Venue
Dionysiou Areopagitou, Acropolis, Athens, Greece
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Athens Epidaurus Festival guide
Ancient drama in ancient theatres.
In short
The Athens Epidaurus Festival usually runs from June to August, with Epidaurus performances on Fridays and Saturdays in July and August and the programme published in spring. Tragedy and comedy are staged at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus and the theatre at Epidaurus. It suits theatre lovers; plan transport for Epidaurus evenings.
Greece's main summer arts festival has been putting drama, dance and music into ancient theatres since 1955. Its two great stages are the Roman Odeon of Herodes Atticus beneath the Acropolis and the theatre at Epidaurus, where audiences still watch Sophocles and Euripides from stone tiers cut for exactly that purpose.
Ancient tragedy and comedy remain the backbone of the programme, usually in fresh productions by Greek and foreign directors. Around them the festival fills its Athens venues with contemporary theatre, dance and concerts, so a single summer can move from Aeschylus to new choreography in a week. For most visitors, though, the draw is simple: seeing a play in the place where plays began, with the light fading over the hills behind the stage.
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Key Facts & Stats:
Where: Athens, Greece
Venue: Odeon of Herodes Atticus
Held: Every year
Type of event: Live Events, Cultural Events, Arts Festivals
Currency: Euro (€ EUR)
Time zone: UTC+2, UTC+3 from late March to late October
Language: Greek
Map
Close to the venue
- Acropolis of Athens Attraction · 160 m
- Hotel Grande Bretagne, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Athens Hotel · 1.1 km
Getting around
Hotels near the venue fill up around the event dates.
Footwear rules, cushions and warm layers
High heels are banned at the Herodeion, at the ancient theatre of Epidaurus and at the Little Theatre, to protect the monuments. Wear flat shoes with some grip, because the old steps can be uneven.
The seats are bare stone. A cushion makes a three-hour tragedy far kinder, and a light layer helps when the evening air cools on the hillside. Bring water for the wait outside, and use the bins: chewing gum and litter do lasting damage to the stone.
The ban on photography and phones
Photography, audio and video recording are all forbidden during performances, with or without flash, and phones must be switched off completely. Smoking and eating are not allowed anywhere inside the venues.
Children under 6 are not admitted to any festival venue, whatever the production.
If you need the time, glance at a watch. A lit screen shows up badly in a dark open-air theatre.
Reduced tickets, resellers and rain policy
Reduced tickets exist for students and art students, people aged 65 and over, children aged 6 to 17, unemployed visitors, people with disabilities, large families and European Youth Card holders. Their number is limited, and you must show proof of eligibility at the entrance, so carry the card or ID that qualifies you.
Online and phone sales add a service fee that is never refunded, while the festival's own box offices charge none. Tickets cannot be exchanged or cancelled once bought.
Outdoor theatre means weather risk. A cancelled show may be moved to another date, time or venue, and if rain stops a performance after its halfway point there is no refund. Before buying, check whether the listing offers surtitles, as many ancient drama productions are performed in Greek.
What happens on the day
- Morning
The sanctuary
Visit the sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus while it is cooler.
- Afternoon
Lunch and rest
Eat a late lunch in Nafplio or by the sea, then rest before the evening.
- 60 minutes before curtain
Take your seat
The audience is asked to be in place an hour early; there is a café-bar on site, but nothing can be taken into the theatre.
- Curtain
Performance
Nobody is let in once the play starts, except at an interval if there is one.
- After the show
Back to base
The KTEL coach to Athens leaves half an hour after the end; drivers face a late return to Nafplio or Athens.
Planning one evening in Athens and one at Epidaurus
Build the trip around two evenings: one in Athens at the Herodeion and a weekend night at Epidaurus. Give a third evening, if you have it, to Peiraios 260.
Tickets decide everything else. The programme usually goes on sale in spring, and the big Epidaurus productions sell out early, so buy the moment your date opens and only through aefestival.gr or more.com: tickets from other resellers are not honoured at the gate. Seats are numbered and cannot be swapped later, so choose with care.
Our Greece travel guide covers the wider route.
The festival's 1955 beginnings and the ancient theatres
The festival opened on 19 June 1955 with Euripides' Hecuba, staged by Alexis Minotis, Katina Paxinou playing the fallen queen. Georgios Rallis, later prime minister, pushed for its creation. Tragedy ruled at first, and comedy did not arrive until Lysistrata in 1957. Maria Callas sang Norma and Medea at Epidaurus, and in 1982 Peter Hall brought his Oresteia from the National Theatre in London.
The stones are older by far. The Epidaurus theatre belonged to the Asklepieion, one of the great healing sanctuaries of the ancient world, which also hosted athletic and dramatic contests. It went up in two phases, in the 4th and the mid-2nd century BC, around an orchestra 19.5 metres across, and its acoustics are still the first thing people talk about on the way out. Archaeologists began digging in 1881, and Anastasios Orlandos led the restoration between 1954 and 1963.
In Athens, Herodes Atticus built his odeon between 160 and 169 AD in memory of his wife Regilla. It burned during the Herulian invasion of 267 AD. The marble approach you climb today, and the landscaping around it, are the work of the architect Dimitris Pikionis.
Getting there
Airport to the Herodeion
From Athens International Airport take metro line 3 and change at Syntagma for line 2 to Akropoli. Bus 230 stops at Erechtheiou. The last stretch is on foot.
Parking in Athens
Spaces near the Herodeion are scarce. The car park at Syngrou-Fix metro station is bigger, and a metro ticket halves the fee.
Coach to Epidaurus
On performance days a KTEL Argolidas coach leaves Athens at 17:00 and heads back half an hour after the show; buy seats from KTEL, not the festival.
Driving to Epidaurus
Leave the Athens to Corinth motorway straight after the Isthmus bridge, then take the provincial road towards Epidaurus. Allow about an hour from the bridge to the Lygourio junction, then carry straight on to the site car park.
From Nafplio
Use the old road via Lygourio or the newer road after the Kandia junction, which ends by the Lygourio health centre; turn right there for the theatre.
Where to stay during the festival
For the Athens shows, stay in the streets below the Acropolis, close enough to walk home along Dionysiou Areopagitou after the curtain.
Epidaurus needs a different plan. Performances end late and the theatre is about two hours from the capital, so most people book a night in Nafplio or in the seaside village of Palaia Epidavros.
Athens
Hotel Grande Bretagne, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Athens5-star hotel
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from$480.00/ night
- Internet – Wifi
- Airport shuttle
- Swimming pool
4 Rooms available
Book Now
Weather and what to pack
Festival summers are hot and almost rainless. The 1991 to 2020 normals for the National Observatory of Athens station in the city centre give July and August highs of 34.3°C and lows of about 24°C, with 11 mm of rain in July and 5 mm in August.
Evenings in the open-air theatres are warm, though the stone seats at Epidaurus cool quickly after dark.
Worth packing
- A cushion for the stone seats at Epidaurus
- A light layer for late evenings
- A sun hat and sunscreen for the sanctuary by day
- Water for the drive or coach
- Printed or saved e-tickets bought from aefestival.gr or more.com
Car hire in Athens
Airport transfer to Athens Epidaurus Festival
Met at arrivals at Athens International Airport (ATH) and driven door to door to Odeon of Herodes Atticus.
- Athens International Airport (ATH) → Odeon of Herodes Atticus
- 35 km · 40 min
Restaurants and food in Greece
Places to eat in Greece before or after the celebrations.
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Need help?
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Timing & weather
No date has been given. The full programme normally comes out in spring, and in October 2026 the organisers were still gathering proposals through an open call. Watch aefestival.gr.
Booking
Both theatres have box offices, but their opening dates are announced each season. Year-round sales run at the Syntagma Square Infopoint (Monday to Friday, 10:00 to 18:00) and at Peiraios 260 (Monday to Friday, 10:00 to 17:00).
General
About 4,900 today, against roughly 6,000 in Roman times. The festival first staged a season there in 1955.
In the seaside village of Palaia Epidavros, separate from the big theatre. Festival nights there began in 1995 as Musical July and are now a fixed part of the season.
A new event the festival has announced for June 2027, with an open call for participants. Details had not been published by October 2026.
Yes, and it is worth doing in daylight. The Asklepieion has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988; check the site's opening hours for that day.
Families & accessibility
Yes. A wooden ramp leads to row A1, which has up to 8 wheelchair places, each with a companion seat. Cars can drop off via a side lane at Dionysiou Areopagitou and Rovertou Galli, ideally between 19:30 and 20:15.
Yes. Cars carrying disabled visitors may drive up to the theatre square to drop off, and the site has accessible toilets.
Getting there
Take the ISAP electric line to Kallithea, walk beside the tracks towards Piraeus to Dimitsanas Street, turn right and cross Piraeus Street. Buses 049 and 914 stop at Yfantiria or School of Fine Arts. The entrance is on Polykratous Street.
Yes. The festival points drivers to the free parking to the left of the entrance to the Athens Central Market.