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Under the columns of Jupiter’s temple or in the heart of the temple of Bacchus, the Baalbeck Festival offers every year to its audience, an occasion to witness unfor-gettable moments of artistic emotions.

2008 PROGRAM. Read more about this year's program on the Festival's Website
- July 27 - Mika (Martyr's Square) 
- August 2 - Bizarre, The Show by Astrid Hadad
- August 9 - Hasmik Papian
- August 16 - Tania Maria Quartet
- August 21 - Warda Al Jazayria
- August 23 - Abdel Rahman El Bacha

THE CREATION. The Baalbeck International Festival held its first season in 1956. It was inaugurated by Jean Cocteau who came in person to present “La Machine Infernale”. The subsequent seasons saw an impressive array of artists of such world renown as Rostropovitch, Richter… The Paris and Milan Operas, Rudolf Noureïev with the Royal Ballet, Maurice Béjart’s Ballet du XXème siècle, the Paul Taylor Dance Company, the Bolchoï Ballet, all appeared along with great orchestras of the world. [more]

EVOLUTION. The Festival evolved in two main directions. It kept with Lebanon’s heritage as a crossroads of civilisations, bridging East and West, and it celebrated creativity by producing original works commissioned from contemporary writers and composers. [more]

THE REVIVAL. Two major performances laun-ched the Festival in 1997. The Lebanese troupe “Caracalla Dance Theatre” in a show entitled “Andalousia, the Lost Glory”, and the Radio-France Philharmonic Orchestra directed by Marelk Janowski with the famous cellist Mstislav Rostro-povitch as soloist. [more]

In 1998, the Festival celebrated the centenary of the first German archeological visit to Baal-beck, which followed Emperor William II’s visit in 1898. The programme featured six concerts of international importance : the Radio Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, directed by Georges Prêtre and Carl St. Clair, the great jazz band “The Herbie Hancock Quartet”, the diva Nina Simone, an avant-garde perfor-mance with Urban Sax and Michel Moglia’s fire organs, the singer Fadia El Hage with the Sarband group, and finally, Lebanon’s ambassador to the world: Fairouz. [more]

LATEST FESTIVALS. In 2003, A leading virtuoso and mostly acclaimed for his interpretations of Vivaldi, Fabio Biondi and his Orchestra Europa Galante opened on July 12th the Baalbeck Festival season 2003 at the temple of Bacchus. The concert was followed by a gala dinner in the gardens of the Acropolis. One week later at the same venue, the legen-dary jazzman Ahmad Jamal accompanied by Idriss Muhamad and James Cammack gave a once in a life time concert on July 18th and 19th.The two evenings were sold out. The next event took place at the temple of Jupiter. [more]

2004. The season 2004 witnessed ten impor-tant events. It started on July 9th &10th with the most famous Brazilian Dance Theatre, Grupo Corpo. 21 talented dancers presented a specta-cular performance on the steps of the temple of Jupiter, with vibrant music, extraordinary costu-mes and meticulous choreography. [more]

In the Beqaa valley, undulating in the magnificent landscape opens up the ancient city of Baalbeck. This site is categorised in UNESCO's world cultural heritage sites, and has a high degree of preservation. [more]