a city that you have to treat with kid gloves.’ (Florentina Holzinger, Art Basel Magazine)

‘Next to the conventional production programme, sovereign institutions and insignia are thus replicated into an allegory within the superstructure of a Baroque global theatre that is expanded further via media.’ (taz)

‘Theatre-maker Milo Rau wants to start a minor punk revolution in Vienna: “We need to hack the system”’ (De Standaard)

‘These five weeks did not present a solution, but they raised a remarkable number of people in the saturated city of Vienna from their slumber.’ (Nachtkritik)

‘Milo Rau’s Wiener Festwochen — a crossover festival with a tough political agenda. The response is enormous in the media and beyond.’ (SRF)

‘There is a certain attraction in the idea of staging an entire city.’ (Die Presse)

‘The guiding principles that had been proclaimed in advance turned out not to be mere empty words for publicity effects, but were actually honoured in many respects.’ (APA)

‘The festival’s corporate identity as politically revolutionary terrain has paid off.’ (Der Standard)