Antalya Festivals & Events Calendar (2026): The Complete Year-Round Guide

Most visitors plan an Antalya trip around the sea and the ruins, and never realise there’s a genuine calendar of recurring cultural events running underneath it: opera performed in a 2,000-year-old Roman theatre, free concerts inside an ancient city by the water, film festivals ranging from a tiny free community event to Turkey’s oldest and most established competition. None of this is manufactured for tourists, it’s mostly organised for locals and the wider Turkish cultural scene, which is exactly what makes it worth planning around if the timing works out. Here’s the full year, month by month.

The four biggest events, at a glance

Event	When	Where	Cost
Aspendos Opera & Ballet Festival	12–26 Sept 2026	Aspendos Ancient Theatre, Serik	Ticketed (~500–2,500 TL)
Phaselis Festival	September (exact dates confirmed closer to the time)	Phaselis Ancient City, Kemer	Free
LikyaFF (Lycian Way Film Festival)	11–13 Sept 2026	Antalya Kültür Sanat, Antalya city	Free
Golden Orange Film Festival (Altın Portakal)	24–31 Oct 2026	Antalya city	Mixed (public + accredited)

Each has its own full guide with tickets, logistics and what to actually expect: Aspendos Opera & Ballet Festival, Phaselis Festival, LikyaFF, and the Golden Orange Film Festival.

The rest of the year

Beyond the four events above, Antalya’s calendar has a handful of smaller, more local happenings worth knowing about if your dates line up. These don’t have dedicated guides yet, so treat this as a starting point and confirm specifics closer to your travel dates through the municipality’s own channels (antalya.bel.tr) or your hotel’s activities desk.

• Runtalya Marathon (spring; the 2027 edition is set for early April): a city marathon with half-marathon, 10K and 5K races, popular with both local and international runners.
• Antalya Piano Festival (May): an international classical piano festival with performances around the city.
• Kaleici Street Festival (May): a street-life festival through Antalya’s old town, music and performance woven into the historic lanes.
• Open-air concert season (June–August): domestic and international artists perform at various open-air venues around the city and coast through the summer months.
• Kaleici Theatre Festival (September): a theatre-focused festival in the old town, overlapping with the busy September events window above.
• COP31, the UN Climate Change Conference (9–20 November 2026): Antalya hosts the year’s biggest international event. See our COP31 transport guide and things to do during COP31.
• Growtech (24–27 November 2026): one of the world’s largest greenhouse and agriculture trade fairs, at the ANFAŞ Expo Center. See our Growtech visitor guide.
• Antalya Culture Road Festival (November): a broader arts and culture festival marking the tail end of the events calendar before winter.

Conferences, Trade Fairs & Sporting Events (2026–2027)

Antalya isn’t only a holiday destination. Every year it hosts major international trade fairs at the ANFAŞ Expo Center next to the airport, congresses in the big Lara and Belek resorts, and world-level sporting events. Late 2026 is unusually busy, with COP31, Growtech and several sports events falling within the same few weeks, so hotels, transfers and taxis fill up much faster than a normal November. If your dates overlap any of these, book early.

Dates checked on 7 October 2026 against each organiser’s published information. Dates marked TBC and those far in the future can change, so always confirm on the official event website before booking flights.

Getting there: ANFAŞ is only about 5–10 minutes from Antalya Airport, with the Lara and Kundu hotels 15–25 minutes away, while Belek venues are around 30–40 minutes from the airport. During the busiest event weeks, taxi queues at the airport and outside the fairgrounds at closing time can be long, which is where a pre-booked transfer saves real time.

Which trip should you plan around?

If you want one big, memorable, bookable event, Aspendos is the obvious pick, it’s the only one on this list with real advance-purchase tickets and a guaranteed program. If you’d rather stumble onto something unplanned and free, September in general is your best shot, between Phaselis and LikyaFF, there’s a decent chance something’s on somewhere in the region without you needing to book anything at all. If cinema specifically is your interest and you can be flexible on dates, late October and the Golden Orange Film Festival gives Antalya’s cultural side a very different, more industry-facing flavour.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the biggest festival in Antalya?
The Aspendos Opera and Ballet Festival is the most established and highest-profile, held every September at the Aspendos Ancient Theatre.

Are there free events in Antalya?
Yes. The Phaselis Festival and LikyaFF (Lycian Way Film Festival) are both entirely free and open to the public, both typically held in September.

What month has the most events in Antalya?
September, by a clear margin, with Aspendos, Phaselis and LikyaFF all typically falling within the same few weeks.

What conferences and trade fairs are held in Antalya?
Antalya hosts major international trade fairs at the ANFAŞ Expo Center, such as the Antalya Tourism Fair (October), Growtech (November) and the ANFAŞ Food Product and Hotel Equipment fairs (January), plus large congresses in the Lara and Belek resorts. In 2026 it also hosts COP31, the UN Climate Change Conference, from 9 to 20 November.

What sporting events take place in Antalya?
Highlights include IRONMAN 70.3 Türkiye and the UCI Gran Fondo World Series in Belek, the Antalya Canyon Ultra trail race, the Runtalya Marathon in spring and the Turkish Airlines Open golf tournament. In 2027 Manavgat hosts the ITF Masters Tennis World Championships.

Do I need to book tickets in advance?
Only for the Aspendos Opera and Ballet Festival, via biletinial.com or biletix.com. The other major events on this list are free with no booking required, though some Golden Orange Film Festival sessions require regular cinema-style tickets.

Page last updated: October 2026