84. Ball der Wiener Philharmoniker
Three weeks after the New Year's Concert, the most filmed orchestra in the world steps down from the podium to set its guests dancing in the halls of the Musikverein. The Wiener Philharmoniker themselves play the solemn opening, before handing the night over to the Orchester Wolfgang Steubl and the Tom Henkes Dance Band. The entrance and dance of the Jungdamen- und Jungherrenkomitee, trained and led by the Tanzschule Elmayer under Thomas Schäfer-Elmayer, is one of the high points of the evening every year — floor-length white gown and white gloves for the young ladies, black tailcoat and white gloves for their partners. Dress code for guests: floor-length evening gown, white tie or Austrian gala uniform. Capacity is tight, the atmosphere more intimate and more musical than at the Hofburg.
Line-up : Organisation: Wiener Philharmoniker. Solemn opening by the orchestra (conductor not yet announced). Ball orchestras: Orchester Wolfgang Steubl, Tom Henkes Dance Band. Opening committee trained and led by the Tanzschule Elmayer, overall direction Thomas Schäfer-Elmayer, rehearsals at the Musikverein in the week before the ball.
How to get in
Wiener Philharmoniker — Kartenbüro and ball office, Kärntner Ring 12, 1010 Vienna
Box order in writing, by post or email, addressed to the Wiener Philharmoniker in the August before the ball (€6,000 to €18,000 depending on the box, allocation subject to availability and placed in a waiting queue). Table seats (€105 to €180) are sold out for 2027. Individual cards from 11 January 2027 at the box office, Kärntner Ring 12, and online, €220.
The turnkey stay
On 21 January 2027 the Golden Hall of the Musikverein — the hall of the New Year's Concert — trades its seats for a ballroom floor and disappears beneath countless floral arrangements: this is the 84th Ball of the Wiener Philharmoniker. From the balcony, the orchestra's brass sound the fanfare Richard Strauss composed for the very first ball, in 1924, played at every edition since. The debutantes in long white gowns and their partners in black tailcoats enter to a polonaise by Chopin or Ziehrer; then the dancing master pronounces the evening's only official words — "Alles Walzer!". Guests then waltz until the small hours with the Großes Wiener Ballorchester, relieved by a big band, with a quadrille at midnight repeated at 2 am; elsewhere in the house, a Viennese Heuriger and a discotheque set up in the Metal Hall. Card sales open on 11 January 2027, at the orchestra's office, Kärntner Ring 12, and online.
Where to stay
- Hotel Imperial, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Vienna — Kärntner Ring 16, a few hundred metres from the Musikverein, across the Ring: the palace built between 1862 and 1865 for Duke Philipp of Württemberg was turned into a hotel and inaugurated on 28 April 1873, in the presence of Franz Joseph and Elisabeth, for the Vienna World's Fair. The house offers a butler service, the Café Imperial Wien (7 am-11 pm daily), which serves the Imperial-Torte and one of the best Wiener Schnitzel in town, the Imperial Bar (9 am-1 am) with its daily afternoon tea, and a 24-hour gym. The ball's card office is two doors away, at Kärntner Ring 12.
- Hotel Sacher Wien — Five minutes' walk from the Musikverein, Philharmoniker Straße 4, just behind the State Opera: the house, opened in 1876, has 152 rooms and suites designed one by one by co-owner Alexandra Winkler with decorator Pierre-Yves Rochon. The Sacher Boutique Spa brings together a sauna area, steam bath, 24-hour gym and treatments by appointment (7 days a week, 11 am-7 pm). At table, the Rote Bar and Grüne Bar restaurants, and the Café Sacher Wien, which serves the Original Sacher-Torte daily from 7 am to 11 pm — booking advised.
Where to dine
- Steirereck im Stadtpark — Three stars in the Guide Michelin, the top rating, won straight away in the 2025 edition — the guide's return to Austria — in which only two tables in the country achieved it. Birgit and Heinz Reitbauer receive guests Am Heumarkt 2a, in the former Meierei of the Stadtpark extended by a contemporary steel-and-glass pavilion, about twelve minutes' walk from the Musikverein. Austrian produce-led cooking — herbs from the rooftop garden, citrus from the Schönbrunn orangery, forgotten vegetables, produce from the family farm at Pogusch in Styria — with Michael Bauböck as co-head chef alongside Heinz Reitbauer. Open Monday to Friday, lunch 11:30 am-4 pm and dinner from 6:30 pm: so on the day of the ball.
- Konstantin Filippou — Two stars in the Guide Michelin 2026 (and 5 toques / 19 points in the Gault&Millau 2026), Dominikanerbastei 17 in the 1st district, a few minutes by car from the Musikverein. Chef-patron Konstantin Filippou, half Greek and half Austrian, has switched his menu to all-fish: grass carp, salmon trout, crayfish, whitefish, catfish and pike-perch rank equally with langoustine, sardine, mussel and gambero rosso — no more meat on the menu. Open Monday and Thursday to Saturday, midday (12-3 pm) and evening (6-11:30 pm): the Thursday of the ball is therefore served.
What to experience
- Visite guidée du Musikverein (Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien) — See the house in broad daylight before finding it transformed into a ballroom: the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien opens its historic building, Musikvereinsplatz 1, for guided tours in German and English, from €6. No tours on Sundays or public holidays. Beyond eight people, a dedicated appointment is required, and other languages then become possible. As the Musikverein is not a museum but a living concert hall, a tour may be moved or cancelled because of a rehearsal or technical set-up — book early.
- Spanische Hofreitschule (École espagnole d'équitation de Vienne) — A quarter of an hour's walk from the Musikverein, Michaelerplatz 1: beneath the vaults of the baroque Winterreitschule of the Hofburg, built under Charles VI, the Lipizzaner stallions perform the "ballet of the white horses" — school quadrille, airs above the ground, work on the long reins. Performances of about 45 to 70 minutes from €26, morning exercise of about 60 minutes from €17, guided tour of about 60 minutes from €24 (offered in German). The Piber stud farm, which supplies the stallions, presents itself as a centre recognised by UNESCO for intangible cultural heritage.
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