Lucerne Festival Reported Record Occupancy Rate

The festival, based in Lucerne, Switzerland, had a 96% occupancy rate this year with 41,000 concertgoers

Offering 89 events between August 10 and September 12, the festival planned to target a wide variety of audiences. 29 of the events were completely free, 47 events were sold out, and 29 of the symphony concerts had an average capacity of 99%.

This year’s program focused on “crazy” music, works, and composers. This includes music by Robert Schumann, the opera Partenope by George Frideric Handel, and unusual concert formats.

The festival featured numerous guest performances — including the Berlin Philharmonic with Kirill Petrenko, the Royal Concertgebouworkest with Daniel Harding, the Vienna Philharmonic with Herbert Blomstedt, the Bamberg Symphony with Jakub Hrůša, the London Symphony Orchestra with Sir Simon Rattle, the Berlin Baroque Soloists with Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra with Roberto González-Monjas, and the Mariinksy Orchestra with Valery Gergiev.

The Lucerne Festival adapted the program as well as performance conditions to meet the requirements set forth by the Swiss federal government regarding COVID-19.

All concerts did not have an intermission, masks were mandatory throughout the concerts, the capacity of the KKL Luzern Concert Hall was limited to 1,000 people, and some of the ensembles were smaller than originally planned.