Cultural activities on the stage, 2022

Key statistics, compared to 2019 as the pre-COVID year:

• houses of culture, theatres and music institutions organized 24,347 performances or about 2% fewer than in the year before the epidemic;
• in total, the performances were attended by slightly more than 3.63 million visitors, while in 2019 we recorded 4.45 million visitors;
• the above cultural institutions organized 187 festivals, i.e. 50 fewer than in 2019, yet these  included about 1,600 performances more than in 2019.

Almost as many stage performances as before the epidemic

In total, 24,347 performances were held on the stages of houses of culture, theatres and music institutions: almost a half (49%) of them were from their own production and co-production, while the rest were events carried out by guest performers or ensembles.

Most of these performances (78%) were held in houses of culture and cultural centres. 20% of them were performed in theatres and both operas, and only a little more than 2% in music institutions, i.e. at the headquarters, since these institutions mostly tour or perform elsewhere. The structure has not changed over the years. 

Much fewer e-events

Cultural performances have returned back to the stage. Data on the number of events prepared for the virtual space (e-events) also indicate this trend: in 2020, the first year of the epidemic, the institutions prepared 3,974 e-events, in 2021 there were 3,597 e-events and last year "only" 564. The attendance of these events was estimated at around 1.4 million in 2021, and at around 232,000 visitors last year. The average number of visitors , however, remained stable – 389 people attended an e-event in 2021 and 411 people in 2022.

Around 3.63 million visitors  

In total, events attracted 3.63 million visitors, each on average 149.

Some cultural institutions also offer free events to its visitors. Last year, there were 6,743 such events, or around 28% of the total (22% in 2019). Most of them were offered by houses of culture.

The surveyed institutions earned about EUR 13.4 million from tickets sold (16.3 million in 2019). A ticket cost on average EUR 11.00: EUR 10.10 in houses of culture, EUR 10.50 in theatres and operas, and EUR 17.50 in music institutions. 

Diverse festival events 

Houses of culture, theatres and music institutions organized 187 festivals, at which 6,262 events took place. The largest number of them, 88, was music and dance festivals, 35 were theatre festivals and 23 film festivals, while the remaining 41 festivals, i.e. 36% of all festival events, were classified by cultural institutions as "other" and were described as children's, youth, literary, multimedia, visual, ethnological festivals, a festival of sound walks, etc. The largest number of festivals were organized by houses of culture and cultural centres (126). 

Number of employees in cultural institutions about the same as in 2019, but fewer external associates 

The surveyed cultural institutions had 2,631 employees and 12,885 external associates. Compared to 2019, the number of employees increased by 13, while the number of external associates decreased by 434 persons.

Among external associates, the largest share were voluntary workers (28%), followed by self-employed in culture (23%), those with copyright contracts (18%), students (14%), etc.; such structure has not changed much in recent years.

Most institutions have arranged access for the physically impaired, slightly over a third for the visually or hearing impaired 

Among cultural institutions that had their own premises for carrying out cultural activities, 58% had fully arranged access for persons with physical impairments, while 35% arranged it partially. Access for persons with visual or hearing impairments was fully or at least partially arranged in 37% of these institutions, while in the remaining 63% it was not yet arranged. In the last seven years, cultural institutions have not significantly improved access for visitors with disabilities.

Minimal impact of the epidemic

In 2022, two months were still part of the COVID-19 epidemic period. Among 160 cultural institutions, 81 reported that their activity was diminished (144 in 2021), while for 79 the epidemic had no effect on their operations (18 in 2021).


Tables with the latest data are available in the SiStat Database.