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Athens & Epidaurus Festival

Plan your trip to the Athens & Epidaurus Festival. Ancient drama at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus and the 2,400-year-old Theatre of Epidaurus. Tickets, hotels…

Ancient Drama in a 2,400-Year-Old Theatre

The Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus is one of the most extraordinary performance venues in the world. Built in the 4th century BC by the architect Polykleitos the Younger, it seats 14,000 people on a hillside above the ancient sanctuary of Asklepios. Its acoustics are so precise that a coin dropped on the stage can be heard in the last row. The plays performed here each summer under the Athens & Epidaurus Festival are the same plays — Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus — that Athenian audiences watched in this exact location 2,500 years ago.

The festival also programmes at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens — a 2nd-century Roman theatre built into the southern slope of the Acropolis. Opera, ballet, and contemporary work share the programme with ancient tragedy and comedy. Both venues are architecturally extraordinary; both require advance booking for the best performances.

Planning the Trip

Epidaurus performances run on Friday and Saturday evenings through summer — typically June, July, and August. The theatre is located in the Argolis region of the northeast Peloponnese, approximately 1.5 hours from Athens by road and 30 minutes from Nafplio. The most atmospheric approach is to stay in Nafplio — one of Greece's most beautiful towns — for two nights, attend the performance on one evening, and use the other day to explore the surrounding ancient sites of Mycenae, Tiryns, and ancient Epidaurus. The theatre has no shelter and stone seating gets cool after dark; bring a jacket and a cushion.

The Odeon of Herodes Atticus

The second Athens & Epidaurus Festival venue — the Odeon of Herodes Atticus on the south slope of the Acropolis — runs performances from June through August. The building was constructed in 161 AD by the Athenian magnate Herodes Atticus as a memorial to his wife, with a cedar roof that burned in the 3rd century. Today the restored venue seats 5,000 and has hosted international artists from Maria Callas to Elton John alongside ancient drama. The acoustics are inferior to Epidaurus but the setting — the Acropolis lit above, the night city below — is extraordinary.

Tickets for both venues sell out quickly for headline performances. The Athens & Epidaurus Festival box office (greekfestival.gr) opens several months before the season; the most popular performances — ancient tragedy at Epidaurus, major opera at Herodes Atticus — are often sold within days. Check the programme release date and purchase as soon as it opens. Nafplio hotels within 30 minutes of Epidaurus fill equally fast for performance weekends. The theatrical season at both venues overlaps with peak summer — book transport from Athens to the Peloponnese via the Corinth road well in advance for July and August Epidaurus evenings.