Orestiadi di Gibellina Festival

A festival born from the rubble

The Orestiadi di Gibellina are much more than a summer event: they are a symbol of a community's rebirth. After the devastating 1968 Belice earthquake that razed old Gibellina to the ground, the mayor and patron Ludovico Corrao invited artists, sculptors, and architects to rebuild the city as a vast, open-air contemporary art laboratory. In this context, the festival was born in the early 1980s, and it continues to bring the town of Gibellina, in the heart of the Trapani province in Sicily, to life every summer.

The venues: Baglio Di Stefano and Cretto di Burri

The festival takes place primarily at the Baglio Di Stefano, an ancient fortified farmhouse that now houses the Orestiadi Foundation, at the foot of Mimmo Paladino's monumental Montagna di sale (Mountain of Salt). The second soul of the event is the Grande Cretto di Burri, the immense white concrete shroud with which Alberto Burri covered the ruins of old Gibellina: one of the largest land art works in the world, which serves as a natural stage for the festival's previews.

Art, theatre, and music in dialogue

Each edition weaves together theatrical performances, concerts, contemporary art exhibitions, and book presentations, with a special focus on classical drama reinterpreted through a contemporary lens. The project's historical heart is L'Orestea di Gibellina, the famous rewriting of Aeschylus's work by Emilio Isgrò, which gave the festival its name and continues to return to the stage in new versions.

Gibellina, Capital of Contemporary Art

The 2026 edition holds special significance: Gibellina is the first Italian Capital of Contemporary Art, a recognition that crowns decades of cultural work. The festival thus confirms its status as a nationally significant event for those who love experimental theatre, auteur music, and art that engages with history and the Sicilian landscape.

A journey through the Belice Valley

Attending the Orestiadi also means discovering an extraordinary territory: the Belice Valley, its hills, its vineyards, and a network of environmental art installations scattered between Gibellina Nuova and the ruins of the old city. A cultural and landscape experience that is unparalleled in the rest of Sicily.