Waves Vienna brings 107 acts to clubs across the city
Wednesday 30th September 2026 on 16:45 in
Austria
Waves Vienna will feature 107 young and emerging acts at clubs along Vienna’s Gürtel from Thursday, in its 16th edition. The festival is deliberately keeping its size and number of venues unchanged, organiser ORF reports.
The event begins on Wednesday with a free “Bloc Party” at the sausage stand in Spittelau, featuring a surprise act and a DJ. Festival founder Sarah Thomas Heher said the event was a new format for Waves Vienna.
The festival has kept to its concept as a mid-sized international showcase, Heher said. It has also stopped using venues away from the Gürtel in recent years, aiming to make better use of existing infrastructure and support the clubs and live music venues there.
Evening events run until Saturday and can be attended with day passes or a full festival pass. Nine international acts will also play free shows at venues along the Gürtel on Saturday afternoon, offering visitors a chance to sample the showcase format.
Acts on the programme include Austria’s Das Freie Energie Band, Baby Berserk from the Netherlands, Ether from Hungary and Why Horses? from England.
This year’s programme also includes a dedicated strand for people starting out in the music industry or considering a career in it. A boot camp will cover the basics, while artists can submit a track for listening sessions and feedback.
A panel titled “Algorithm versus human curation” will examine a trend Heher linked to Generation Z: relying less on algorithms to choose music and showing more interest in the people who curate selections, as happens on radio and podcasts.
The United Kingdom is the focus of both the music programme and the Waves Vienna Conference. Many performers are from the UK, alongside Austrian acts including Großkind and Kurpark. The conference at Albert Hall in Josefstadt will bring together British, Austrian and European music professionals.
More than 100 international guests are expected to take part in networking events, workshops, panels and keynote talks. Topics include the intersection of music with television, games and advertising.