For decades, the Klangwolken have been among Europe’s most impressive cultural events. What began in 1979 as the spectacular opening of the Ars Electronica Festival has developed into a hallmark of the city of Linz and delights hundreds of thousands of people year after year.
The Visualised Klangwolke transforms the Donaupark into a unique open-air stage, combining music with light, projections, drama and state-of-the-art stage technology to create a total work of art of international renown.
It is complemented by the »Klassische Klangwolke«, which brings top-class concerts to a wider audience beyond the concert hall, and by the »Kinderklangwolke«, which has been inspiring generations of young visitors with imaginative productions celebrating art and culture since 1998.
Since 2026, the »Klangwolkenwoche« has expanded the programme centred on the three Klangwolken: talks, calls for participation, sound experiences and other events at the Brucknerhaus, in the Donaupark and at other venues in Linz create additional spaces for encounters and exchange. In this way, the Klangwolken form a broad cultural arc that extends beyond the Brucknerhaus and into the city.
During Klangwolken Week, from 7 to 11 September, numerous partners and cultural institutions will be taking part with events of all sizes – ranging from talks and calls to action to sound experiences and other activities – at various locations across the city, both near and far from the Danube. The city comes alive, becomes sound, speaks and plays in many places, filling spaces of all kinds. Let yourself be surprised for a whole week by unique and ever-changing experiences!
The detailed programme will be announced on 25 August.
Originally, the plan was simply to stage a one-off, spectacular opening event for the Ars Electronica Festival, which at the time was still part of the Internationales Brucknerfest Linz. Those responsible in 1979 could hardly have imagined that it would grow into an institution of international renown. Just a few years later, the Klangwolke had become an unmistakable landmark of the city of Linz – and one of the largest and most spectacular open-air productions in Europe staged in public spaces. To date, it has delighted more than four million people.
Hannes Leopoldseder, then director of the ORF-Landesstudio Oberösterreich, is regarded as the initiator of the Klangwolke. Together with the Munich-based composer, director and sound architect Walter Haupt, he developed the idea of taking classical music out of the concert halls and into public spaces, thereby making it accessible to a far wider audience. The guiding principle was the then much-quoted call by the German cultural politician Hilmar Hoffmann for »culture for all«.
In Linz, however, they went one step further: the local population was actively involved in the project. The people of Linz placed their radios in their windows and transformed the city into a single cloud of sound. In its inaugural year, Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 was played from a tape recording – a performance by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam conducted by Bernard Haitink. Just one year later, the Bruckner Orchestra Linz, conducted by Theodor Guschlbauer, performed Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 live. Its accessibility through free admission, together with the combination of classical music and technological innovation, continues to define the Linzer Klangwolke to this day.
Although the Visualised Klangwolke did not actually come into being until the mid-1980s, visual elements had played an important role from an early stage. Special lighting effects were used as early as 1980, followed a year later by the »Linzer Funkenwolkenfeuer«. As visual and stage design became increasingly important, the organisers decided in 1985 to establish two distinct formats within the Internationales Brucknerfest Linz: the Visualised Klangwolke, in which music – regardless of genre – is one of several creative elements in a multimedia artwork, and the Klassische Klangwolke, which to this day centres on a major concert.
The great pioneer of the early years was Walter Haupt, who shaped the Klangwolke – with interruptions – until 1990. Later, the set designer and architect Hans Hoffer, in particular, played a decisive role in further developing the visual language of the Klangwolke. Other artists and artist collectives included Airan Berg, Parov Stelar, Beda Percht, Hubert Lepka & Lawine Torrèn, Xailabs GmbH and the artist collective Helix.
In 2018, the internationally renowned theatre collective La Fura dels Baus staged a multimedia and interactive production entitled PAX, in which the history of humankind was told through a dreamlike visual world.
To mark the 40th anniversary of the Linzer Klangwolke in 2019, opera director and former artistic director of the Bregenz Festival, David Pountney, was responsible for the Visualised Klangwolke. Under the title SOLAR, he explored humanity’s relationship with the sun – somewhere between apocalypse and the hope of a happy ending.
Due to the global pandemic, the Visualised Klangwolke 2020 could not take place as usual in the Donaupark. An artists’ collective comprising Peter Androsch, Sam Auinger, Wolfgang »Fadi« Dorninger and Gitti Vasicek moved partly into the digital space and, under the title SOUNDING LINZ, explored the city’s diverse sounds in order to make them newly audible and bring them to the attention of its residents.
In 2021, the Visualised Klangwolke returned to the Donaupark in front of a live audience. Hollywood director Robert Dornhelm led a creative team that staged a poetic journey exploring the constant change of life, under the title PANTA RHEI. The music was composed by the Viennese film composer Roman Kariolou on commission from LIVA.
In 2022, the internationally renowned director Pierre Audi staged an impressive production of MOTHER GILGAMESH, one of the oldest surviving epics in human history. Told from the perspective of the title character, played by Sunnyi Melles, the production took the audience on a visually stunning journey through the past, present and future, exploring questions of life, death and immortality through spectacular light, video and sound installations set against the backdrop of the Danube.
In 2023, the American director Francesca Zambello took the audience on a poetic journey along the river of life with ODYSSEY. A Journey Through Worlds. The focus was on a young girl who, in the wake of an apocalyptic catastrophe, set out in search of hope and a new sense of community, discovering different cultures, musical traditions and ways of life. Acrobatics, dance and specially developed sound and video design merged to create a stunning total work of art on the Danube.
In 2024, the internationally renowned theatre collective La Fura dels Baus returned to Linz. Under the title PIONEERS 52 Hz, the Visualised Klangwolke told the stories of visionary figures whose ideas have had a lasting impact on our world. Inspired by the mysterious 52-hertz whale, the spectacular production took the audience from the depths of the oceans to the vastness of the universe, combining Gustav Holst’s The Planets with a specially developed sound design to pay homage to the spirit of discovery, science and the future.
In 2025, under the title URBAN PULSE, the Visualised Klangwolke was entirely dedicated to the pulsating energy of the city. Rhythm, movement and shared experience took centre stage in a production that conceived urban space as a living musical ensemble and united people on both banks of the Danube in a shared musical experience.
As a complement to the Visualised Klangwolke, the Klassische Klangwolke has been taking place since 1985 as part of the Internationales Brucknerfest Linz. This is a concert held in the Great Hall of the Brucknerhaus, which is broadcast live to the Donaupark.
The success of the Klassische Klangwolke was due in no small part to the participation of numerous internationally renowned orchestras and conductors. The Vienna Philharmonic, under Lorin Maazel, played a defining role in the early years. They were followed by such distinguished conductors as Claudio Abbado, Herbert Blomstedt, Riccardo Chailly, Franz Welser-Möst, Riccardo Muti, Václav Neumann, Georges Prêtre, Dennis Russell Davies and Michael Tilson Thomas. In 2021, Silvia Spinnato became the first woman to conduct the Klassische Klangwolke. Alongside the Vienna Philharmonic, guest ensembles have included the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria and the Bruckner Orchestra Linz.
Since 1998, the Kinderkulturzentrum KuddelMuddel has been organising the Kinderklangwolke in collaboration with artists and numerous contributors. Year after year, the Donaupark near the Brucknerhaus is transformed into a vast world of experiences where families can discover music, theatre and art in a relaxed atmosphere. Over more than two decades, the »little sister« of the Linzer Klangwolke has brought over twenty themes from children’s everyday lives to the large open-air stage – a gift to all those interested in culture, regardless of age, origin or social background.
In 2018, the Kinderklangwolke celebrated its 20th anniversary under the motto SCHÖNE BUNTE WELT and, at the same time, opened a new chapter. For the first time, the concept of an entire afternoon with a festival atmosphere was developed, transforming Linz’s Donaupark into a colourful world of experiences.
In 2019, Christoph Bochdansky’s production had the Little Prince land in the middle of the Donaupark in DER KLEINE PRINZ IN LINZ.
Due to the global pandemic, 2020 saw the launch of DOPPELKLICK ZUM GLÜCK, a mobile and digitally adapted version of the Kinderklangwolke that explored the tension between the analogue and digital worlds and, for the first time, could be experienced in a hybrid format – live and digitally at two different locations.
In 2021, the Kinderklangwolke returned to the Donaupark. Suli Puschban, the »rebel of children’s music«, delivered a thrilling open-air experience with DIE FLUT AUS MUT.
With GALERIE DER TRÄUME, the Kinderklangwolke whisked its audience away in 2022 to an imaginative world full of images, colours and music. Together with extraordinary characters, children and adults embarked on a poetic journey and discovered the boundless power of the imagination.
In 2023, the Kinderklangwolke once again hosted a huge family festival in the Donaupark. A specially created musical theatre production, imaginative characters and numerous interactive stations emphasised the festival atmosphere of the event and transformed the Donaupark into a vibrant space for shared experiences.
In 2024, the Kinderklangwolke’s production CIRCUS – CIRCUS. Frida & Sven und die gestohlenen Träume was all about the magic of the circus. With music by Titus Vadon and a story by Susanne Stemmer, a spectacular rock-circus musical was created, combining acrobatics, juggling, stunts and impressive visuals into a thrilling open-air experience for the whole family.
In 2025, FELIX DER WÖRTERSAMMLER once again transformed the Donaupark into a musical wonderland for young and old alike. Timna Brauer’s musical, based on a story by Wolfgang Hermann, told the poetic tale of a child who collects words and discovers the world in their very own way. Music, language and imagination blended with a varied programme of audience participation to create an atmospheric celebration for the whole family.
Further information on Kinderklangwolke is available at kinderklangwolke or kuddelmuddel.at.
The Linzer Klangwolke is supported by:
