Graz Festivals & Events Calendar (2026)

For a city of its size, Graz has a remarkable festival calendar. Classical music in Baroque halls, avant-garde art, street theatre, film, and a day when the whole old town dresses in traditional costume: there is something on in almost every month. Exact dates change each year, so check the festival's own website before you book.

The Festival Year

• •Elevate (early spring): electronic music, art and political debate, with concerts inside the Schlossberg
• •Diagonale (spring): the festival of Austrian film, with premieres in cinemas across the city
• •Designmonat (May to June): a month of exhibitions and events in the UNESCO City of Design
• •styriarte (June to July): classical and early music in historic venues, including Schloss Eggenberg
• •La Strada (late July to August): international street theatre, puppetry and new circus on squares and in parks
• •Aufsteirern (September): Styrian folk culture fills the old town for a weekend of music, dance, costume and food
• •steirischer herbst (September to October): one of Europe's oldest festivals of contemporary art, founded in 1968
• •Long Night of Museums (October): one ticket for museums across the city until late at night
• •Advent in Graz (late November to 24 December): Christmas markets on the squares of the old town

Spring: Film, Sound and Design

The year starts with Elevate, which mixes club nights and concerts with talks on society and technology, and uses venues such as the Dom im Berg, a hall cut into the rock of the Schlossberg. The Diagonale follows and brings the Austrian film industry to Graz for a week. From May the Designmonat shows why Graz holds the title City of Design, with pop-up exhibitions, open studios and installations in shops and courtyards.

Summer: Music Indoors and Theatre Outdoors

styriarte was founded in 1985 around the conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who grew up in Graz, and it still stands for imaginative programmes of classical and early music. Concerts take place in the Helmut List Halle, in churches and in the Planetary Room of Schloss Eggenberg. As it ends, La Strada takes over the streets: for about ten days, performers from many countries turn squares, parks and housing estates into stages, and many shows are free. Summer evenings also bring open-air concerts and film screenings in courtyards and on the Schlossberg.

Autumn: Tradition and Avant-Garde

September shows the two sides of Graz within a few weeks. Aufsteirern, on a weekend in mid-September, is one of the largest folk culture festivals in the country: tens of thousands of people in dirndl and lederhosen, brass bands and dance groups on every square, and stalls selling Styrian wine, pumpkin seed oil and pastries. Shortly afterwards steirischer herbst opens, with new commissions in visual art, performance, music and literature that are often provocative. October adds the Long Night of Museums and the grape harvest in the countryside, when wine taverns serve Sturm, the cloudy, still-fermenting new wine.

Winter: Advent in the Old Town

From late November until Christmas Eve, the squares of the old town fill with Advent markets, each with its own character: the traditional market in front of the town hall on Hauptplatz, crafts on Färberplatz and Mehlplatz, and a market on the Schlossberg. The best-known sight is the nativity scene carved from ice in the courtyard of the Landhaus. Mulled wine, roast chestnuts and lights across the lanes make this one of the most atmospheric times to visit.

Tips for Festival Visitors

• •Book accommodation early for Aufsteirern weekend and for Advent weekends.
• •Many events are free, including most of Aufsteirern and much of La Strada.
• •Tickets for styriarte concerts in small venues sell out well ahead.
• •Aufsteirern and the Advent markets draw big crowds: come on foot or by tram rather than by car.

After the festival, head out: our Graz nightlife guide covers the best bars, jazz clubs and late-night venues.