Bregenz Festival sets attendance record in 80th season

The Bregenz Festival drew around 275,000 visitors during its 80th anniversary season, setting a record since the festival began in 1946, ORF reported. The festival ended in Bregenz on Sunday evening after the final performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata took place on the lakeside stage.

Damiano Michieletto’s production of La Traviata attracted 193,474 visitors across 28 sold-out performances.

Other programmes also drew strong audiences, including the opera in the festival hall, Leoš Janáček’s The Excursions of Mr Brouček, contemporary music theatre on the workshop stage, the opera studio, drama, orchestral and chamber concerts, and the Young Festival.

Occupancy rates for these events ranged from 96 percent for chamber music at the Seestudio and Kunsthaus Bregenz to 100 percent for the opera studio at Theater am Kornmarkt.

August 1 was the busiest day in the festival’s 80-year history, with around 15,000 visitors. About 6,600 people took part in a singalong on the lake tribune, performing popular opera melodies from eight decades of productions on the lake with choirs, soloists and an instrumental ensemble from the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra.

The 2027 season will open on July 21 with Othmar Schoeck’s Penthesilea in the house opera. The work tells the story of the Amazon queen Penthesilea and her passionate, tragic love for Achilles.

La Traviata will return to the lakeside stage, with its revival premiere scheduled for July 22. The final performance is due to take place on August 22, 2027.