Festivals in Upper Austria

Gmunden Festival

http://www.festwochen-gmunden.at/ (only german)
During the summer, the Gmunden Festival offers its audience an opulent program of musical finesse and literary brilliance ranging from the classical and romantic eras to modernism and contemporary art. In this diversity of styles, Upper Austria’s largest summer festival is part of a long tradition of conjoining time, art and location. Locations: Gmunden, Altmünster, Ebensee, Mondsee, Ohlsdorf, Traunkirchen and others.

Attergauer Culture Summer

http://www.attergauer-kultursommer.at/ (only german)
The cultural highlight in the cultural circle of Attergau offers summer guests an aesthetic pleasure of high quality in an exclusive atmosphere. This event series was initiated all of 23 years ago. Since then, it has attracted countless guests and the local population. From mid-July to the end of August members of the Vienna Philharmonic, international soloists from the Salzburg Festival and others present a sophisticated program in the elegant surroundings of the Kogl Castle, the parish churches of St. Georgen and Vöcklamarkt and the Attergau Hall.

Attersee Classics Festival

http://www.atterseeklassik.at/ (only german)
This festival, which takes place during July/August, sees itself as the rural echo of the Salzburg Festival. Conductors such as Mariss Jansons or Riccardo Muti, singers like Barbara Bonney or Thomas Hampson and jazz musicians like Joe Zawinul or Bobby McFerrin are among the regular guests. The events take place in the new Cultural Center Lenzing, in the Berghof Castle in Unterach, in the historical churches around the lake Attersee, and in the historical Narzbergergut on the hill Kronberg, but they also take into consideration Austrian authors and young artists soon to be considered world class.

Music Summer Bad Schallerbach

http://www.musiksommerbadschallerbach.at/ (only german)
The Music Summer actually takes place all year round. Numerous poetry readings, chamber music concerts, orchestra concerts, etc. are performed.

donauFESTWOCHEN in Strudengau

http://www.donau-festwochen.at/ (only german)
The connection and the right combination of a love of the rarities of baroque music in historical performance, enthusiasm, engagement and faith in the potential of the region Strudengau (the Danube valley between Grein in Upper Austria and Ybbs in Lower Austria) resulted in the festival donauFESTWOCHEN in 1995. It arose from the collaboration between interested young artists, the cultural associations of the region and the communities. The high point and heart of the festival is the opera production every year in Greinburg Castle.

European Concert Summer Aspach

http://www.europ-konzertsommer.at/ (only german)
The European Concert Summer Aspach has been developing since 1987 from a village cultural event into an international festival of the highest quality. In addition to world renowned Austrian orchestras such as Camerata Salzburg, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Bruckner Orchestra Linz, every year there are also guest performances by international orchestras, chamber music ensembles and soloists.

Freistädter Sunnseitn

http://www.sunnseitn.org/englisch/index.html
Sunnseitn is an association that carries out cultural development work. It deals with essential contents like cultural self-responsibility, the democratization of contents, the development of concepts for deceleration, promoting the local potential for creativity, interdisciplinary works, .....
Sunnseitn is a project of permanent further development. The dance festival “Dance of the Cultures” is a wonderful replacement for the “war of the cultures”. Artists, folk musicians, DJs and dancers from the most diverse European and African countries take part.

Festival of the New Heimatfilm

http://www.local-buehne.at/ (only german)
What is essential to this event is setting a counterpoint to the primarily urban medium of cinema: presenting films that do not attract a large audience in conventional cinema operations solely because of their themes (rural life) and style. Originally, the intention was to liberate the term “Heimatfilm” from its cliches, which has already succeeded at least in the region of Freistadt. 20 to 25 programs are offered every year (feature films, documentaries, short films).

Kaleidophone Ulrichsberg

http://www.jazzatelier.at/index_e.htm
The Ulrichsberg Kaleidophone is an international music festival that takes place every year since 1986 in April/May. It is organized by the cultural association Jazzatelier Ulrichsberg. The content of the Kaleidophone is contemporary music from such diverse areas as jazz, rock, improvisation, composition, with and without electronics, loud and quiet, bombastic and reductive.

Lehar Festival Bad Ischl

http://www.leharfestival.at/Home.12.0.html?&L=1
The Lehar Festival Bad Ischl was founded in 1961 under the name “International Society – The Operetta”. There was no place more appropriate than Bad Ischl, where representatives of the Golden and Silver Operetta had their summer residences, to provide operetta with a home. This was all the more so, since Franz Lehar wrote his major world successes here and was named an honorary citizen of the city. It was in his honor that the Society set itself the task of performing his works in Bad Ischl.

Chamber Music Festival “Classics on the Inn”

http://www.hagenau.at/ (only german)
The Chamber Music Festival takes place for the second time in 2007 around Hagenau Castle near Braunau with young artists from Salzburg, Vienna, Upper Austria and Bavaria. Performers include members of the Vienna Philharmonic, the Mozarteum Orchestra, the Camerata Salzburg and Concentus Vienna.

Chamber Music Festival Bad Ischl

http://www.kmf-badischl.com/ (only german)
Every year the Chamber Music Festival Bad Ischl is devoted to a different focal point. Works by composers such as Haydn, Beethoven, and Korngold are presented by musicians from all over the world. The performances take place in the training theater and in Villa Rothstein. 

Mondsee Days

http://www.mondseetage.com/ (only german)
The festival Mondsee Days is a chamber music festival that combines music with literature. It takes place every year in September in the Mondsee Castle. The team of the Mondsee Days especially strives to maintain the high artistic quality and the international character of the festival, and to create a harmonious atmosphere, in order to provide the audience with extraordinary events.

Mühlviertel Festival Schwertberg

http://www.festspiele-schwertberg.at/ (only german)
The Mühlviertel Festival Schwertberg is celebrating its first important anniversary: in 2007 it was carried out for the fifth time, so that it has now become a “fixture in the cultural life of Upper Austria” (Kurier). Once again this year, the festival stands for a new, contemporary format of summer festivals with an unequivocal engagement for contemporary Austrian cultural life.

music unlimited

http://www.musicunlimited.at/ (only german)
The festival music unlimited, which has taken place every year in November since 1987, enjoys an excellent international reputation as a presentation forum for new projects from the fields of jazz and avant-garde all the way to connections with current forms of music (rock, hip-hop). The festival is organized by the cultural association Waschaecht Wels.

Music Summer Klaus

http://www.musiksommer.at/ (only german)
The Music Summer Klaus, with its traditional concerts in the early baroque Mountain Church of Klaus, takes place every year in August. Great artists guarantee interesting and unusual concert evenings. In 2004 there was a cooperation for the first time with Kremsegg Castle in Kremsmünster and the Kirchdorf Music School of the Province in Neupernstein Castle in Kirchdorf. There are magnificent concert halls in both castles, and this was also the first step in realizing the long harbored wish for a cultural road connecting the Krems Valley and the Steyr Valley.

Music Festival Steyr

http://www.musikfestivalsteyr.at/ (only german)
The Music Festival Steyr (from mid-August to mid-September) resulted from the ambitious idea of promoting young talent and up-and-coming artists, at the same time giving special attention to developing independent productions. Thanks to both its historical ambient and also its diverse venues, the city of Steyr provides the ideal framework for manifold activities.

Opera/Operetta/Musical Festival Bad Hall

http://www.bad-hall.ooe.gv.at/ (only german)
Bad Hall, the famous Upper Austrian spa resort, has roughly 300 events a year more than the average for comparable municipalities in Austria. However, it is not the quantity that is striking, but the quality, not only the engagement of highly regarded artists, but also the acceptance of existing culture with the inclusion of highlights: this is the precondition for an optimal social life. Especially the lively activities of associations and institutions in and around Bad Hall contribute to a balance of cultural work. The Bad Hall Spa Theater has developed into a theater with feeling and tradition, and 100-year-old theater tradition is an important factor in the cultural city.

Upper Austrian Monastery Concerts

http://www.stiftskonzerte.at/ (only german)
The program here includes symphonic music, chamber music, soloist concerts, recitals and choir concerts in the most magnificent baroque halls of Upper Austrian monasteries. Music from five centuries, played by internationally acclaimed performers and renowned ensembles. Music and space are conjoined in the Upper Austrian Monastery Concerts into an incomparable atmosphere. The successful summer music festival has been hosted for over thirty years from June to August in the monasteries of St. Florian, Kremsmünster, Enns-Lorch and Lambach.

Upper Austrian Culture Comments Gmunden

http://www.kulturvermerke.at/ (only german)
The Upper Austrian Culture Comments have already been taking place for over ten years, for several years now in Gmunden. This is not a self-absorbed, backward-looking adherence to traditional and regional life worlds, but rather innovative, future oriented projects that set accents in the region. In philosophical lectures, literary critiques, specially created compositions and poetry, cultural workers pursue the annual conference themes.

Castle Concerts Kammer

http://www.schlosskonzerte.at/ (only german)
In July and August culture-loving visitors appreciate the castle concerts with internationally renowned artists in the Knights Hall of Kammer Castle. The “musical bouquet” of the concert series is especially colorful, ranging from chamber music evenings to children’s matinees.

Tillysburg Castle Academy

http://www.akademie-tillysburg.at/ (only german)
The events at the Tillysburg Castle Academy make it possible to experience waves of sound. These waves of sound embody a movement that has nothing to do with the hasty, unrhythmical movement, in which human beings find themselves determined by uncertainties and global confrontations. Instead they represent a bridge between language, images and music. Along with established prominent artists, it is possible to become acquainted with new musicians and visual artists, who create interesting waves of sound.

Summer Festival Grein

http://www.grein.ooe.gv.at/ (only german)
One of the most outstanding landmarks of European significance is the Historical City Theater. A theater was established in 1791 by the citizens of Grein in the former grain silo of the city hall, and performances have been given there since then. Today the City Theater is regarded as a jewel that many visitors from near and far come to see. Performances are given in the City Theater in July and August by professional actors of the Summer Festival Grein and in Fall by the Grein Amateur Society.

TheaterSpectacel Wilhering

http://www.theaterspectacel.at/ (only german)
Theater in the barn of the former steward’s farm of the Wilhering Monastery in July. Productions of creatively treated and self-translated plays in stage spaces of today with contemporary costumes and music. The attempt to interpret classical comedies into today and to combine sophistication with entertainment. Cast with professionals in all the artistic fields, cooperation with composers, visual artists, musicians, stage designers and costume designers. Close cooperation since 1996 with “Opera da Camera”.