New Year's Celebrations

Around New Year, Austria is the place to be.

When it comes to celebrating New Year's Eve in style, no other city beats Vienna. The last days of the year become a whirl of concerts and entertainment. While the Vienna Symphony traditionally performs Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, the Vienna Philharmonic is playing a selection of waltzes, polkas and operetta tunes, and its festive New Year's Day concert is a big social event (tickets are obtainable only through a miracle, but there are several concerts by other orchestras that offer the same kind of music and are more easily accessible).

This great event is broadcast every year on the PBS network and was traditionally hosted by Walter Cronkite until last year Julie Andrews took over as the charming host of the event. On both evenings, the State Opera and the Volksoper give gala performances of Johann Strauss' "Die Fledermaus". And, if you got the tickets well in advance, you can toast the turn of the year at the Imperial Ball in the best way imaginable: at the New Year's Eve Imperial Ball. Vienna's entire inner city is one big celebration. Starting at 2 pm on December 31 until 2 am on January 1, enjoy concerts on the streets of Vienna. Dance to the everpresent sound of the waltz and experience the fireworks.

All throughout Austria, you will experience fire works. Innsbruck, for example, has brass band parades and evening fanfares in the Old Town at New Year's; Graz and other smaller cities also stage a string of events to celebrate.

And at the stroke of midnight all church bells throughout Austria ring in the New Year. In major cities people dance in the streets into the New Year to the tunes of the famous danube waltz.