The survey covers series of events and performances with a limited time frame (a few days to several weeks), which have organisational autonomy and are usually held at certain intervals (often annually or biennially).
In the field of theatre and music, the statistics are based on an annual voluntary survey of event organisers conducted by Statistics Austria. In addition to traditional large-scale events, smaller, specialised series of events and summer theatre-type performances are also covered. The statistics on film festivals have been published since the reporting year 2012; they are compiled by the Forum of Austrian Film Festivals, which was founded in 2012, and are published annually.