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Ecstatic Pompeii 2026: Evening Theatre Across the Vesuvius Archaeological Sites
Live theatre on the myth of Dionysus, staged after dark at five Vesuvius-area sites from Pompeii to Stabiae, tickets from €7.
What is Ecstatic Pompeii, and where does it happen?
Ecstatic Pompeii — subtitled I misteri di Dioniso — is the second edition of ESOPOP, storie in festival, a live-performance project run by the Pompeii Archaeological Park to spread visitors across its wider Vesuvius-area sites rather than just the main excavation. This year's theme, the myth of Dionysus, follows the February 2025 discovery of the Casa del Tiaso in Pompeii's Regio IX — a banqueting hall with an almost life-size frieze of Bacchantes, satyrs and the procession of Dionysus that drew international attention when the Culture Ministry presented it.
Performances run across five venues: the Villa of the Mysteries inside Pompeii itself, the Villa of Poppaea at Oplontis (Torre Annunziata), Villa Regina in Boscoreale, and Villa San Marco together with the Archaeological Museum in Castellammare di Stabia. Shows happen every Friday and Saturday from 28 August through 26 September 2026, at 20:00 and 21:30, timed to the sites' evening opening hours rather than replacing the daytime visit.
How do you book, and is it worth building a visit around?
Tickets cost €7 and go on sale from Monday 17 August 2026 on vivaticket.it — search 'Ecstatic Pompeii' once sales open. Full details and any programme updates are posted at pompeiesopop.it, worth checking a few days ahead since evening slots at smaller sites like Villa Regina tend to be limited.
The spread across five sites is the useful part for visitors: Oplontis and Boscoreale rarely get an evening programme of their own, and pairing a Friday or Saturday performance there with a same-day daytime visit to the main Pompeii excavation turns what's usually a half-day trip from Naples or Sorrento into a full one. First reported by Il Mattino and NapoliToday, with programme details confirmed by Cronache della Campania and the park's own ESOPOP site.
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