1.2 million attend Mozart anniversary year celebrations


dpa German Press Agency
Published: Tuesday January 16, 2007

Vienna- Events commemorating the 250th birthday of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart drew more than 1.2 million visitors to Austria, said Peter Marboe, artistic director of Vienna's Mozart festival, who presented the numbers on Tuesday. Highlight of the events in Austria's capital was a three-day festival held in late January around Mozart's birthday, which was attended by more than 100,000 visitors.

Marboe said the 120 projects and 3000-plus events, spanning all fields of art, were a commercial success, especially due to the increase of foreign visitors attracted by the anniversary year. The city spent 21 million euro on the project - 16 million on the art projects and 5 million for marketing the event.

Mozart, who was born in Salzburg on January, 29 1756 and died on December 5, 1791 in Vienna, spent ten years of his life in the Austrian capital.

Looking into the future, festival organizers already eye the next big anniversary, the bicentennial of composer Joseph Haydn's death in 2009.

© 2006 dpa German Press Agency