Vienna Festival 2026

The Vienna Festival celebrated its 75th anniversary, with over 197,342 people joining in the celebrations. Thank you for visiting the REPUBLIC OF GODS!
We had 35 venues across the city, 13 plays celebrated their world premieres at the festival, and the fiery heart of the Republic beat at the festival centre on the Badeschiff, where wild club nights and heated debates drew crowds.

Artistic Director Milo Rau: ‘This year, one theatre goddess and one theatre god followed hot on the heels of the next, from the Schlingensief exhibition to Holzinger’s Pentacost Play, from the spotlight on Patti Smith to the long Jelinek reading night, from theatre icons Bob Wilson and Angélica Liddell to the newly created musical theatre productions, acclaimed by both the press and the public, The Day Before and Mōdraniht. Songs of Winter War. From a five-hour, aesthetically revolutionary Parsifal to the playful actors’ festival Tanzende Idioten. The fact that 120,000 people attended the opening alone in this anniversary year shows that Vienna loves the Vienna Festival more than ever! I am very happy and very proud, grateful and deeply moved!'

Facts & Figures

38 days
197,342 visitors
35 productions with admission
including 21 in-house and co-productions and 13 world premieres

170 events with admission
including 119 sold-out events

53,225 tickets issued
48,531 tickets sold, of which 5,353 U30 Vermehrt Schönes! tickets

approx. 91% capacity

35 venues

89 events without admission (opening, debates, workshops, children's and youth programmes, public talks and events)

150 students from 10 universities from 3 countries were part of the Campus Programme.

15 young artists took part in the In the Field scholarship programme.

211 journalists attended the Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen). A total of 2,268 media reports were published, including in the New York Times, The Guardian, Libération, El País, Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, Die Welt, taz, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), Deutschlandfunk, as well as all major Austrian media outlets.

Coverage appeared in 39 countries (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czechia, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the UK, Ukraine, and the USA).

Status as of 23 June 2026