Festivals in Linz

 

Ars Electronica Festival

http://www.aec.at/festival_about_en.php (new window)
Interdisciplinarity and open encounters between international experts from art and science and a broad interested public characterize the internationally renowned Ars Electronica Festival. With symposiums, exhibitions, performances and events, every year since 1979 it has been devoted to the artistic and scientific exploration of social and cultural phenomena emerging from technological transformation. The Upper Austrian studio of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF OÖ) is co-organizer.

Brass Festival Linz

http://www.brucknerhaus.at/ (german only) (new window)
It can happen anywhere: in the Main Square of Linz, in the side street Spittelwiese, in Schiller Park, in the pub Josef, in the Brucknerhaus or Posthof, during the day, in the afternoon or early or late in the evening. During the Brass Festival Linz, the motto is “Just listen to that!”. From the small wind ensemble to the large brass band, from the brass competition to the crazy “brass birds”, an exhibition in Brucknerhaus. For three whole days, everything in Linz revolves around the theme of brass.

Bruckner Festival Linz

http://www.brucknerhaus.at/ (german only) (new window)
The opening of the Brucknerhaus in 1974 was accompanied by its own music festival as well, but it has long since not been limited to Anton Bruckner’s legacy. Orchestra concerts, recitals, chamber music, dance theater, organ concerts, concert performances of operas: during the annual three-week Bruckner Festival, Linz welcomes the international world of music. The Bruckner Festival Linz, which traditionally opens with the Classical Linz Cloud of Sound, is the magnificent conclusion of the festival season in Austria each year.

CROSSING EUROPE Film Festival Linz

http://www.crossingeurope.at/index.php?bereich=start.htm&lang=en (new window)
Presented for the first time in May 2004, the CROSSING EUROPE Film Festival Linz is a forum for the diversity of European cinematography, providing a platform especially for young innovative directors beyond mainstream cinema. Central features of the festival are a European Competition, to which only first or second feature films are accepted, and a Panorama, Tributes, the series Local Artists, and Specials.

Festival 4020.More Than Music.

http://www.festival4020.at/ (german only) (new window)
The Festival 4020, initiated in March 2001, presents an abundance of young composers, musicians and ensembles in venues distributed throughout the entire city. With virtuosity, dedication and a joy in music, the musicians create a panorama of the most diverse folk and concert music of the present and the past:a capella, in concert or electronically – and wholly devoted to aural pleasure.

Festival for Children's Rights – Kids’ Parade

http://www.kidsparade.net/ (german only) (new window)
The “Festival for Children’s Rights” is intended to be a forum for children’s rights and an open platform especially for children and young people. The Kids’ Parade realizes this symbolically and ideally: as a festival designed for children, where children can claim their right to artistic and cultural activity, to a child-friendly living environment and, not least of all, to the freedom of speech and assembly.

Festival of the Regions

http://www.fdr.at/ (new window)
The Festival of the Regions is one of the largest contemporary culture festivals in Austria. Since 1993 it takes place every two years in decentralized locations in Austria. At the nexus of art and everyday life, the projects involve the local inhabitants in the exploration of social, political and artistic issues. Outside the centers the Festival of the Regions conjoins contemporary cultural work and art forms with local traditions, histories and idiosyncrasies.   

Linz Clouds of Sound

http://www.klangwolke.at/ (german only) (new window)
Since Bruckner’s 8th Symphony resounded in the Danube Park in 1979 with the Concertgebouw Amsterdam conducted by Bernard Haitnik, in the meantime over two million visitors have come to the Linz Clouds of Sound in the Danube Park.
Altogether there are three Clouds of Sound that take place every year: the Visualized Cloud of Sound that is redesigned every year with music, light, laser and fireworks. The new trend is that the audience no longer passively consumes, but increasingly has an opportunity to intervene in the creative process. The Telekom Children’s Cloud of Sound is produced for young visitors. The Classical Cloud of Sound broadcasts the opening concert of the Bruckner Festival into the Danube Park. The Upper Austrian studio of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF OÖ) is co-organizer.

Exhibition of the Federal Province of Upper Austria

http://www.landesausstellung.at/austrian-exhibition1.html (new window)
Every two years the successful Exhibitions of the Province deal with themes from cultural and provincial history prepared for a broad audience. Exhibitions such as “Hallstatt Culture”, “Work, Human, Machine”, “The World of Baroque”, “The Danube”, “The Mühlviertel”, “Land of Hammers” or “Celebrations” have so far drawn over seven million visitors. The respective settings – monasteries, fortresses and castles, industrial monuments – are extensively restored in preparation, so that the Exhibitions of the Province are simultaneously catalysts for the care of historical monuments and guarantee a meaningful use of historical buildings afterwards. A Bavarian-Upper Austrian Exhibition of the Province took place for the first time in 2004, entitled “boundless. History of People on the Inn River”. In 2008 an Exhibition of the Province is planned to take place in the region Salzkammergut.  

LinzFest

Linz Fest
Every year for about two decades now, the LinzFest opens the Linz Open Air Cultural Summer and has meanwhile continued to develop as an extremely successful city festival of culture organized by Linz Culture (previously the Department of Culture) of the City of Linz. This festival, which takes place in the inviting Danube Park between the Lentos Art Museum Linz and the Brucknerhaus, offers an extensive program with no charge for admission featuring prominent representatives of music, literature, cabaret and children’s culture. An important part of the program is are the cooperation projects with other cultural institutions of Linz and representatives of the independent art scene.

Music Pavilion

Music Pavilion
The Music Pavilion in the Danube Park enjoys tremendous popularity among pop, jazz and wind music enthusiasts. Especially the young and promising talent from the Linz and Upper Austrian music world have an opportunity to prove their abilities there in the warmer months of the year. The literature initiative Linz Springtime organizes readings under the title “Literary Jukebox” as part of the Music Pavilion program.

Linz International Pflasterspektakel

http://www.pflasterspektakel.at/eng/index_default.asp (new window)
Elsewhere the travelling folk of street artists, musicians and performers are still regarded as disrupting everyday business and driven away with legal paragraphs. In Linz, however, the stars and newcomers of boulevard artistry from all over the world are welcomed each year at the Pflasterspektakel, one of the most important street art festivals in Europe. Jugglers, clowns, musical mimes and multi-talents of all kinds line the streets of the city center of Linz for several days in July, competing for the attention of the strolling audience. In the evening hours “samba lines” wind their way along the tram lines through the crowds in the Landstrasse.

SCHÄXPIR – International Theater Festival Upper Austria

http://www.schaexpir.at/ueberblick_e.html (new window)
From world premieres of Austrian theater groups to first German productions, Austrian premieres and an extensive framework program, during the Schäxpir Festival Linz is the center of European theater for a young audience. A special “lab track” deals with new approaches and experiments. Cooperation with educational departments in various art institutions and intensive communication with and involvement of young people result in a strong dialogue under the motto “young art – young audience”.

Serenades in the Arcade Courtyard of the Linz Seat of the Provincial Government

http://www.brucknerhaus.at/ (german only) (new window)
They have the longest tradition in the Brucknerhaus summer program: the serenades in the historical arcade courtyard of the seat of the provincial government in Linz. On nine different Tuesday evenings during the months of July/August a select program of classical music by (inter-) national ensembles awaits enthusiastic visitors.

sicht:wechsel

http://www.sicht-wechsel.at/ (german only) (new window)
For the first time in 2007, a major international cultural festival took place in Linz under the title sicht:wechsel (“view:change”), presenting art and aesthetics from people with handicaps to a broad audience. People with handicaps are brought into the center of society, where they are given the attention and respect they have earned and is due to them. The scene that is otherwise less visible takes the spotlight with theater, music and art.

Summer in the Rose Garden

http://www.brucknerhaus.at/ (german only) (new window)
The beautiful location, high above the rooftops of Linz, is regarded as one of the most attractive summer venues in Linz, where one enjoys a magnificent view of the Danube city. The 3000 square meter grounds were first “transformed” into a venue with a stage in the “culture tent” in 1999. Since then it has offered a diverse program of theater, music and cabaret from June to August.

Musica Sacra

http://www.musicasacra.at/ (german only) (new window)
Music in the churches of Linz: concert series with sacred music in the Old Cathedral and the New Cathedral, the Church of the Minorites, the Ursuline Church, St. Martin’s Church, the City Parish Church, the Seminary Church and the Basilica on Pöstlingberg. The programs are oriented to the dignity of the spaces and span several centuries of European music up to the present.

Poetics Festival – Days of Poetics – For Flexibility

http://www.maerz.at/ (german only) (new window)
The biennial festival revolves around current issues of poetics. The term “poetics” is understood (in the sense of the original meaning of poiesis = the creaturely processes of “producing” and “conveying”) in an interdisciplinary sense, resulting in a correspondence of readings, lectures, performances of New Music and an exhibition.   The “Days of Poetics” and their programs are respectively placed under a certain thematic complex. The festival is organized by the artists association MAERZ in cooperation with the Stifter House and has previously taken place in both of these locations and others (the factory hall of the HMH company, Botanical Garden).

voestival

http://www.voestival.at/ (german only) (new window)
This unusual cultural event takes place in an industrial hall in the Linz factory grounds of the voestalpine corporation. Thus industry and culture are not opposites. The conjunction and the confrontation of both areas results in important new ideas and impulses. The aim of this event is to offer visitors modern, experimental or even established art in the unusual environment of a large industrial factory hall. The entire net proceeds from the voestival are donated to social institutions in Upper Austria.