Autumn in Vienna: Best Art, Music and Film Events of Fall 2025
Top things to do in Vienna Fall 2025
Vienna in the fall takes on a plethora of hues as the lush summer foliage of its abundant parks and gardens transitions towards a more somber autumnal feel. The pace is slower and the Viennese prepare for the coming winter, moving many of their famed cultural activities indoors. Summer beer gardens give way to the city’s world-class museums, top notch exhibitions, and the buzzy return of Vienna’s unparalleled opera and ball seasons. Insight Cities gives you a heads up right here how to search out and enjoy the very best autumn things to do during your 2025 fall visit to the imperial city.
Take a Tour with Insight Cities
Vienna is perhaps best known for the influential musical culture that produced the titans of western classical music over centuries. If you want to learn more about the musicians and composers (and their powerful imperial patrons) who helped cement Vienna’s status as classical music capital, book our Vienna: City of Music tour. Our local music historian will help you walk in the footsteps of musical greats such Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Strauss. Along the way, you’ll listen highlights of Vienna’s musical masterpieces on speakers!
Art Events
Viennacontemporary – September 11 to 14, 2025
Vienna Contemporary doubles as an international contemporary art fair for serious buyers and an incredible opportunity for visitors to the Austrian capital to acquaint themselves with the city’s booming gallery scene. The fair takes place over four days in September each year, and over 100 local and international galleries present some of the finest, curated contemporary artworks from the world over. The fair takes place in the industrial, former cattle-shed, the Marx Halle, now home to some of Austria’s biggest events. Do what the locals do and buy your tickets online, to save time in the long lines that tend to form outside.
Vienna Design Week – September 26 to October 5, 2025
Sold as Austria’s largest curated design event, Vienna Design Week will be in its seventeenth year this fall. One of our all-time favorite fall things to do in Vienna, the program is spread over 10 days, the format is unique, with a number of site-specific events and shows held across the city, in addition to the exhibitions at the headquarters. With topics ranging from Urban Food and Design to Stadtarbeit (City Work) and the use of innovative mediums like Virtual Reality (VR), expect to be surprised and inspired by some of the best young designers around. This year’s thematic focus is ageing, which affects objects as much as people, with a guest district of Frankfurt Rhein-Main, the World Design Capital of 2026.
Vienna Art Week — November 7 to 14, 2025
Following up on Vienna Design Week and Vienna Contemporary, Vienna Art Week completes the artistic troika in the middle of November. Discussions, exhibitions, tours, performing arts and site-specific installations comprise the different events on during Art Week, all across the city. Unlike the other two, Art Week is much more of a hands-on, organic, bottom-up initiative, put on by a number of different volunteer associations and galleries, all member institutions of the Art Cluster Vienna. With over 200+ events on offer, you will be spoilt for choice. This year’s theme is “Learning systems,” encouraging artists and visitors to examine and question the knowledge systems that shape our world.
Exhibitions
Gothic Modern at the Albertina – opens September 19, 2025
This exhibition examines the influence of late medieval art on artists active from 1870 to 1920, many of whom became pioneers of Modernism. Artists such as Edvard Munch, Vincent van Gogh, Käthe Kollwitz, Max Beckmann, and Otto Dix looked to the Late Middle Ages for inspiration from the more expressionistic and allegorical work of medieval artists Holbein, Dürer, Cranach, and Baldung Grien, in a reaction to the realism and romanticism of previous art movements. With various Modernist works shown side by side with a Medieval inspiration, this exhibition draws a direct connection between these very different artistic periods.
IN-SIGHT: Gustav Klimt’s The Bride at the Upper Belvedere – until October 5, 2025
Klimt’s largest and most ambitious unfinished work gets a closer look in this special exhibition. The story of the painting is put together through first-person reports from fellow painters Egon Schiele and Felix Albrecht Harta, among those who had known him, pencil drawings and sketches from Klimt’s notebook, and in-depth technical analysis done in recent years. The exhibition creates a bigger picture not only of the unfinished painting but also a portrait of the artist himself in his final years. Tickets to the Upper Belvedere start at €19.50 for adults and €15.50 for students and seniors.
Radical! Women*Artists and Modernism 1910-1950 At Lower Belvedere Palace – closes Oct 12, 2025
Modernism has a particular face in the popular imagination, and this exhibition challenges those assumptions by featuring more than 60 lesser-known artists from the movement, many of them women: Käthe Kollwitz, Fahrelnissa Zeid, Elizabeth Catlett, and Hannah Höch are among the featured artists, who engaged in bold experimentation and critique of the status quo. Tickets are 18 euro for adults and 14 euro for students and seniors.
Music and Film Events
Waves Vienna – October 2 to 4, 2025
Taking place at the tail end of summer, Waves Vienna is both an international music festival and industry-standard conference, focused on the alternative rock and indie music genres. Also situated in Vienna’s ninth district, the festival prides itself on being a meeting place for eastern and western music within Europe, and brings in some of the continent’s brightest young talent. This year’s guest country is Colombia, with a program focused on the cities featured along the road from Vienna to Berlin. This year’s guest country is Spain, home to a variety of music scenes and a thriving festival industry. Spanish artists Garcia Picasso, Los Acebos, and Sandra Montfort are among the acts headlining this year’s edition.
Viennale – October 16 to 28, 2025
Compared to Berlinale, Viennale is a much more somber and proper Austrian affair. The Vienna International Film Festival has been around since 1960 and is one of the leading film events in the German-speaking world. With a number of Austrian and international premieres each year, the festival’s curators are known for their discerning eye and sometimes quirky tastes. Over 300 films are screened each year, including some historical delights that have been painstakingly recovered from the archives. A complete film listing will be available in early October.
Wien Modern — October 30 to November 30, 2025
The instruments may be the same, but the music performed at Wien Modern is far from Mozart. This music festival showcases modern classical music compositions, bringing the genre into the current day. Spread out numerous over evenings in the month of November, the festival features some of the biggest names in contemporary classical music, put on troupes like the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and Klangforum Wien at some of the city’s best venues including the Wiener Konzerthaus and Musikverein. We eagerly await the release of the program in September, which will feature the premiere of a contemporary a capella performance by REIHE Zykan+ at the MuTh concert hall.
Fairs & Festivals
ART & ANTIQUE Fair — November 13 to 17, 2025
Held inside the magnificent Hofburg palace, Vienna’s annual ART & ANTIQUE Fair is one of the biggest fairs of its kind in the country. From ancient sculptures to Medieval paintings to Art Nouveau vases, the ART & ANTIQUE Fair can work as a lively museum visit if buying doesn’t interest you.
Food and Drink
Genusmeille – September 6–7 & 13–14, 2025
Touted as the longest bar in the world, Genusmeille takes place each year at the beginning of fall in the Vienna Woods Thermal Region. Local vintners, farmers and gourmet shops setup tables along the 1st Vienna waterline hiking path between Mödling and Bad Vöslau, giving you a chance to walk along and sample the goods. Try some of the delectable wine, cheese and smoked meats on offer and burn the calories as you hike through some of Austria’s prettiest forests. Possibly one of our favorite things to do in the fall, Genusmeille makes for some perfect family fun.
Genusswelten — October 24–26, 2025
Calling all foodies – this festival is for you! Held in the Museum of Applied Arts, Genusswelten presents international and local specialties meant to delight the senses. Spices and sauces from far and near, cheeses and cold cuts, and wine, beer, and distillates are all available to sample and savor. In addition to tasting possibilities, Genusswelten also puts on show cooking events so you can watch the culinary art first-hand.
Special Events
Monument Day – September 28, 2025
One day a year, as part of European Heritage Day, the public has a chance to visit rooms and buildings that are otherwise concealed behind closed doors. While this year’s open monuments have yet to be announced, past participating buildings include the Hofburg, which has opened parts of the palace otherwise restricted to visitors, the National Library, and the Jewish Museum. This year’s theme focuses on the digitalization of historical objects for preservation purposes.
Long Night of the Museums – October 4, 2025, 6:00 PM to midnight
Held on the first Saturday of October each year, Vienna’s museums open to the public to a special night of events and free and discounted exhibitions. Going on until midnight, the event is perfect for night owls, and a children’s program ensures all ages can be engaged throughout the evening. All visitors start at the Museum Meeting Point to visit participating museums. We eagerly await for the program to be announced in September.
Vienna is full of fall color and events this season, so you’ll find plenty to do on your visit. Want to get to know the city and its wealth of history better? Contact us today and we can arrange your Vienna tour.