Bregenz Festival Stage is a must-visit place for anyone designing a performance venue.

Let me introduce the Bregenz Festival Stage, where a world-renowned opera festival takes place.

Bregenz is a city in Austria, Europe. Every summer (July to August), it attracts more than ten times its population in tourists. The city's area is similar to Gwanak District in Seoul, but its population is less than one-tenth, with around 25,000 residents.

The Bregenz Festival Stage is the world’s first floating stage theater, with a massive barge placed on the lake to create the stage. This floating stage is located on Lake Constance (also known as Bodensee), which lies in western Austria, bordering Switzerland and Germany. Performances began here in 1946, in the aftermath of World War II, and since 1985, the performance repertoire has changed every two years.

Shall we explore why the Bregenz Festival is considered one of the world's top three classical music festivals?

In the plaza, you can see a sculpture that symbolizes the Bregenz Festival. Tourists gather around the illuminated sculpture, chatting and waiting for the performance to begin.

As you can tell from the exterior of the building, there is a large indoor opera theater (performance hall) inside. The indoor performance hall will be introduced in Part 2.

Although the performances take place on the outdoor floating stage, the orchestra plays in the indoor performance hall.

There is a hotel next to the performance venue where you can stay. It is difficult to book a room during the festival period. Be sure to reserve nearby hotels well in advance.

The outdoor bar features a sign for Weltenburger Kloster, known as the oldest monastery brewery in the world.

It's an outdoor venue, and it's raining. Can the performance still be attended? About 4% of the visitors are from distant countries. It's too bad to turn back because of the weather.

Fortunately, the performance is not canceled unless there is extremely heavy rain.

Entering the outdoor theater, you will inevitably be overwhelmed by the enormous, surreal stage and the fantastical expressions that seem almost otherworldly.

The size of the stage varies by production, but typically it measures around 30 meters wide and 20 meters high. You can gauge the scale by comparing it to the people in the photos. Achieving this level of production requires about 3 years of stage design, 1 year of installation, and costs over 9 billion won.

The Bregenz Festival attracts over 200,000 tourists annually, generating ticket revenues of 9 billion won and contributing over 200 billion won to the local economy. When considering the broader regional impact, the economic effect amounts to 700 billion won.

Due to its large scale, more than 3,000 people are involved in the Bregenz Festival.

The seating is built with a beam-concrete structure and check plates, arranged in a tiered layout along the lakeside.

There are a total of 6,980 seats, and the large stage ensures that all seats have excellent sightlines.

To enhance the grandeur and immersion of the outdoor sound experience, many speakers surround the seating area. While the placement of speakers might suggest that Multi-Dimensional Audio and emerging Immersive Audio Technology would be suitable, the application of the E-Acoustic (formerly LARES) system is actually more effective.

The audience primarily consists of 96% people from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland surrounding the lake. Tickets can be reserved online, costing approximately 300,000 to 450,000 won per seat. Reserved tickets can be collected on-site.