96 percent occupied: Festival close to a record year
Culture
The Salzburg Festival ended on Wednesday with a positive result for the festival: The record year 2019 was repeated – with 240,000 visitors and 96 percent occupancy. However, high inflation makes planning for next year difficult.
After 172 performances and 54 performances in the youth program “Jung und Jeder” this year’s Salzburg Festival ends on Wednesday. With an occupancy rate of 96 percent, the festival was able to match the visitor interest of the previous record year 2019, the last festival before the pandemic. Without the health-related cancellations of four performances, a new record would have been reached, the festival emphasized on Tuesday. 31 million euros in promotions for the festival this year.
More visitors, but fewer tickets per capita
“I am particularly pleased that this is such a positive signal for the entire cultural scene,” says the commercial director of the festival, Lukas Crepaz. “That was something that wasn’t so clear for a long time: can we safely bring those who have stayed at home for the last two years to the Salzburg Festival again? And now it shows: Yes, we can do it.”
However, “something has changed significantly” in the behavior of the audience, adds Crepaz: “We can see that the map displays are becoming more selective. The number of visitors increases, but they each have fewer tickets.”
Inflation: Higher ticket prices for 2023 “an issue”
This year the festival was able to balance with the good utilization. However, the inflation is making financial planning for next summer difficult, says the commercial director of the festival: “The risk is suddenly on the cost side – and above all due to the completely out of control energy prices.” If inflation continues like this, will “certainly be an issue that we have to do something with the ticket prices,” says Crepaz. “However, we will continue to pursue our strategy, which we have already pursued in recent years: that we do not raise the lower prices as much as the higher prices.”
More than 240,000 visitors came to the Salzburg Festival – from 76 nations, 37 of them from outside Europe.