The Aspendos International Opera and Ballet Festival returns in June-July 2027 to one of the ancient world’s best-preserved performance venues: the Roman theatre at Aspendos, 47 kilometres east of Antalya in southern Turkiye. The festival brings opera and ballet to an open-air stage that has been in use for nearly 2,000 years.
Exact 2027 programme dates will be announced by the State Opera and Ballet General Directorate (dobgm.gov.tr) in early 2027. The festival has consistently run across a five-to-seven-week window spanning June into July; the 2027 edition is expected to follow the same pattern.
The Aspendos Theatre
Built in the 2nd century AD during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the Aspendos theatre seats up to 15,000 spectators in its horseshoe-shaped auditorium. The towering scaenae frons - the ornate stone stage wall - provides natural acoustic reflection that engineers have studied and that audiences immediately notice: the sound is remarkably good without amplification in much of the seating. The structure survived largely intact through successive civilisations and remains one of the finest Roman amphitheatres anywhere in the world.
For a performance venue to have this combination of scale, acoustics, and setting - with the Taurus Mountains visible behind the stage and stars overhead - is genuinely unusual in European or Mediterranean cultural travel.
Planning a Visit
Getting to Aspendos: The site is located about 47 kilometres east of Antalya city centre. Taxis from central Antalya cost approximately 250-400 TL each way and take around 45 minutes. Tour operators in Antalya typically run festival transfer services on performance nights, often bundled with the ticket purchase. Public bus options exist but require a connection at Serik and are impractical for late evening performances.
Tickets: Available through the State Opera and Ballet website and authorised agents. Seating ranges from unreserved upper tiers through to numbered lower sections closer to the stage. The upper unreserved seats are the most atmospheric for the full effect of the theatre under the night sky.
What to bring: Summer evenings in this part of Anatolia are warm but the theatre stone cools after midnight - a light layer is useful. The venue sells basic refreshments, but the queues at intervals are long; arriving early and having dinner in Antalya before the performance is the better approach.
Combining with an Antalya Holiday
Aspendos is on the road to the ancient site of Perge and the waterfall at Manavgat, making it easy to combine a festival evening with daytime archaeology or nature visits. Our Antalya city guide covers the wider Turquoise Coast and nearby Roman sites. For guided tours from Antalya including day trips to Aspendos and other ancient sites, book ahead as summer 2027 demand is expected to be high.