Festivals in Rome
Looking for a festival in Rome? Here you'll find the ranking of the hottest ones right now plus the full schedule of festivals, updated every day.
1 events in Roma
The Roman festival year: what happens when
In Rome festivals follow the calendar more than the map, and knowing the seasons is more useful than any list. From June to September the city enters the Estate Romana period, the long-standing umbrella that gathers dozens of different programmes: concerts, open-air cinema, theatre in the parks, temporary arenas that appear in June and are dismantled in September. This is when most of the programming moves outdoors, with later start times and many free or low-priced events.
Summer is also when the city's two big music festivals sit: Rock in Roma, at the Ippodromo delle Capannelle, which brings arena-scale Italian and international names, and Roma Summer Fest in the Cavea of the Auditorium Parco della Musica, with a broader bill spanning pop, songwriting, jazz and international music. In autumn the focus shifts from live music to cinema, with the Rome Film Fest at the Auditorium concentrating screenings, talks and premieres over about ten days.
What attending a festival in Rome actually involves
The main difference from a club gig is that a festival is almost always outdoors, and that changes everything: weather, timing and transport. Rome's summer arenas are often far from the centre (Capannelle is out on the Appia, the Auditorium is in Flaminio) and the show can end after the last convenient service: decide how you are getting back before you go. The other difference is duration: many festivals are runs lasting weeks with a different night every day, so you buy a ticket for a single date, not for the whole programme.
A third thing to keep in mind: the summer season mixes paid events ticketed through official channels with free events run by the city council or by cultural institutions, where there is no box office and places go on a first-come basis. Our list includes both, and where a box office exists you get the direct link. If an event is shown as free or without a price, it means the organiser has not published a figure.