On track

Culture budget: only a slight plus after a super year

In June, the popular Schäxpir theater festival will be held again, tailor-made for a young audience(Bild: Reinhard Winkler)

It is now certain: the Upper Austrian state's cultural budget will amount to just under 252.5 million euros in the coming year 2025. Compared to the previous year, this is an increase of 7 million euros - although this year is not set to be a super cultural year. Instead, two festivals are planned, one of which will be decentralized in the Innviertel region.

A cultural year in a class of its own is drawing to a close. With the celebrations to mark the 200th birthday of Anton Bruckner and the Salzkammergut-Bad Ischl Capital of Culture, 2024 will undoubtedly be remembered as a "lighthouse year" in the cultural development of the Land ob der Enns.

The 2025 budget was approved from Thursday to Friday, including the cultural budget. After an increase for the Super Culture Year, there will be a moderate increase of around 7 million euros in 2025. The new culture budget will therefore total 252.5 million euros.

Culture is an important part of the overall composition called 'successful location Upper Austria'. That is why 2025 will also be an exciting, colorful and diverse cultural year.

Landeshauptmann Thomas Stelzer

(Bild: Peter C. Mayr)

Music schools, theaters and museums
The largest chunk is in "music and performing arts" with a total of €184.2 million; this includes state-owned cultural institutions, without which it would not be possible. Examples include The Landesmusikschulwerk including the City of Linz Music School comes to € 95.8 million (plus 2.7), the Bruckner University to € 25.2 million (plus 0.9) or the Theater und Orchester GmbH (TOG) to € 54.3 million (plus 6.4), the museums and other collections come to € 36.5 million, see also the overview chart.

Independent funding (associations, businesses), which is titled "Local and Cultural Preservation", comes to €20.2 million, and around €2 million has been budgeted for the upcoming Schäxpir and Festival of the Regions festivals in 2025.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/stock.adobe.com)

Two festivals and preparations
The young theater festival Schäxpir will run on Upper Austrian stages from June 3 to 14, while the Festival of Regions will take place in the district of Braunau am Inn from June 13 to 22.

Preparations are also underway for the third edition of communale oö in Linz and other locations, which will take up the historical theme of the Upper Austrian Peasants' War in 2026, as we have already reported.

After Anton Bruckner this year, the KulturEXPO will not continue until 2027. It will be dedicated to the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Upper Austria, which includes the prehistoric pile dwellings on Lake Attersee.