THE VIENNA OPERA BALL

February · The Vienna State Opera · An Evening · Since 1935 · The Ball and Music

Arranged by the Court

The opening committee entering in procession, debutantes in white with bouquets on the arms of partners in white tie, at The Vienna Opera Ball — I · The Procession

Dates: 4 February 2027
WhereThe Vienna State Opera, Vienna
DressWhite tie
AdmissionOpen to the public
The weatherIn February the Innere Stadt reaches about 7°C by day and 1°C at night, and rain or snow falls on about one day in four.
The tableThe Court dines the evening after at Steirereck im Stadtpark (steirereck.at), or takes Tafelspitz at Plachutta on the Wollzeile (plachutta.at).
Of noteThe doors open at 20:15 on 4 February 2027; the opening ceremony begins at 22:00, and the ball closes at five.
In companyA member who means to go says so to the Secretary, and the Court seats its members together where the engagement allows.RSVP tells the Secretary that a member means to attend. Send passes the engagement’s name, its date and the address of its page to whomever the reader chooses, or, on a computer, copies the address; the Court itself sends and keeps nothing.RSVP

The Vienna Opera Ball is held on the Thursday before Ash Wednesday, the last great night of the ball season. Five thousand guests inside the State Opera, in white tie, until five in the morning.

The Viennese will tell you it is not the best ball of their season. It is the largest, the most watched, and the hardest to enter.

Debutantes raising their bouquets on the ballroom floor below the flower-hung tiers of boxes at The Vienna Opera Ball — II · The Bouquets

The Transformation

The State Opera does not close. It runs a repertory almost every night of the year, and the single exception is the week of this ball.

The house has about forty-eight hours. The last production is struck. The seats are lifted out of the stalls. A floor is laid level with the stage, uniting stalls, orchestra pit and stage into one surface of some eight hundred and fifty square metres. Boxes are built on the stage itself, and a staircase is put in for the debutantes to come down.

The ball is held. Within days the seats go back and the building is an opera house again.

That is the thing to understand about the evening. It is not held in a ballroom. It is held inside a working opera house that has been taken apart for one night.

The Opening

The doors open at a quarter past eight, the Federal President arrives at nine, and the ball is opened at ten.

Then the committee: some hundred and fifty couples, the women in white with long gloves and tiaras, the men in tails. They are aged eighteen to twenty-seven and have not opened the ball before, and they have rehearsed for weeks under the Elmayer school for a performance lasting four minutes.

They come down the staircase, dance a polonaise, and finish on the Blue Danube. Then two words are called across the house, “Alles Walzer”, the ropes come away, and five thousand people go onto the floor at once.

Three quadrilles are danced across the night, at midnight, at two and at four. The steps are called aloud and a great many people do not manage them, which is understood to be part of it.

The Vienna State Opera at night with a red canopy over its arcade, guests in evening dress arriving on the red carpet behind the barriers (2026) — IV · The Arrival

What to Know

Every room in the building is open, each with its own bar and its own band. Restaurants, a champagne bar, an oyster bar, a casino, a discotheque, and a Heurigen serving Viennese wine inside an opera house.

White tie for men and it is not negotiable. Floor-length for women, and a cocktail dress will not pass the door.

An entrance ticket for 2027 costs €435, and a place to watch from €110, sold only with an entrance ticket; boxes run to tens of thousands. The tickets are the easy part. The boxes are held.

It was cancelled in 1991, over the fighting in the Gulf, and again in 2021 and 2022 for the pandemic.

The mistake is taking it for the whole of the Vienna season. More than four hundred balls are held in the same weeks, several of them better nights, and the Viennese go to those.

Questions

When is the Vienna Opera Ball in 2027?

The Vienna Opera Ball 2027 is held on Thursday 4 February 2027 at the Vienna State Opera, with the opening committee’s dress rehearsal in the ballroom the day before.

What is the dress code at the Vienna Opera Ball?

The Opera Ball publishes a dress code that every guest must keep: for ladies a floor-length ball gown in any colour, though not traditional costume or a festive dirndl; for gentlemen a black tailcoat, white dress shirt, white bow tie and black patent leather shoes, with a gala uniform permitted as an alternative. The Court follows it.

What do men wear to the Vienna Opera Ball?

White tie in the strict sense: a black tailcoat, white dress shirt, white bow tie and black patent leather shoes, or a gala uniform. On the night, Popp and Kretschmer keep a tailoring workshop in the house, where small wardrobe mishaps are repaired. The Court wears white tie.

How does one get tickets to the Vienna Opera Ball?

Tickets are sold only by the Opera Ball Office of the Vienna State Opera, directly to guests; orders from tour operators and resellers are not considered. Entrance tickets are allocated by a raffle that decides who may buy, for which registration opens each year in early June; table seats are then offered first come, first served, and boxes are sold through the Office, with a right of first refusal for donors to the State Opera’s circles of friends.

How much are tickets to the Vienna Opera Ball?

As of October 2026, for 2027, an entrance ticket costs 435 euros, including a 35 euro solidarity contribution, and a table seat 665 euros with entrance included; spectator seats and standing room, sold only with an entrance ticket, cost 110 to 290 euros. Boxes and premium tables cost 15,000 to 27,000 euros each.

What happens on the night of the Vienna Opera Ball?

The doors open at 20:15, the Federal President arrives at 21:00, and the opening, with the debutante committee and performances by opera singers, begins at 22:00. ‘Alles Walzer’ opens the floor to every guest at 22:45, quadrilles are danced at midnight, 2:00 and 4:00, and the ball ends at 5:00.

The conductor at full stretch on the podium with debutantes ranked in white behind him at The Vienna Opera Ball — V · The Conductor

The Court

The Vienna Opera Ball is not the Court’s own. Tickets, boxes and a table are sought on a member’s behalf, and the Court arranges the whole of the evening: getting there, where to stay, and the table afterwards. Boxes are the difficult part and are taken a year ahead.

How one becomes a member is set out under Admission.