VIENNA.- The Salzburg Festival of music and drama will go ahead in August, organisers said Tuesday -- but with special measures in place to meet the threat of the coronavirus.

And while the event has escaped the global wave of cancellations caused by the pandemic, the 100th edition has been radically stripped down.

All 80,000 tickets on sale -- down from the usual 230,000 -- will be personalised to enable contact tracing in case of an infection.

Organisers will also operate a system for seating the audience similar to that used for boarding planes, with one group after another called to embark rather than all at once.

Spectators will have to wear masks until they are seated and there will be no intermissions or catering.

"We know we are walking on thin ice... But the longing for performances is just so big," said artistic director Markus Hinterhaeuser, explaining the safety precautions taken by the festival.

The programme has been slashed by almost half from the 200 performances originally planned to 110 performances.

And measures are also in place to protect the remaining performers who did make it.

Artists unable to keep a distance of at least one metre (three feet) from their colleagues, such as those in an orchestra, will have to undergo weekly coronavirus test and keep a diary monitoring their health.

The festival, which will run throughout August, will include two operas and a play based on the writing of Nobel Prize winner Peter Handke, which is being staged for the first time.

The festival's two operas are "Elektra" by Richard Strauss, staged by Poland's Krzysztof Warlikowski; and a production of Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte" by German director Christof Loy.

Austria, an Alpine nation of nearly nine million people, has so far escaped the brunt of the pandemic, recording some 16,900 new coronavirus cases and fewer than 700 deaths.

© Agence France-Presse