The summer ledger, 2026. Salzburg projected 261,301 at over 99 per cent, Bregenz 275,000, Verbier 50,000 tickets, all in one table with the year-ago figures.

Two days before it closed, the Salzburg Festival put a number on the summer: 261,301 visitors, an occupancy above 99 per cent across 209 performances, and 31.45 million euros in net ticket income. Five days earlier Bregenz had reported about 275,000, the most in the festival's 80-year history. On 2 August Verbier had already closed with more than 50,000 tickets issued, its best box office since 1994. By the first week of September the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Edinburgh International Festival and the Rheingau Musik Festival had filed their closing releases too, and hessenschau had carried Rheingau's figures from its closing press conference.

Each of those figures was published on its own, in its own language, by its own press office. We have not seen them put next to each other. This is the table, built only from the festivals' own releases or, where a festival's site had not posted one, from the regional press that carried its figures. The year-ago column comes from the same source's release twelve months earlier.

The document

Four festivals on our list published nothing usable. The Boston Symphony's press page runs from a 9 July Tanglewood Music Center opening notice to a 3 September Holiday Pops announcement with no Tanglewood wrap-up between them. Aspen's stops at an album announcement on 5 August. Grafenegg's twentieth festival closes today and its press page shows nothing after a 17 August cast-change notice. Glyndebourne's site has moved on to Festival 2027, 20 May to 29 August, and says only that over 1,600 Under 30s tickets were offered for selected 2026 dates at 30 pounds on weekdays and 35 at weekends in the Circle and Upper Circle (45 and 50 in the Stalls), for Ariadne auf Naxos.

What was said, in the order it was said

Verbier closed first. On 2 August the festival's communiqué reported the 27 sold-out concerts and the 50,000 tickets, and gave the reaction of its board chairman François Reyl and co-directors Martin T:son Engstroem and Hervé Boissière together: "Notre souhait de créer une immersion musicale exclusive au cœur des Alpes suisses se poursuit avec une réponse du public qui nous fait chaud au cœur." The same release set the 34th edition for 15 July to 1 August 2027.

Bregenz came next, in two stages. At the preliminary press conference on 21 August, reported by ORF Vorarlberg, the commercial director Michael Diem said: "Selten war das Programm so vielseitig und die Auslastung so einseitig, nämlich nahezu bei hundert Prozent." The artistic director Lilli Paasikivi called celebrating the festival's birthday with the singalong crowd, over 6,500 by ORF's count, "ein besonderer Moment"; the final release later put the 1 August anniversary day at about 15,000 people, the busiest in the festival's history, and the singalong at around 6,600. The same report noted that the public funders had cut subsidy by 30 per cent for 2025 and 2026, about 2.1 million euros a year, and that 2027 will have no drama. The final release on 23 August fixed the total at about 275,000.

Salzburg's directorate, Kristina Hammer, Karin Bergmann and Lukas Crepaz, signed the 28 August final report jointly: "Die Salzburger Festspiele 2026 blicken auf einen überaus erfolgreichen Sommer zurück, der mit einem außerordentlichen künstlerischen Programm auch kaufmännisch alle Erwartungen übertreffen wird." The same day, in the festival's closing release, the Schleswig-Holstein intendant Christian Kuhnt said: "Für acht Wochen wurde Deutschlands Norden zum glücklichsten Konzertsaal Europas."

Edinburgh's closing post on 31 August carried no headline total. Nicola Benedetti's note on the All Rise theme said the festival held to a belief that "through artistic endeavour we can learn to see one another more truthfully, and more tolerantly." On 4 September hessenschau reported the Rheingau intendant Michael Herrmann describing a festival with reach "weit über die Region hinaus", and gave the 40th edition's dates as 19 June to 4 September 2027.

The second half is ours

Start with attendance per performance, which no festival publishes but every one of these releases allows. Salzburg's 261,301 over 209 performances is 1,250 a performance, up from 1,228 in 2025 on the same 209 count. Bregenz's 275,000 over about 80 events is roughly 3,400, but the number that matters there is La traviata: 193,474 over 28 performances is 6,910 a night, against 6,692 for Der Freischütz in 2025, whose 27 performances included the dress rehearsal and a young people's night, and the lake stage alone accounts for 70 per cent of the festival's whole audience. Schleswig-Holstein's 188,000 over 205 concerts is 917 a concert, down from 995 in 2025. Verbier's 50,000 over 236 concerts and events is 212, which reflects a programme with about a hundred free masterclasses, not a weakness in demand. Lucerne's 2025 base was 84,000 over 163 events, or 515.

Now the cheap end, where the festivals say so. Salzburg's report counts 16,509 admissions to 60 free special events inside its 261,301, which is 6.3 per cent, and says more than 7,600 tickets across all genres went to people under 27, up from 6,000 in 2025, or about 2.9 per cent of the total. It also says 28 per cent of tickets were bought in the city and state of Salzburg. The report adds, outside that count, more than 60,000 at the free Siemens Festival Nights on Kapitelplatz and the open-air events of the three-day opening festival (the Kapitelplatz screenings alone drew more than 45,000); add those and the summer touched more than 321,000 people. Edinburgh's closing post gives the cheap-seat figures and withholds the total: more than 50,000 tickets at 30 pounds or under, 4,894 at 10 pounds, more than a third of those to first-time attenders, and 3,000 Young Musician Pass tickets. Lucerne's 2025 release put 24,000 of its 84,000 entries at 99 free events, 29 per cent. Verbier reported about a hundred free masterclasses, 70 per cent of them full. The Proms' 8-pound standing places, about 1,000 a night on 72 Royal Albert Hall dates, are probably the largest single cheap-ticket line among these festivals, but the BBC's season figures were not on any page we could fetch, so they stay out of this table.

Revenue per head can be run once. Salzburg's 31.45 million euros net over 261,301 counted visitors is about 120 euros a visitor, or about 138 euros per paying admission (222,935 in regular events plus 4,749 in sold dress rehearsals, from the report's breakdown). The 2025 figure was stated gross, so the two years are not directly comparable, and the report does not say why the basis changed.

A year ago

Which festivals grew, on their own numbers. Of the festivals with a comparable year-ago figure, Bregenz grew most, from 249,000 to about 275,000, 10.4 per cent, with the lake-stage opera's second season outselling Der Freischütz's second season by nearly 13,000. Verbier grew from more than 46,000 tickets to more than 50,000, at least 8.7 per cent, and from 24 sold-out concerts to 27. Rheingau's "about 6,000 more" on a base of nearly 130,000 is about 4.6 per cent, on a 2025 base stated in visitors rather than tickets, at an unchanged 91 per cent occupancy. Salzburg grew 1.8 per cent, from 256,600 to 261,301, and moved occupancy from 98.4 to over 99 per cent, which at three more venues and two fewer main-programme performances is close to the ceiling.

Schleswig-Holstein is the one that did not, and the reason is worth reading carefully. Its 2025 release counted 202,000 "Besucherinnen und Besucher" at 203 concerts; its 2026 release counts 188,000 "abgesetzten Tickets" at 205 concerts. That is 6.9 per cent fewer, but occupancy rose from 92 to 93 per cent and the number of sold-out concerts, 149 of 205, was not given in 2025 at all. Whether the basis of the count changed, the release does not say. Edinburgh's 2025 post was the fuller document, with 111,000 audience from 91 countries and 66 sell-outs; the 2026 post gives neither a total nor a sell-out count, so growth there cannot be stated.

What it means for 2027 hiring

The festival orchestras and academies live off these numbers, and their 2027 windows are opening now. Verbier's guidelines for the 2027 Verbier Festival Orchestra are already up: the programme runs 28 June to 2 August 2027 for players aged 18 to 28 on 1 July 2027, the live-audition application deadline is 14 December 2026, the video deadline 11 January 2027, the fee 75 euros, and the festival covers tuition, lodging, meals and capped travel. The orchestra is 98 players, per the festival's VFO page; the Academy as a whole drew more than 2,400 applications from 81 countries for 227 places, on RTS's report of the closing figures. Schleswig-Holstein's orchestra took 104 musicians from 23 nations this summer, down from 117 from 27 in 2025; its festival page sets the age limit at 26, describes auditions in around 30 cities, and says the stipend covers travel, accommodation, meals and coaching. Lucerne's Academy page still says the calls for summer 2026 are closed and gives no 2027 window. Tanglewood's Music Center charges no tuition and a 75-dollar application fee; its 2027 dates and deadlines were not yet posted.

On Cadenza's board today the search "festival" returns 85 live listings, among them the Verbier Festival Orchestra audition, the Verbier and Lucerne academies, the Salzburg Young Singers Project, which took 14 singers from 1,007 applicants this year, and the Schleswig-Holstein masterclasses. The jobs board is free to musicians. Our September podium ledger tracks the conducting side of the same season.

If you go

• Lucerne Festival summer runs to 13 September; the closing Porgy and Bess with the Chineke! Orchestra and Cape Town Opera under Enrique Mazzola on 13 September is sold out.
• BBC Proms run to 12 September at the Royal Albert Hall; Promming 8 pounds, seats from 12.20 pounds.
• 2027 dates already published: Verbier 15 July to 1 August; Bregenz 21 July to 22 August, with Penthesilea opening on 21 July and La traviata back on the lake from 22 July; Schleswig-Holstein 3 July to 29 August, programme on 25 February; Rheingau 19 June to 4 September; Bayreuth 24 July to 24 August, 29 performances (27 opera performances and two Festspiel Open Air evenings), postal orders to 12 October 2026 and instant online sales from 6 December; Glyndebourne 20 May to 29 August, public booking February 2027.

The question for 2027

Salzburg has answered the capacity question for itself: at a projected occupancy above 99 per cent there is little left to sell, and Salzburg24's report of the closing press conference notes that the Grosses Festspielhaus will be closed from autumn 2028 to spring 2031, so the next two summers are the last at this scale before the count has to fall. Bregenz has answered it by bringing La traviata back after two seasons on 30 per cent less subsidy. The open question belongs to the festivals that have not answered at all: Bayreuth, whose remaining 2026 tickets went in under ninety minutes and which publishes no attendance; Tanglewood and Aspen, whose press pages carry none; Edinburgh, which published a total last year and not this year; and Schleswig-Holstein, which changed the word under its number. Which of them will publish, next summer, what it has not?

Sources: Salzburg Festival, Abschlussbericht 2026, 28 Aug 2026; Salzburg Festival, Abschluss-Bericht 2025, 31 Aug 2025; Bregenz Festival Pressefoyer, Bilanz 2026, 23 Aug 2026; Bregenz Festival Pressefoyer, 79th festival, 14 Aug 2025; ORF Vorarlberg, 21 Aug 2026; Salzburg24, 28 Aug 2026; SHMF Pressemeldung, 28 Aug 2026; SHMF Pressemeldung, 29 Aug 2025; SHMF Festivalorchester; Verbier Festival communiqué, 2 Aug 2026; RTS, 3 Aug 2026; RTS, 5 Aug 2025; Verbier Festival, VFO guidelines 2027; Verbier Festival, VFO; Edinburgh International Festival, 31 Aug 2026; Edinburgh International Festival, 25 Aug 2025; Edinburgh International Festival, launch, 11 Mar 2026; hessenschau, 4 Sep 2026; Top Magazin Frankfurt, 31 Aug 2025; Lucerne Festival, 12 Sep 2025; Lucerne Festival, Summer 2026; Lucerne Festival Academy, apply; Bayreuth Festival, 2 Dec 2025; Bayreuth Festival, 27 Aug 2026; Bayreuth Festival, Spielplan 2027; Glyndebourne, Under 30s; Glyndebourne, Festival; Country & Town House, Proms guide; BBC Music Magazine, Proms 2026 listings; BSO press; BSO, TMC fees; Aspen Music Festival press; Grafenegg press releases; Cadenza listings API, 6 Sep 2026

Cover photograph: The Grosses Festspielhaus in Salzburg at night. Leonhard Lenz, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.