Vienna New Year’s Concert 2027: Lottery and Alternatives

1. The 2027 lottery: registration closed on 28 February 2026

The principle is simple, and the organiser spells it out on its official site. The Wiener Philharmoniker open a single registration window per season, online only. For the 2026/27 season, it ran from 1 to 28 February 2026. The ticket page now says registration is over, and results, winners and non-winners alike, were sent by email in March 2026 (Wiener Philharmoniker ticket page, checked on 18 October 2026).

In practice, if you weren’t drawn in March, there is no official route left for the concert on 1 January 2027. None of the pages we checked announces a new registration for this edition. Going by previous years, the next window is expected in February 2027, but that date isn’t confirmed: the Philharmoniker’s site will be where it gets announced.

How the lottery works

Window: 1 to 28 February 2026 2 tickets per registration One registration per concert

The lottery covers three year-end concerts, but each one needs its own registration. A household that wants the Preview, the Silvesterkonzert and the New Year’s Concert has to register three times, once per concert and per email address. The draw is run by computer, anonymously. Registrants’ personal data is deleted every year after the draw, and the FAQ says the odds are the same from one year to the next: being registered in earlier years gives you no advantage.

The rules to remember

• One registration per concert and per email address.
• Quota: 2 tickets for the New Year’s Concert, 4 for the Preview and the Silvesterkonzert.
• Online registration only: no post, no email.
• No waiting list or second draw is described on the official pages.

Pixidia tip: don’t count on a last-minute ticket for the New Year’s Concert. If you want classical music in Vienna on 30 December, 31 December or 1 January, the St Peter’s Church concert below is bookable online: its slots for all three evenings were open on 18 October 2026.

This concert has nothing to do with the lottery: no registration is linked to it, and you book directly on Viator. The product page cites Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Schubert and Vivaldi, with no mention of Strauss. It is held in the baroque St Peter’s Church and lasts 60 to 70 minutes according to the listing. The trap is confusing it with the New Year’s Concert: it’s not the same venue, not the same orchestra, and the Philharmoniker’s 2027 programme isn’t published yet, so no piece-by-piece comparison is possible at this stage.

Christmas and New Year Concert at St. Peter’s Church in Vienna From €49 per adult, or €98 for 2 adults, up to €69 per adult depending on the seat · time slots checked for 30 and 31 December and 1 January, on 18 October 2026 · ★ 4.6 (157 reviews)

Book my seat at St Peter’s

2. The 1 January 2027 concert: date, conductor and programme

The official New Year’s Concert takes place on Friday 1 January 2027 at 11:15 am in the Goldener Saal of the Musikverein, Musikvereinsplatz 1, Vienna. The date and time appear on the Wiener Philharmoniker’s site and on the Vienna tourist office’s site. It’s an annual event, held every 1 January.

The conductor for the 2027 edition is Tugan Sokhiev, according to the concert’s official page. The programme, however, isn’t published as of this check: the organiser hasn’t announced it yet, so don’t treat it as settled. Tradition puts the Strauss family front and centre, with waltzes and polkas, but the exact list of 2027 pieces is still to come. The concerts on 30 and 31 December are played in the same hall, and their programme isn’t confirmed for 2026/27 on the pages we checked either.

Official prices for the 2026/27 season

Source: Wiener Philharmoniker, ticket information, checked on 18 October 2026.

The official site doesn’t publish a price grid by category or prices for standing places, so we don’t quote an average price per zone. Some public pages still show the 2025/26 prices, for example €35 to €1,200 for the New Year’s Concert on the Austrian national tourist board’s site: those figures are out of date and don’t apply to the 2027 edition.

3. The Musikverein and its Goldener Saal: the hall, access and rules

The Grosser Saal, known as the Goldener Saal, has 1,744 fixed seats and up to 200 standing places, according to the Musikverein’s hall rental sheet. Its dimensions are 48.9 × 19.1 × 17.75 metres. The house’s general presentation says « almost 1,700 » seats; the technical sheet with 1,744 seats is the reference. The hall is also open to wheelchair users, with dedicated spaces at €17, companion included.

The Musikverein box office is open September to June, Monday to Friday 9 am to 7 pm and Saturday 9 am to 1 pm; in July and August, Monday to Friday 9 am to 12 pm. For the New Year’s Concert, tickets go through the lottery and the Kärntner Ring 12 office: the Musikverein box office is not a point of sale for this concert (summary of the Musikverein and Philharmoniker pages).

The easiest way there is the U1, U2 or U4 metro to Karlsplatz, a 4 to 7 minute walk. Trams 1, 2 and 62 (stops Oper and Karlsplatz), lines 71 and D (Schwarzenbergplatz) and buses 59A and 4A also serve the area. A concert ticket doesn’t cover public transport, so you need a Wiener Linien ticket. Short-term paid parking is limited to 2 hours, Monday to Friday 9 am to 10 pm, and the house recommends leaving the car behind.

The house rules are worth knowing in advance:

• Cloakroom. Coats, bags, backpacks, umbrellas and folding chairs can’t go into the hall, including the standing area. The page says both that suitcases and large bags can’t be left, and that the house may charge for checking clothes and large bags: leave your luggage at the hotel and check on site.
• Opening. The house opens 1 hour before the concert, and hall access is usually 30 minutes before. For the 11:15 am concert on 1 January, that means opening around 10:15 am and hall access around 10:45 am.
• Latecomers. Once the concert has started, you can only get in during the interval or an applause break, not between movements.
• Recording. Audio and video recording are banned without special permission.
• Food and drink. Not allowed in the hall. Pre-ordering from the house caterer lets you skip the queue at the interval.
• Phones. Switched off or on airplane mode during the concert.
• Dress. « Festive attire appropriate to the occasion » is expected; sportswear is discouraged.
• Cancellation. Tickets booked at the Musikverein can’t be cancelled.

4. Won tickets: pick-up at Kärntner Ring 12 and digital tickets

Winning tickets for the Preview on 30 December and the Silvesterkonzert on 31 December can only be collected from one place: the Vienna Philharmonic Ticket Office, Kärntner Ring 12, about a two-minute walk from the Musikverein. Collection opens on the first working day of October each year, and you need to show your booking receipt. For the 2026/27 edition, that first working day was Thursday 1 October 2026, so collection was already open at the time of this check on 18 October 2026. The official pick-up FAQ gives the following hours.

Source: Wiener Philharmoniker, FAQ « Success – Picking up Tickets », checked on 18 October 2026.

For the New Year’s Concert on 1 January, tickets are digital only and issued in the winner’s name. The organiser won’t post them « for security reasons » and strongly advises against reselling. The FAQ doesn’t give the exact delay between payment and pick-up.

5. Dated alternatives around 31 December 2026 and 1 January 2027

If the lottery didn’t go your way, the concerts below have been announced by their organisers, but booking and prices aren’t confirmed everywhere (see the Status column). The table compares them.

The Hofburg Orchester: two concerts at the Hofburg

The Hofburg Orchester gives a Silvesterkonzert in the Festsaal of the Hofburg (Heldenplatz 1) on 31 December 2026, from 8:30 pm to 10:00 pm. The programme pulls together waltzes, overtures and polkas by Johann and Josef Strauss, extracts from Lehár, Kálmán and Suppé, and four opera singers. On 1 January 2027 it plays a Neujahrskonzert from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm, conducted by Crt Lasbaher. Prices are €140 (VIP), €110 (category A) and €90 (category B), all taxes included, per seat. Seats are unnumbered, and the on-site box office opens one hour before the concert.

The cancellation terms differ from the Musikverein’s: a full refund up to one week before the concert, then 50% of costs kept, and cancellations accepted in writing only.

The Wiener Ring-Ensemble, Brahms-Saal

This chamber ensemble plays in the Brahms-Saal of the Musikverein on 30 December 2026 at 7:30 pm, then on 31 December 2026 at 3:00 pm. The price isn’t published on the official page we checked, so we don’t quote any figure from resale sites, since those aren’t verified.

The Musikverein Silvesterkonzert

The Silvesterkonzert on 31 December at 7:30 pm, in the Goldener Saal, is the evening closest to the 1 January concert. It also runs on the lottery, whose window is closed. It’s here as a point of comparison, not as a solution.

Opera houses and concert halls: to be confirmed

For the Konzerthaus, the Staatsoper, the Volksoper, the MusikTheater an der Wien, the Palais Ferstel and the Kursalon, the pages we checked are archives of past seasons, or don’t confirm any 2026 programme. An archived wien.info page (2025/26 season) listed Die Fledermaus (The Bat) at the Staatsoper and the Volksoper around 31 December. That isn’t confirmed for 2026, so check the opera houses’ sites before you buy anything.

Source: Hofburg Orchester, wien.info, Wiener Philharmoniker and Viator for the St Peter’s time slots, checked on 18 October 2026.

If you’d rather ring in the New Year somewhere else, our guide to the 10 best spots to see in 2027 lists other places to celebrate. To compare with another capital, the Hogmanay 2026-2027 guide to Edinburgh details eight Scottish New Year experiences.

6. Following the concert without a ticket: public screens and broadcasts

On 1 January, the Vienna tourist office announces public screens at Stephansplatz, on the New Year’s Eve (Silvester) walking route, and at Riesenradplatz in the Prater, next to the big wheel. They let you follow the concert without a ticket. A screen at Rathausplatz is announced on third-party sites, but there is no official confirmation: don’t make the trip on that alone, and check wien.info on the day.

The concert is also broadcast internationally. The Wiener Philharmoniker and the Vienna tourist office talk about « more than 150 countries » and around 50 million viewers; other sources give lower figures, depending on the year and how they count. In Austria, the broadcast runs on ORF 2 and on the Ö1 radio station. In France, the broadcast hasn’t been verified for 2027 on an official source: check the public channels’ schedules on the day.

If you’re in Vienna for New Year’s, our Vienna Christmas markets 2026 guide lists the dates and opening hours to check, including those at Rathausplatz. For a wider look at European markets, the Christmas markets in Europe 2026 guide adds more comparisons.

What other guides don’t tell you

Plenty of guides and ticket resellers repeat the same information, often without dating it. Here are five points checked against official pages, either missing elsewhere or badly presented.

• The registration window has been closed since 28 February 2026. Resale and agency pages sometimes suggest registration is still open, without ever dating it. Wiener Philharmoniker ticket page (checked 18 October 2026).
• Tickets for 1 January are digital, named to the holder, and never posted. Vienna Unwrapped, for example, promises a pick-up without giving an address or any detail about the ticket format. Wiener Philharmoniker ticket pick-up FAQ (checked 18 October 2026).
• The Kärntner Ring 12 counter has set hours for 30 and 31 December. Collection starts on the first working day of October. The guides we checked don’t give these hours. Same FAQ (checked 18 October 2026).
• The Musikverein cloakroom won’t take coats, even in the standing area, and latecomers only get in at the interval. These rules rarely appear in mainstream guides, and a Musikverein booking can’t be cancelled. Musikverein visitor page (checked 18 October 2026).
• The 2025/26 prices still online don’t apply to 2027. The 2026/27 New Year’s Concert runs from €40 to €1,320, the Silvesterkonzert from €30 to €980, and the Preview from €25 to €545. Wiener Philharmoniker price information (checked 18 October 2026).