New records set at Cecilia Bartoli’s Whitsun Festival in Salzburg

A new record for visitors and revenue has been set at Salzburg's Whitsun Festival. The Festival, which ran from 17-20 May, boasted 13,450 visitors from 43 countries, who spent 1.3 million Euros in tickets.

After the artistic and economic success of last year's and this year's Festival, the contract with the artistic director Cecilia Bartoli has been extended until 2016, reported the Salzburg Times.

I am very happy to be able to bring music and pleasure to Salzburg until 2016. I look forward to carry out many ideas at the Whitsun Festival, of which I have dreamt of for years. I am very thankful that such a huge and interested audience is so enthusiastic about us being adventurous.

President of the Salzburg Festival, Helga Rabl-Stadler, is delighted with Bartoli's record,

I am happy about the increase in the numbers of visitors: 7,600 visitors came in 2011 and one year later, there were 10,520 visitors. A new record was set in 2013, when 2,900 additional tickets were sold. May has become a first strong festival month of the year.

The next Whitsun Festival runs from 5 to 9 June 2014, with Rossini's Cenerentola and Otello taking centre stage.

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.