Festa della Musica «Sonorità Vesuviane» at the Grande Pompei sites

The Festa della Musica at the Grande Pompei sites

Every year on June 21st, Italy celebrates the Festa della Musica, an event created to mark the summer solstice with spontaneous concerts, musical processions, and free performances in streets, squares, and cultural venues. In Pompeii, within the Metropolitan City of Naples, the event takes on a unique character: the stage is the most visited archaeological area in Italy, where live music returns to echo among the decumani, the domus, and the theaters of the city buried by the eruption of Vesuvius.

The festival is promoted by the Ministry of Culture in collaboration with AIPFM – Festa della Musica Italia and is organized locally by the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, involving the entire network of sites known as the «Grande Pompei»: the Pompeii Excavations, the villas of Stabia in Castellammare, and the Archaeological Museum of Stabia housed in the Reggia di Quisisana. It is not a festival concentrated in a single location, but a widespread celebration that unites the Vesuvian hinterland and the Stabian coast.

«Sonorità Vesuviane», the theme of the 2026 edition

In 2026, the 32nd national edition of the Festa della Musica chose the theme «The voice of places», and the Archaeological Park of Pompeii responded with a program titled «Sonorità Vesuviane». The concept is simple yet powerful: letting the places themselves—a forum, a quadriporticus, a museum hall—suggest the sound, restoring to these ancient spaces the acoustic and social function they held in antiquity. The result is a journey where listening is never separated from the visit.

The musical procession from the Forum to the Quadriporticus of the Theaters

The heart of the day in Pompeii is a traveling procession that crosses the archaeological area in the morning. About forty young musicians follow the route from the Forum to the Quadriporticus of the Theaters, passing through Via dell'Abbondanza and Via Stabiana: the main arteries of the Roman city thus become a long sound corridor, with visitors free to follow the group or simply be surprised along the way.

The featured ensemble is Sonora Junior Sax, a saxophone orchestra composed of students and young tutors who are already professional concert performers, with a repertoire ranging from classical pieces to popular music, reinterpreted with irony and virtuosity. The group has received international recognition, including success at the Summa Cum Laude competition in Vienna, and uses ensemble playing as a pedagogical tool even before it is a performance.

Music therapy and inclusion at the Reggia di Quisisana

The second chapter of the day takes place at the Archaeological Museum of Stabia, in the Reggia di Quisisana in Castellammare di Stabia. Here, the artistic collective Lab88 offers a session dedicated to music therapy: people of different ages and abilities play together, transforming the museum halls into a space for collective storytelling. This is perhaps the most moving part of the program, as it focuses on participation rather than performance, demonstrating how an archaeological museum can become a place of connection.

Pompeii, Campania, and the value of context

The Municipality of Pompeii is one of the most visited cultural hubs in Campania and the entire Mediterranean: alongside the Excavations, the area hosts the Sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary, a pilgrimage destination, and is located just a few kilometers from Vesuvius, Herculaneum, and the Sorrento Peninsula. Participating in the Festa della Musica here means experiencing the site in a different way: not as a silent tour, but as a place that returns, for a few hours, to being inhabited by sound.

Why it is worth visiting

• The context: few places in the world allow you to listen to live music while walking on an ancient Roman road.
• Free admission: performances are free and integrated into the regular visit to the sites.
• Social focus: the protagonists are very young musicians and inclusion projects, not big names from the music industry.
• Territorial network: a single event distributed between Pompeii and Castellammare di Stabia, ideal for a full day out.
• The season: June 21st, the longest day of the year, with light until evening on the Vesuvian sites.

Those who wish to follow both events can dedicate the morning to the Excavations and the afternoon to the Reggia di Quisisana.