The Royal Concertgebouw welcomes 805,000 visitors in 2025

In 2025, The Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam welcomed 805,000 visitors to 875 concerts and 170 other events, marking the highest visitor numbers since 2007. With this result, The Concertgebouw ranks among Europe’s most visited classical concert halls*. The main driver behind the significant increase in attendance (from 735,000 in 2024 to 805,000 in 2025) was the Mahler Festival in May. Among the 2025 audience were 42,000 children, attending family concerts and educational projects.

Musical highlights: Mahler Festival, Cecilia Bartoli and Nikola Meeuwsen

The third Mahler Festival in the history of The Concertgebouw attracted audiences from the Netherlands and abroad. In total, the festival drew 56,000 visitors, including 22,000 people who attended the livestreams in Amsterdam’s Vondelpark. The festival also received extensive international media attention, with press from 15 different countries. Beyond the festival, the season featured many other musical highlights, including the recital by Cecilia Bartoli with Lang Lang, the debut of Jon Batiste, and the winners’ concert by Nikola Meeuwsen (organized for the occasion of his First Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition 2025).

Special concerts: Amsterdam 750 and Suriname in Concert

In addition to its classical programming, The Concertgebouw actively sought to strengthen its connection with the city. Amsterdam’s anniversary year was opened with Amsterdam in Concert, during which the ‘best Amsterdam song’ was selected in collaboration with Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool. The 50th anniversary of Suriname’s independence was celebrated with Suriname in Concert, which was broadcast on television both in the Netherlands and in Suriname.

90 free concerts and free livestreams

Alongside its ticketed concerts, The Concertgebouw presented more than 40 free Lunch Concerts in the Main Hall and Recital Hall, 19 free livestreams of the Mahler Festival in the Vondelpark, and 50 free concerts during Concertgebouw OPEN, the annual open day at the start of the season. In addition, more than 100 live radio broadcasts were aired from The Concertgebouw on NPO Klassiek, including 40 broadcasts of the Sunday Morning Concert.

Expanded education and accessibility programmes

Educational and participatory programming was further expanded in 2025. New recurring initiatives include a musical Escape Room for secondary school students and the Zing-Cirkel, in which people with Alzheimer sing together with their caregivers under professional guidance. The new SOUK Kids Festival, featuring Arabic and classical music, attracted 1,200 children.

Social media: ‘The Concertgebouw Stairs’

The Concertgebouw also continued to grow in popularity on social media. Nearly every soloist and conductor performing in Amsterdam now wishes to record a so-called ‘stairs video’, capturing the moment the doors at the top of the Main Hall’s soloists’ staircase swing open for a dramatic entrance. Together, these videos generated more than 7 million views. Among the most popular editions were those featuring Dutch singer Emma Kok, Turkish pianist Fazıl Say, Japanese pianist Hayato Sumino, and Sinterklaas (Dutch Santa Claus).

*Only the modern classical concert halls Philharmonie de Paris and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg achieve comparable visitor numbers.