New Year's Celebrations

Around New Year, Austria is the place to be.

When it comes to celebrating New Year's Evein style, no other city beats Vienna.

It has long been a Philharmonic tradition at the New Year to present a program consisting of the lively and at the same time nostalgic music from the vast repertoire of the Johann Strauss family and its contemporaries. The Vienna Philharmonic New Year's Concert 2012 will be conducted by Franz Welser-Möst. The concert not only delights the audience in the Musikverein in Vienna, but also enjoys great international popularity worldwide. This great event is broadcast every year on the PBS network.

On both evenings, the State Opera and the Volksoper give gala performances of Johann Strauss' "Die Fledermaus".

Another elegant way to toast the turn of the year is at the New Year's Eve Imperial Ball.

Vienna's entire inner city is one big celebration. The Sylvesterpfad "new year's path" starts at 2 pm on December 31 and ends at 2 am on January 1.  Enjoy concerts on the streets of Vienna. Dance to the ever-present sound of the waltz and experience the fireworks.

All throughout Austria, you will experience fireworks. 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 Blue Danube Waltz.