The Innsbruck Promenade Concerts reinterpret open-air concerts and thus manage the balancing act between classical and modern. What already caused great enthusiasm in Paris, London and Vienna in the 19th century is continued in the inner courtyard of the Imperial Hofburg Innsbruck in a very special way. Promenade concerts have democratized art music and thus opened access to it for the wider society. Our concert series combines balmy summer evenings with music of the highest quality. Enjoy atmospheric open-air concerts in a unique atmosphere in the heart of the Alpine capital. We invite you to conquer, enliven and enjoy the #FreeSpaceMusic together with us from July 05 to 28, 2024. 

The Innsbruck Promenade Concerts were founded in 1994 by Alois Schöpf with the aim of cultivating the musical literature of Central Europe from the period up to the 1920s and making it accessible to a heterogeneous audience as low-threshold as possible. The music presented at the Innsbruck Promenade Concerts is by no means intended to be commercial, but rather to be preserved as a culturally valuable contribution and to continue to form the link between contemporary art music and the art music of our unique European musical history. However, our concerts should also bring our audiences closer to a growing understanding of contemporary art and culture in the most sustainable way possible. The Innsbruck Promenade Concerts have therefore set themselves the goal of presenting contemporary works in the form of original compositions and world premieres. At the same time, we would like to maintain the valuable tradition of our Austrian military and civilian orchestras of bringing transcribed symphonic literature from operas, operettas, ballets, solo works etc. to as many people as possible. This tradition continues to serve as an important means of communicating and disseminating European art music within the population. Concert organisers very often resort to a concept of compositions and a dramaturgy that is immediately accessible to the general public. The Innsbruck Promenade Concerts, however, are not always satisfied with the lowest common denominator and allow themselves carefully measured excursions into daring musical realms. We see the heterogeneity of our audience as an opportunity to bring them into contact with previously unknown and unfamiliar forms of music. 

Musical performances in English gardens of the 18th and 19th centuries can be described as precursors of promenade concerts. The term promenade concert dates back to the 18th century and refers to musical performances in the many pleasure gardens of the English capital London. A special feature that was unthinkable at the time when chamber concerts predominated at the court of the nobility was certainly the lack of a dress code and the fact that the audience could walk around during the performances. The term se promener translated from the French means to walk, which underlines the informal concert attendance. English pleasure gardens, some of which could be visited free of charge or with low entrance fees, offered a variety of entertainment for the whole family. As a social-social feature, these public pleasure gardens also led to the mixing of the nobility and royalty with the common people. The Promenade Concerts in England quickly became very popular and caused quite a stir outside England. Reports indicate that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was a harpsichord prodigy in 1764 and Joseph Haydn (1792-1809) gave concerts in Ranelagh Gardens, another prestigious venue. At the end of the 19th century, a large number of promenade concerts also took place in Austria, following the example of France and England and aiming to entertain as wide a section of the population as possible. At weekends in Vienna there were sometimes up to a hundred such promenade concerts with many hundreds of visitors. In addition to a variety of stage literature from opera and operetta, Viennese music with its waltzes and polkas was offered. People danced and enjoyed life to the full. The first promenade concert in the Kurpark opened on 15 October 1868 under the direction of Johann Strauss Sohn(1825-1899).