St. Pölten courtyards turn into stages for music and art
Thursday 17th September 2026 on 07:00 in
Austria
Courtyards and unusual venues in St. Pölten will host 30 concerts and other cultural events on September 19, ORF reported. The Höfefest St. Pölten programme ranges from jazz and rap to literature, dance and cabaret. The city museum will also be free to visit.
Yasmo and the Klangkantine will combine rap, jazz and brass in the courtyard of the city museum. Cellist Asja Valčić will present her solo project Inner Voice, while OhrGeldRio will revive funk, soul, Latin and blues in the sound of the 1960s. Bad Luck Man’s Brassmass will present “Schlazz” as a musical discipline.
Other acts include Wiener Extremwandern, Bailenga, Ringelspü, Schall & Zeilen, Orges & The Ockus-Rockus Band, Viola Falb and Raphael Meinhart, Johnny Cola & die Große Liebe, and Zweite Kassa bitte!. Cabaret performers Dietmar Chmelar and Joesi Prokopetz will stage a pointed duet and duel called FÜR und ZWIDER at the Sparkassenhaus. At Bühne im Hof, the musical cabaret show Spörk * Fratelli Bros. will combine language and music.
“The Höfefest thrives on discovery,” festival director and Höfefest St. Pölten cultural association chairwoman Patrizia Liberti said. Visitors could spend the afternoon and evening moving through the city, looking into courtyards, hearing unfamiliar music and meeting people, she said.
Under the theme “Culture in motion”, a rickshaw will become a mobile mini-stage between 5:45 p.m. and 7 p.m., bringing music, poetry and small artistic surprises to places where people are passing. Marlies Eder will host the programme. From 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., the rickshaw will also operate as a free, carbon dioxide-neutral shuttle between the courtyards, with Andreas Grubner driving visitors on a hop-on, hop-off basis.
A craft beer festival in the Alumnatsgarten will feature beers from regional breweries for tasting. The city museum, which is marking 50 years in the Karmeliterinnenhof this year, will also take part. Its current exhibitions can be visited free of charge, and Martina Luef and Nicole Fuchs-Sommer will lead a free tour at 3:15 p.m.
The event will close with the Upper Austrian duo Attwenger, who will present their new album “wos” at Cinema Paradiso at 9:30 p.m. The performance will feature a mix of folk music, punk rock, hip-hop, techno, house, dub and rockabilly.