Salzburg Festival picks Messezentrum and Salzburgarena as replacement venues

The Salzburg Festival will stage performances at the Messezentrum and Salzburgarena while its main festival hall is renovated, ORF Salzburg reported. The festival’s board made the decision on Friday for the summers of 2029 and 2030.

The Messezentrum, an exhibition centre, was chosen over a proposal to build a temporary hall on a meadow by the Stiegl brewery in Salzburg-Maxglan. The venue is the less expensive of the two options. Festival commercial director Lukas Crepaz had argued for the meadow, saying the Messezentrum’s distance from Salzburg’s Old Town would detract from the festival experience.

The Messezentrum could also serve as a bad-weather venue for Jedermann if permission to cover Domplatz is not granted for the coming years.

The main festival hall will be closed from autumn 2028 until spring 2031 for extensive renovation work. A temporary hall at the former St Josef monastery in Salzburg-Nonntal had also been considered, but was ruled out earlier because of zoning restrictions. New festival director Peter de Caluwe attended Friday’s meeting, and board chairwoman and Salzburg governor Karoline Edtstadler said his artistic views on the remaining options would inform the decision.