［CITY］
Salzburg … Austria
［SCHEDULE］
2026：7.17 … 8.30
To the festival site ▷
The biggest reason that this festival is said to be the best not only in scale but also in quality is because the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the highest orchestra in the orchestra World, serves as the resident orchestra. In 1920, the festival was established in the birthplace of Mozart by Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal.
After World War II, star conductor Herbert von Karajan became the artistic director in 1956. Then, big artists gathered under him, and it became the most gorgeous music festival in the world where celebrities from all over the world came one after another.
Karajan suddenly died in 1989. Therefore, the future was in danger. However, Gerard Mortier, who became general director in 1992, saved the festival. While repeatedly colliding with his surroundings, he found the way to the opera performance by taking the leading edge of the times and transformed the festival into the “front line of thinking”.
Mortier retired after completing his ten-year term as the “founder of a renaissance”. After that, the voice of “insufficient” is raised, but the program lineup is still gorgeous, and it is still a longing festival for big artists.
Because it is Mozart’s birthplace, his operas are always performed every year. The main venues for the music festival are the main and small theaters (now called Mozart Theater) in the festival theater, and the Felsenreitschule, which was originally an equestrian school.
Various programs are organized using the hall of the Mozarteum Conservatory and churches in the city. In addition to the summer, a 5-day music festival is also held during the Pentecostes.
