My festival

Welcome to
the Salzburg Festival Archive

The Salzburg Festival’s Archive is among the most important theatre archives existing in Austria. As an archive, collection and library hybrid, it preserves a vast trove of documentation of the Festival’s history. Its holdings are continuously expanded and catalogued with great care and attention to detail. Artistic projects involving the archive seek to convey this cultural heritage in a vibrant manner.

© SF/Neumayr/Leopold
Salzburg Festival 2018 Salome Opera Asmik Grigorian
Programme Archive

When did Anne-Sophie Mutter or Asmik Grigorian give their Salzburg Festival debuts? How often did Herbert von Karajan conduct Verdi’s Messa da Requiem? And who was actually the first female conductor in Salzburg? Our programme archive holds the answers to all these questions.

Programme Archive
Online Catalogue

We are delighted that the ‘Kulturerbe digital’ digitisation project, funded by the BMKÖS, was successfully completed in April 2026 and that the collections from the archive’s diverse holdings, which were catalogued as part of this project, are now available online.
You can currently find here programmes for a total of over 6,400 productions and other in-house publications, costume sketches and posters, as well as selected photographs and 3D objects from stage productions. The records are continuously updated and expanded by the archive staff.

Catalogue
Salzburg Festival 1920 Jedermann at the cathedral square
History

The Salzburg Festival was born on 22 August 1920, when Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s morality play Jedermann was first performed on Cathedral Square, directed by Max Reinhardt. Since then, the Salzburg Festival has established itself as the most important festival for opera, drama and concerts.

Timeline

News

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Tage der Archive

We are delighted to be able to offer three events again this year as part of the Tage der Archive 2026, making us one of 18 archives in Salzburg opening their doors under the theme ‘kunst*voll’.

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© ASF/Simon Hochleitner

Completion of the digitalisation project

Since the reopening of the Festival Archive at Villa Riedenburg, the archive team has been working on its first major digitisation project. This project has now been completed. The programme booklets, posters, costume designs and 3D costume models, now available in digital form, will be made accessible via an online catalogue and also made available via the ‘Kulturpool’ platform.
www.kulturpool.at

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Andy Warhol, Four Pairs of Eyes, c. 1953, gouache and graphite on paper (21.6 x 12.7 cm) Courtesy & © Photo: Daniel Blau, Salzburg, 2025 © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Bildrecht Wien, 2025

The Living Archive

Following the repositioning of the festival archive, a dedicated archive festival will be held in the summer of 2026 as part of the Salzburg Festival, focusing on the archiving of artistic (performative) actions and presenting new formats for a living archive. A guided tour lasting approximately two hours will explore the two projects of the S+T+ARTS Ec(h)o Residencies Programme, the Festival Memory Office and the new installation of the VR experience FAUST 2023.

18, 20–22, 24–29 August 2026, 10:00 a.m.–5:30 p.m. · UMAK – Mozarteum University at the Kurgarten

In collaboration with Ars Electronica and the Institute for Open Arts at the Mozarteum University

The Living Archive
Opening Hours

We look forward to your visit to our Archive premises and the permanent exhibition on 100 years of Festival history. You can visit us anytime during our opening hours without registering in advance.

Tuesdays and Thursdays
from 10 am to 4 pm
except on public holidays, in September and during the Christmas break

Visits by groups and individuals can also be arranged at other times; please register in advance.

Registration: archiv@salzburgfestival.at
Archive Tour

Every first Thursday of the month right after the guided tour of the Festival theatres, we offer a guided tour of the Archive and of our exhibition on the Festival history.
The upcoming tour takes place on

Thursday, 11 June, 3:45 p.m.
at the Festival Archive
(Neutorstraße 25)

The fee is 7 Euros per person. Participation is limited to 20 persons per group. Please register here.

Registration Combined Guided Tour
Guided Tours for Groups

Private group tours for up to 20 persons can be arranged upon request. The flat fee is 120 Euros per group.

The fee will be waived for educational institutions such as school classes, university institutes, for sponsors and groups of members of the Association of Friends and Supporters of the Salzburg Festival.

Enquire about a private group tour

Site Address
Neutorstraße 25
A-5020 Salzburg
archiv@salzburgfestival.at

With the support of acm (austrian capital management GmbH)