The Seebühne and the lakeside promenade

The Seebühne is built out into the lake at the eastern end of Bregenz, and it is the single most recognisable object in Vorarlberg. A new set goes up for each production and stays for two summers, so the shape changes — a giant hand, a skull, a hollow eye — but the scale does not: these are structures tens of metres high, standing in open water with the Swiss and German shores behind them.

The photograph is taken from the shore. The lakeside promenade runs past the festival grounds with a strip of lawn, plane trees, benches and the harbour jetties, all of it free and open, and the set is designed to be legible from exactly there. The auditorium itself is inside the grounds and needs a ticket, but you do not want to be in it for a photograph anyway.

The shore faces roughly west and north-west, which makes the last hour before sunset the strongest light of the day — the set goes into silhouette against a lit lake, and the Swiss mountains opposite turn pink. Mornings are flatter but far emptier.

July and August are the festival and the busiest weeks of the year on this stretch. From September the promenade empties, and in winter the set still stands out in the water under low silver light and mist, which is a stranger and often better picture. The grounds set their own rules and they change with each production — check them.