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EVENTS

9 unmissable events in Austria in July 2023

July is a great month to be in Austria thanks to the many summer festivals and events. Here are some of the best to check out.

Vienna's film festival in 2022.
Vienna's film festival in 2022. Photo: Stadt Wien Marketing/Theresa Wey

Until September 3rd: Filmfestival Rathausplatz, Vienna

The capital’s film and cultural festival has already kicked off. But the event runs right through summer so there’s plenty of time to check it out. 

From screenings of opera to ballet and rock shows, there is plenty to keep the whole family entertained. 

Highlights include screenings of Rita Ora and Bob Marley’s concerts, as well as children’s opera.

There are also live bands, DJs and food and drink stalls. It runs until the beginning of September. 

READ ALSO: What you need to know about Vienna’s free summer film festival

July 6th to August 14th: Poolbar Festival in Feldkirch

The highly popular Poolbar Festival takes place annually in the medieval town of Feldkirch, Vorarlberg. And this year you can expect a bumper programme with concerts, readings, cabaret and more.

Under the headline “From Niche to Pop”, acts including Peaches, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Danger Dan, Heaven Shall Burn and Frittenbude are on the bill. It kicks off Thursday July 6th and runs right though to mid-August.

Feldkirch, Austria.

Feldkirch, Austria. Photo by Leonhard Niederwimmer on Unsplash

July 8th to August 29th: Carinthischer Sommer, Carinthia

Embrace the season fully with Carinthian Summer: a huge music and cultural festival held annually since 1969 in the Austrian province of Carinthia.

Head to venues in Ossiach, Villach, and other parts of Carinthia to check out a diverse range of music, whether it’s classical, jazz or rock/pop. 

You’ll also find some experimental music in the festival programme to inspire audiences of all ages. 

The Rising Stars concerts promote young artists and integrate them into the festival. Check out the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition winners can present themselves to a large audience.

July 15th to July 16th: Nordkette Wetterleuchten Tyrol

For those who love to scale Austria’s mountains, head to this festival high above Innsbruck in the heart of Tyrol. 

The 20th edition of the Nordkette Wetterleuchten Electronic Music Festival will showcase performances by renowned artists at the breathtaking Seegrube in mid-July. 

Guests are transported up the mountain 2,000 metres above sea level where they can enjoy DJs, live acts and local Innsbruck legends.

As well as electronic music, the festival offers panoramic views of Innsbruck, food and drinks. 

Get ready to dance and sip Aperol Spritz – but don’t forget to pack sunscreen, because it can pretty hot get up there.

The Nordkette mountains above Innsbruck.

The Nordkette mountains above Innsbruck. Photo: Rachel Loxton

July 16th: Krapfenkirtag, Mönichwald

If you want something more chilled out where you can simply sit down and eat a lot of sugar, then head to Mönichwald in Styria.

Krapfenkirtag on July 16th, sees 10,000 doughnuts of all kinds of flavours, shapes and sizes on offer for guests. As well as doughnut (named Krapfen in Austrian-German) stalls, there are arts and crafts, traditional bands and drinks on offer. 

For children there are bouncy castles and face painting. 

July 19th to August 20th: Bregenz Festival 2023, Vorarlberg

If you want to visit a stunning cultural Austrian event, the Bregenz Festival in the Vorarlberg capital is for you. 

From a revival of Giacomo Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly on July 20th to lakeside performances and events at the renowned Festspielhaus. there’s no shortage of experiences on offer in the month-long festival.

For smaller guests, the Young Festival will also offer a range of events tailored for children and young people.

Meanwhile, the Kunsthaus Bregenz and the Landestheater will also be a part of the festival’s offerings.

READ ALSO: The best events and festivals taking place in Austria this summer

July 20th to September 30th: Salzburger Festspiele, Salzburg

Although no-one needs an excuse to visit the stunning city of Salzburg, we’d recommend checking out this festival. It’s an annual celebration of art and culture in the historic city, which lies in the west of the country.

The festival showcases opera, classical music and theatre and hundreds of thousands tickets are sold every year. 

The event was set up in August 1920 by Austrian writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal to promote peace following World War I and support the creation of a new Austrian identity following the fall of the Habsburg Empire.

A doughnut

Get ready for doughnuts on Krapfenkirtag. Photo: ChiemSeherin/Pixabay

Until July 22nd: Summer Festival Kittsee, Burgenland

The Kittsee Summer Festival, in the picturesque Castle Kitsee park, has already kicked off but runs right through until July 22nd. 

It offers visitors the chance to check out some cool theatre performances. The location’s historical significance, where Joseph Haydn once personally conducted for Maria Theresa, gives the performances a unique charm and brings the past back to life.

Our pro tip is to make sure you haven’t eaten beforehand: the summer fest also offers local delicacies and specialties to enjoy. 

July 21st to 23rd: Rock im Dorf in Kirchdorf an der Krems

If you’re a fan of heavy riffs and drum beats, head to Upper Austria later in July to Rock im Dorf, otherwise known as ‘rock out in the village’. With two stages and a full programme, the Rock im Dorf festival will showcase bands including Frittenbude, Florence Arman, Oskar Haag, Eli Preiss and Sharktank.

Camping is also possible with a pass (€5) in the Upper Austrian Traunviertel. If you want to come with a caravan, you can pay €42 per vehicle for a maximum of five people. Day tickets start at €43.

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VIENNA

Vienna Festival director Milo Rau hits back at anti-Semitism accusations

One of the latest events in Europe to be hit with accusations of anti-Semitism, the Vienna Festival kicks off Friday, with its new director, Milo Rau, urging that places of culture be kept free of the "antagonism" of the Israel-Hamas war while still tackling difficult issues.

Vienna Festival director Milo Rau hits back at anti-Semitism accusations

As the conflict in Gaza sharply polarises opinion, “we must be inflexible” in defending the free exchange of ideas and opinions, the acclaimed Swiss director told AFP in an interview this week.

“I’m not going to take a step aside… If we let the antagonism of the war and of our society seep into our cultural and academic institutions, we will have completely lost,” said the 47-year-old, who will inaugurate the Wiener Festwochen, a festival of theatre, concerts, opera, film and lectures that runs until June 23rd in the Austrian capital and that has taken on a more political turn under his tenure.

The Swiss director has made his name as a provocateur, whether travelling to Moscow to stage a re-enactment of the trial of Russian protest punk band Pussy Riot, using children to play out the story of notorious Belgian paedophile Marc Dutroux, or trying to recruit Islamic State jihadists as actors.

Completely ridiculous 

The Vienna Festival has angered Austria’s conservative-led government — which is close to Israel — by inviting Greek former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis and French Nobel Prize winner for literature Annie Ernaux, both considered too critical of Israel.

A speech ahead of the festival on Judenplatz (Jews’ Square) by Israeli-German philosopher Omri Boehm — who has called for replacing Israel with a bi-national state for Arabs and Jews —  also made noise.

“Who will be left to invite?  Every day, there are around ten articles accusing us of being anti-Semitic, saying that our flag looks like the Palestinian flag, completely ridiculous things,” Rau said, as he worked from a giant bed which has been especially designed by art students and installed at the festival office.

Hamas’ bloody October 7th assault on southern Israel and the devastating Israeli response have stoked existing rancour over the Middle East conflict between two diametrically opposed camps in Europe.

In this climate, “listening to the other side is already treachery,” lamented the artistic director.

“Wars begin in this impossibility of listening, and I find it sad that we Europeans are repeating war at our level,” he said.

As head of also the NTGent theatre in the Belgian city of Ghent, he adds his time currently “is divided between a pro-Palestinian country and a pro-Israeli country,” or between “colonial guilt” in Belgium and “genocide guilt” in Austria, Adolf Hitler’s birthplace.

Institutional revolution

The “Free Republic of Vienna” will be proclaimed on Friday as this year’s Vienna Festival celebrates. according to Rau, “a second modernism, democratic, open to the world” in the city of the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, and artist and symbolist master Gustav Klimt.

Some 50,000 people are expected to attend the opening ceremony on the square in front of Vienna’s majestic neo-Gothic town hall.

With Rau describing it as an “institutional revolution” and unlike any other festival in Europe, the republic has its own anthem, its own flag and a council made up of Viennese citizens, as well as honorary members, including Varoufakis and Ernaux, who will participate virtually in the debates.

The republic will also have show trials — with real lawyers, judges and politicians participating — on three weekends.

Though there won’t be any verdicts, Rau himself will be in the dock to embody “the elitist art system”, followed by the republic of Austria and finally by the anti-immigrant far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), which leads polls in the Alpine EU member ahead of September national elections.

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