Concordia Ball

The press club Concordia, an organisation of Austrian journalists and writers, has been holding a traditional ball at Vienna’s City Hall for over 150 years now. As one of the few summer balls, around 2,000 guests attend each year. While it honours old ball traditions, the organisers introduce a new exciting topic every year. The 2017 Concordia Ball on 2 June will skilfully combine Indian Bollywood spirit with Viennese Culture. “Since 1863 the ball serves to intensify the contact between press and important personalities,” says Astrid Zimmermann, secretary general of the press club Concordia. In early years, the ball for authors and journalists gained public recognition and acceptance for the writers’ guild as well as financial support for humanitarian causes. The ball soon became an annual highlight in Viennese society and was referred to in the ‘Morning Post’ in 1865 as the ‘crown of elite balls’.