Apples, beer, wine and pumpkins. Four things closely associated with the Austrian province of Styria (German: Steiermark).
Once a year, lorry loads of apples, beer, wine and pumpkin products travel up the southern motorway to Vienna for the 4-day Styrian Spring (Steiermark Frühling) festival on the Rathausplatz square.
- A feast of rural cuisine, music, and tradition from the Alpine province of Styria
- Always a lively atmosphere
- Many people in traditional garb
- 2025 dates: Mar 27-30
- See also:
A spring festival
(The central Rathausplatz hosts the event)
The festival is a celebration of one of Austria’s mountainous provinces, its culture and (particularly) its culinary delights. One year, for example, featured a 30-metre apple strudel.
The square in front of the Rathaus turns into a little piece of Styria, with booths and wooden cabins, turf, mulch and floral displays adding rural charm to the urban landscape.
Many people appear in traditional dress, from senior citizens with imperious moustaches to youngsters sporting Lederhosen and sunglasses: not just booth staff, but visitors, too.
Incidentally, the rustic gear is not a display for the Viennese and tourists, but the continuation of an authentic tradition.
Numerous booths cover the main tourism regions in the province, and you can often enjoy demonstrations of traditional crafts, like basket weaving.
(Styrian wine has an excellent reputation)
As you wander around, two things strike you:
First, Styrians are a happy folk. All smiles and laughter, and full of regional pride. But not the “we’re better than you, so leave your money here and get out” type of pride. More of the “come and share in our luck” variety.
Second, Styrians do like their wine and beer.
An awful lot of booths, tents and cabins seem to sell Styrian wine and schnapps. A very distinctive regional wine, for example, is the Schilcher rosé made from the local Blauer Wildbacher grape.
And the last time I went, beers from the big regional Styrian breweries like Gösser and Murauer were flowing in copious quantities.
(Alpine skiing world cup medallists Nici Schmidhofer and Conny Hütter tapping the beer back in 2023 with Brau Union sales director Bernhard Mitteröcker and Austrian Chamber of Commerce division chairman Johann Spreitzhofer; press photo © Steiermark Tourismus | Jürgen Hammerschmid)
They like their food, too.
You can buy pumpkin seed snacks in a multitude of flavours, as well as pumpkin seed oil (a distinctive dark green dressing that goes well on salads).
Sausages and small dumplings with melted cheese, dark bread garnished with air-dried ham, local cheeses and horse radish, fried meat and potatoes, sweet rolls (Buchtel) and funnel cakes, giant pretzels: all typical fare at the Steiermark Frühling.
The grounds have plenty of seats and benches to sit around to enjoy all the above.
Or you can flop onto some straw and enjoy the spring sun: the surrounding Rathauspark is normally in fine form, too, with fresh green carpeting the trees and displays of spring blooms in the flower beds.
(Rustic dark bread accompanies many a meal)
Among the chatter and laughter, you’ll also hear music, and not just as a core element of the many presentations, demonstrations, performances and other activities on the main stage.
Often a booth or cabin has its own traditional folk group from the mountains, perhaps with a portly gentleman in leather trousers swinging his accordion with gusto, pausing only for another sup of Styrian beer and a satisfied smile at the assembled audience.
The festival has a great atmosphere and perhaps makes a good place to eat as you wander the more traditional city sights. Though it can get very busy. On our last visit, we retired to the nearby Sluka café-konditorei to recharge with coffee and cake.
2025 dates & tickets
There is no entrance fee. Dates for 2025 are March 27th to 30th. The previous festival had the following opening times:
- Thursday: 11am to 6pm (until 10pm for product sales and gastronomy)
- Friday & Saturday: 10am to 6pm (until 10pm for product sales and gastronomy)
- Sunday: 10am to 6pm
How to get to the spring festival
You can reach the Rathausplatz easily enough, given the central, convenient location. Chances are you’ll run into it by accident on your sightseeing travels.
Subway: U2 line to Rathaus.
Trams: Lines 1, 2, D or 71 to Rathausplatz / Burgtheater or line 2 to Stadiongasse / Parlament.
Address: Rathausplatz, 1010 Vienna | Website