On Friday June 13th one of the country’s main annual events – the Summer Night Concert – takes place in the Schönbrunn palace gardens in Vienna.
Austria’s capital, Vienna, is host to a number of exciting events. One of the biggest and most popular ones is taking place this Friday, June 13th: the Summer Night Concert (Sommernachtskonzert). This concert attracts thousands of people and is completely free.
The concert in the home of cl***ical music is well worth a visit if you are a long-time Vienna resident or a visitor, but there are a few things you should know.
The yearly event is in its 22nd edition and takes place in the beautiful Schönbrunn Palace Park, with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra performing a different program every year.
This year, Maestro Tugan Sokhiev will conduct the concert, and Polish operatic tenor Piotr Beczała will be the soloist. He will sing three arias – from Georges Bizet’s Carmen, from Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot and from Emmerich Kálmán’s operetta Gräfin Mariza. For the first time, the Vienna Singer Boys will also participate in the summer night concert.
The programme includes pieces by Richard Wagner, Giuseppe Verdi and Bedřich Smetana.
Moment of silence
This year, the Philharmoniker will start the concern with “Air” by Johann Sebastian Bach. They will then hold a minute of silence for the victims of the Graz attack —a former student shot and killed ten people in a school before turning the gun on himself. The program was changed due to the 10 June attack.
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The stunning concert (against the palace backdrop with a light show of its own) is free and a first-come, first-served event. Visitors have most of the palace gardens to stand and watch the show, and rules are a bit strict, but they serve to allow the highest number of people with the safest standards.
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For example, visitors cannot walk or sit in the palace’s gr*** and gardens. The only sitting places available are for sponsors and special guests of the Philharmoniker, so visitors really do have to stand: blankets and chairs are not allowed, and the park’s many benches are removed for the occasion.
The house rules include a ban on bicycles, scooters and e-scooters, bags should not be larger than an A4 sheet of paper, and you can only bring one 500ml PET bottle of alcohol-free beverage. Baby prams are also not allowed, and, as usual in Schönbrunn, no dogs or pets can enter the palace grounds.
The area of the Gloriettewiese is closed from 4 pm and is not part of the visitor’s site for watching the concert. This image on the official website summarises some of the most important rules:
Check what you can and cannot take to Vienna’s Summer Concert (photo: wienerphilharmoniker.at)
The Hietzinger Tor and the Meidlinger Tor are the only ones open to access the standing aerials from the official admission time, which is around 5 pm. However, the palace gardens are open all day, so you could arrive much earlier and stick around for a visit and concert.
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The concert starts at around 8:45 pm and lasts until around 10 pm.
ORF will broadcast the concert on ORF 2 with a time delay from 9.20 pm, and 3sat will broadcast the concert on June 8th at 8:15 pm.
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