Φεστιβάλ Επιδαύρου

The tradition & historical record

Athens – Epidaurus Festival is an annual arts festival that takes place in Athens and Epidaurus, from May to October. It is one of the most famous festivals in Greece. It is held every year during the summer months (Fridays and Saturdays in July and August), in part in the ancient theatre of Epidaurus, on the archaeological site of the Asclepion. The festival includes musical, theatrical and other cultural events. They include performances of tragedies by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, as well as surviving comedies by Aristophanes; some performances consist simply of revivals of ancient myths or contemporary plays written on the basis of ancient dramas. ¹

The Epidaurus Festival (Greek: Φεστιβάλ Επιδαύρου), also known as the Epidávria (Greek: Επιδαύρια), takes place in the ancient theatre of Epidaurus, which has a capacity of 10,000 and is renowned for its special acoustics. It was founded in 1955, at the same time as the Athens Festival, thanks to the efforts of the then Minister of the Presidency and future Prime Minister, Georgios Rallis. During its first years of existence, the Hellenic Tourism Organisation was responsible for managing the Epidaurus Festival as well as the Athens Festival. It was officially inaugurated on 19 June 1955 with a performance of Euripides' Hecuba (directed by Alexis Minotis with Katina Paxinou in the role of the same name) and devoted itself to performances of ancient tragedies and, from 1957, to performances of ancient comedies by the National Theatre, where Alexis Solomos revived the plays of Aristophanes, starting with Lysistrata. In 1959, Karolos Koun's performance of Aristophanes' Birds, with music by Manos Hadjidakis and sets and costumes by Yannis Tsarouchis, aroused both public approval and opposition and was finally withdrawn following government intervention. For some twenty years, the performances at Epidaurus were entrusted to the National Theatre of Greece and to actors such as Paxinou, Minotis, Anna Synodinou, Mary Aroni and Nezer. In 1960 and 1961, Maria Callas appeared in Epidaurus in Norma by Vincenzo Bellini (1960) and Medea by Luigi Cherubini (1961), respectively. In 1965, the Damnation of Faust by the Paris Opera, directed and choreographed by Maurice Béjart, and Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem by Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra were performed. ¹

The director Dinos Giannopoulos undertook the organization of the first Athens Festival, on commission by then-Minister of Culture. ¹

Today, the joint festival is organised by the "Hellenic Festival S.A." company. Between 2016 and 2019, Vangelis Theodoropoulos served as the artistic director following the resignation of Jan Fabre. Since 2019, Katerina Evangelatos has been the festival's Artistic Director. In 2025, Director Michael Marmarinos has been appointed the festival's Artistic Director. ¹

Over the years, the Athens Festival has been able to host numerous notable groups and artists., ¹

1955: the first year of the Festival, Dimitris Mitropoulos and the New York Philharmonic play Nikos Skalkottas' 36 Greek dances. 1958: The Athens Philharmonic Orchestra with Gina Bachauer. 1959: The New York Philharmonic directed by Leonard Bernstein. 1961: Maria Callas performs Norma by Vincenzo Bellini and Médée by Luigi Cherubini. 1961: The Royal Ballet (Covent Garden) with Margot Fonteyn. 1962: The Berlin Philharmonic directed by Herbert von Karajan. 1963: The Ballet of the 20th Century under Maurice Béjart. 1963: Ballet performance with Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn. 1967: The Los Angeles Philharmonic directed by Zubin Mehta. 1976: Sviatoslav Richter recital. 1979: The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. 1981: The Vienna Opera Ball with Rudolf Nureyev. 1982: Aeschylus' Oresteia, on Epidaurus, under the direction of Peter Hall. 1982: The Karlsruhe symphony orchestra with Dimitris Sgouros. 1983: The Martha Graham Dance Company. 1984: The Ballet National de Marseille under Roland Petit. 1984: The Zurich Opera with Agnes Baltsa and José Carreras. 1985: The Royal Opera (Covent Garden). 1985: The National Symphony Orchestra (Washington) under Mstislav Rostropovich. 1988: The New York Philharmonic directed by Zubin Mehta. 1989: Manos Hatzidakis with Nana Mouskouri 1989: The Royal Danish Ballet. 1990: The Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yuri Temirkanov. 1991: Luciano Pavarotti recital at Odeon of Herodes Atticus. 1992: Montserrat Caballé recital. 1993: The Vienna Philharmonic directed by Riccardo Muti. 1993: José Carreras recital at Odeon of Herodes Atticus and the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus. ¹

Odeon of Herodes Atticus Athens Concert Hall "Technopolis", Gazi "Peiraios 260" "THEATRON", Cultural Center "Hellenic Cosmos" "Bios" Benaki Museum Pireos Street Annexe "Scholeion Theatre", Moschato Epidaurus Ancient Theatre Ancient Epidaurus Little Theatre ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Athens Epidaurus Festival”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Epidaurus Festival is recorded in open cultural data. The structured record cited below does not describe the practice, and this entry has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 3 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²