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Music at the Source in SalzburgAT
Mozart's birthplace beneath the Hohensalzburg fortress, home to the world's most important classical festival each summer and the Mozartwoche every January.
Why here
Salzburg is where the festival idea was invented. The Salzburger Festspiele, founded in 1920 by Max Reinhardt and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, remains the summit of the classical world: five weeks of opera, drama and concerts each summer, anchored by Jedermann played against the cathedral facade. In late January the Mozartwoche takes over, the world's most significant Mozart festival, staged by the Mozarteum Foundation in the halls of his own city around his January 27 birthday. Between the two, this is the rare small city where the highest level of music-making is a resident condition rather than an import, with Mozart's birthplace and family home as the connective tissue.
Best months
The Festspiele runs mid-July to the end of August, with tickets for marquee productions selling out within days of release the previous winter. Mozartwoche fills the last week of January, a quieter and more affordable window with the city in winter dress. Year-round, the Mozarteum Foundation and Marionette Theatre keep the calendar full. Summer festival weeks are the most expensive time to visit Austria anywhere; January rewards planning far less.
Getting there & around
Salzburg has its own airport with seasonal connections, or Munich is two hours by direct train. The festival district, old town and Mozart sites all sit within a compact walkable center. Book festival-season accommodation six months out or stay in the lake district and train in. Standing and discounted young-person tickets exist for several Festspiele venues; the official ticket office is the only reliable source.
Skill levels: beginner, intermediate, advanced
Schools & guides (2)
Salzburger Festspiele
organizerThe original and still definitive summer arts festival, running five weeks of opera, concerts and drama across the Festspielhaus complex and the city's historic venues since 1920. Jedermann on Cathedral Square is the founding ritual. Programs and tickets release the preceding winter and the biggest productions sell out almost immediately.
Stiftung Mozarteum Salzburg
organizerThe foundation that guards Mozart's legacy in his home city, running the Mozartwoche festival around his January 27 birthday, year-round concert seasons in the Mozarteum's halls, and the Mozart birthplace and residence museums. The Mozartwoche draws the world's leading Mozart interpreters into the halls he knew.