The Prater has always been a place for spectacle. Its entire infrastructure was a stage set designed to bring the world to Vienna. The World’s Fair of 1873 was the ultimate moment in this regard.
But individuals became spectacles as well. The Prater has long been full of challenges people perform in front of family, friends, and passers-by: shooting galleries, punching dolls, pinball machines, and go-karts were designed to showcase personal prowess. Photo booths, meanwhile, let folks don the clothes and bodies of others.
Formal theater was at home at the Prater as well. There were countless playhouses, cabarets, circuses, and music halls. The Prater also featured in numerous pieces. In music alone, it appears in works by Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss or Lehár.