The Salzburg Festival is considered the world's most important festival of classical music and performing arts. It has been held in Salzburg every summer in July and August since 1920. The hallmarks of the festival are Jedermann on the Cathedral Square, exemplary Mozart and Strauss performances, as well as a varied and top-class program of plays, operas and concerts. Every year, more than 200 events are attended by more than 250,000 guests during the six festival weeks.

After a long tradition of opulent costume festivals and musical comedies dating back to the Middle Ages, efforts to organize a festival in Salzburg to celebrate Mozart were shattered by the events of the First World War.

After the end of the war in 1918, five men campaigned for the revival of the festival, who are now regarded as its founders: the poet and playwright Hugo von Hofmannsthal, the composer Richard Strauss, the stage designer Alfred Roller, the conductor Franz Schalk and the director Max Reinhardt, then artistic director of the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, who had staged the world premiere of Hofmannsthal's play Jedermann in the Berlin Circus Schumann Arena in 1911.

According to Hofmannsthal's political writings, the Salzburg Festival was to emphasize the centuries-old Habsburg principles of “live and let live” towards ethnic groups, peoples, minorities, religions, cultures and languages as a counterpart to the Prussian-North German uncompromising world view and the then emerging National Socialism. Inclusive, with three axes: drama, opera, concert, today in three festival halls and numerous other venues in the city, concert halls, churches and stages, outdoors and in enclosed spaces, open to new ideas, but always struggling to ensure that what is shown meets the high quality standards.

The first Salzburg Festival finally took place in 1920 (after decades of discussions, concepts and planning). Reinhardt chose Hofmannsthal's Jedermann, the Cathedral Square as the venue and Alexander Moissi as the leading actor. The play became a long-running hit and a trademark of the festival. Today, the fourteen annual performances attract around 35,000 spectators; Jedermann is usually sold out.

The logo still used today, with the Greek theater mask, the red and white flag and the Salzburg fortress on a golden background, goes back to a poster designed by Leopoldine Wojtek (1903-1978) for the Festival in 1928.

In 2017, the Salzburg Festival recorded ticket sales of around 27 million euros and generated added value of 183 million euros per year in Salzburg. The Festival thus secures 2800 full-time jobs in Salzburg (Austria 3400). Through their impact on other sectors, they generate around 77 million euros in taxes and duties for the public sector. (Source: Wikipedia)