Vienna doesn’t leave celebrating New Year’s Eve to chance. Each year, the city organises the Silvesterpfad (New Year’s Eve Trail) with entertainment around the city centre.
Here’s what to expect…
- A series of linked open-air stages across Vienna
- Most stages normally start entertainments from 2pm on Dec 31
- Food & drink stalls dot the route
- Free: no ticket required
- Book a classical concert experience* for your trip
- See also:
What is the Silvesterpfad?
(One of the many stages around town at a previous event)
The New Year’s Eve trail is exactly as it sounds…a series of linked festive sites across Vienna, each fitted out with a temporary open-air stage and all geared up to entertain passers-by.
The previous Silvesterpfad, for example, allowed revellers to enjoy seven open-air sites on streets and squares around the central district and one outside the centre.
Each site on the trail has a different musical focus, so you can pick a location to match your tastes. And the choice is wide: pop, classical, disco, etc.
The event has no entrance fee or ticketing system; you just turn up. The stage entertainment begins at 2pm (though one or two stages may start much later) and ends around 2am on January 1st.
The Silvesterpfad’s popularity means hundreds of thousands of Viennese and tourists from the country and abroad typically throng the streets from early afternoon to late at night.
Over 800,000 enjoyed themselves last time out. They even stopped letting people into the areas around the stages shortly before midnight. So don’t leave your visit until the last minute.
Food and drink?
If you don’t want to nip into a bar or restaurant to keep your energy levels up for walking and waltzing, numerous catering stands pepper the Silvesterpfad route and usually open from late morning on December 31st.
When I last went, for example, a marvelous stand sold mini Sachertorte cakes outside Demel on Kohlmarkt. And the baked delights sold like, well, hot cakes.
Expect sparkling wine and punch to figure prominently. If want to learn more about the former, as well as drink it, the local sparkling wine company does nice tours of its cellars.
Expect sausages, too, of course. If you can’t find sausages at a Viennese event, consider that an early sign of the pending apocalypse.
2025 Silvesterpfad locations
(The historical Freyung square hosts a stage in 2024)
I don’t have confirmed details for the coming 2025 celebrations yet. But Vienna’s old town hosted all of the central sites last year with stages on…
- The Freyung
- Rathausplatz
- Am Hof
- The Graben pedestrianised street
- Stephansplatz (in front of the cathedral)
- Kärntner Straße
- Neuer Markt square
All these locations are within a short walking distance of each other. For example, Stephansplatz actually connects the Graben and Kärntner Straße.
The eighth location was the Wintermarkt at the entrance to the Prater entertainment quarter in the 2nd district.
Highlight: waltz in the New Year
Only one city can probably teach you to waltz outside while still making you feel like you’re in a ballroom.
(Lights on the Graben: always a favourite with visitors)
The giant Christmas chandelier lights along the Graben pedestrianised street at the very heart of the city stay up through New Year. Beneath them, you can usually enjoy a waltz under the guidance of a ballroom dancing school.
You might need the practice for the communal waltz likely to break out on Stephansplatz as the crowds listen to the cathedral’s Pummerin bell ring in the New Year at midnight.
Revellers also traditionally congregate on the Rathausplatz square in front of city hall for an official midnight waltz. At the previous event, this took the form of The Blue Danube played in a new arrangement by a 100-person superband and others to introduce the official Strauss Year.
(View across to the Rathaus through the surrounding park)
It only takes a little practice to dance the waltz, but a lot of skill to dance one adequately in the middle of a partly-tipsy crowd of Viennese. One of the great scientific mysteries of our time is how people manage to do so without causing significant pileups.
On January 1st, 2025, the Stephansplatz and Wintermarkt also showed a live broadcast of the famous New Year’s Concert from the Musikverein. So perhaps they’ll do the same in 2026.
Visitor tips
This is what I learned from my time on the Silvesterpfad:
- Plan your afternoon and evening schedule using the full programme and other details provided at the official website
- Don’t be shocked at how much you are actually charged for drinks etc. when you buy them from stands: you may have to add the cost of a returnable deposit on glasses, plates etc. to the advertised menu prices
- Along the route, some bakeries and snack bars may also open, should you wish an alternative source for food and drink
- I went until about 7pm (don’t mock me) and experienced no rowdiness or idiots letting off crackers. An absence of vehicles helped with the positive atmosphere; the Silvesterpfad area stays cordoned off from traffic
- The trail was already busy, though, even at that early time. If you’re not good in crowds, stay away, and it all gets louder as the evening progresses
- With all the revellers, it takes quite a while to get places. To move faster, just nip down a side street and walk along a parallel road to your end destination. Once you get off the marked Silvesterpfad streets, the crowds thin rapidly
Happy New Year!