Case study

Managing Complex Festival Operations with #DIESE at Wiener Festwochen

February 5, 2026
Wiener Festwochen

Managing a major international festival over a few weeks and across more than twenty venues requires a single source of truth. The Wiener Festwochen implemented #DIESE’s core modules to organize programming and ensure reliable scheduling before, during, and after the festival.

An International Festival with Complex Needs

The Wiener Festwochen is one of Europe’s leading multidisciplinary festivals, hosting productions, co-productions, and guest performances from international companies across multiple venues in Vienna.

The festival’s reality is demanding. Programming develops progressively, with information confirmed over time. Teams must coordinate titles, formats, venues, rehearsals, and company arrivals within a compressed schedule. In this context, a reliable planning tool is both strategic and essential for smooth communication.

The Challenge: A Single Reliable Planning Tool

Initially, the production team identified two key needs:

  • A shared, dependable festival schedule.
  • A central source of programming information.

Multiple files or versions risk misalignment. A single tool became critical to secure organization and streamline teamwork.

#DIESE as the Core Management Tool

The festival deployed #DIESE’s three core modules:

  • Projects (Productions): to structure programming.
  • Contacts: to centralize all stakeholders.
  • Planning: forming the backbone of operations.

The general planning module allows the team to manage all events while coordinating more than 20 venues. Event sheets in #DIESE store programming details (working titles, marketing titles, formats) and essential operational data, including ticketing requirements, surtitles preparation, and analytics to categorize projects by type. Each production, co-production, or guest performance is documented with precision, yet integrated into a global festival overview.

A Tool Designed for the Festival Rhythm

During the festival, #DIESE serves as the shared reference for the entire team, supporting fifty or more events in a fast-changing environment. Beyond the main event, the system also helps manage tours of festival-produced or co-produced projects, extending its usefulness throughout the project lifecycle.

Benefits for Wiener Festwochen

With #DIESE, the festival can:

  • Structure programming in a common framework.
  • Ensure reliable scheduling across multiple venues.
  • Share up-to-date information internally.
  • Anticipate festival-specific constraints.

Teams now have a tool tailored to the intense and evolving pace of a major festival while maintaining a global organizational view.