Austria’s most recognised tourism representative in Australia, the highly esteemed Astrid Gruchmann-Licht, has been back in the country this week to promote the 60th Anniversary of The Sound of Music and the events that will take place in 2025 to celebrate the classic musical.
Gruchmann-Licht – who previously established, operated and headed the Austria National Tourist Office in Australia for 32 years before passing on the baton in 2022 – has been working for her home state of Salzburg, to promote the destination to international markets, since last year. LATTE revealed her appointment in May, 2023.
Speaking at an event in Sydney on Tuesday evening this week on behalf of SalzburgerLand, Gruchmann-Licht says The Sound of Music has been a “love for me for a long time”. Moving from her homeland to Sydney at the age of 26, Gruchmann-Licht admitted the first time she ever watched the iconic musical was on SBS on a borrowed TV in what would ultimately become her second home.
Following events in New York, Washington DC and Chicago earlier this month to launch awareness of next year’s The Sound of Music festivities, Sydney was the fourth international city on Gruchmann-Licht’s radar to be provided with an update, and then Melbourne.
Key highlights of next year’s celebration include an exhibition opening in February at the Schloss Leopoldskron (a prelude to the new Sound of Music Salzburg museum that will open at Schloss Hellbrunn in 2026); The Sound of Music Trail some 40kms south of Salzburg that will launch in the spring – a 1.4 kilometre path that takes visitors through stunning landscapes to the Gschwandt Anger picnic plateau; and ‘The Sound of Music’ miniature format performed by the skillful puppeteers of the Salzburg Marionette Theatre (from May to October)
The Salzburg State Theatre will offer a special open air theatre experience entitled ‘The Sound of Music in the Park’ in Schloss Leopoldskron in June and July and there will be a Grand
anniversary week with a symposium and gala in October, beginning the week of 23 October.
View the full line-up of The Sound of Music events here.
At the Sydney event, Gruchmann-Licht welcomed a very special guest, Nicholas Hammond, who played Friedrich von Trapp in The Sound of Music. Hammond recollected on the production of the film, the cast and his memories of Salzburg and Austria.
Lilly Freudmayer, Market Representative Southeast Asia & Australia for Austria Tourism also highlighted the wider range of activities taking in place more broadly in Austria next year. Major drawcards include: the Strauss Year in Vienna celebrating the 200th anniversary of waltz king Johann Strauss; the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Saalbach in February and the launch of the MICHELIN Restaurant Guide for Austria.
Meanwhile, Gruchmann-Licht is working on another major project she told LATTE was “just too good to refuse, ” and that is being involved in the coordination Salzburg’s cultural contribution at Expo 2025 Osaka next year. The project is for the state of Salzburg, working beyond tourism.
“It combines the two loves I have. One is to promote Austria in an international context, and you don’t get anymore international than a World Expo. And secondly, to focus on the cultural offering of Salzburg. To be able to combine those two… it was ‘just me, it’s me’, she said.
Lead image: Astrid Gruchmann-Licht with Nicholas Hammond at the Golden Age Cinema in Surry Hills, Sydney on Tuesday evening.
