Ravenna Festival is the youngest of all the major European events. Thanks to its intense programming, participation of the greatest contemporary musical and theatrical talents, the cultural relevance of the themes around which the activities are organised, huge audiences and constant media attention, the Festival has achieved authority and ever greater and widespread recognition over the years.
While the mainstay of the Festival is music, it is a multidisciplinary event and operates with original productions ranging from opera to concerts, dance to jazz, ethnic music, drama, experimentation, film, conventions and exhibitions.

One of the distinguishing features of the festival's programming is the number of events staged in the town's extraordinary and extremely rich monumental heritage. Not just the theatres, but also the splendid Byzantine basilicas, cloisters, piazzas and industrial archaeologies provide the settings which attribute a particular charm to the event, creating that added value which is the result of the magical combination of art and music.

On 14th July 1997, Ravenna Festival opened a new chapter in its story, tracing the first of its "Roads of Friendship", crossing the Adriatic Sea to Sarajevo, the so dreadfully war-damaged town in Bosnia. The notes of the Orchestra and the Choir of La Scala, conducted by Riccardo Muti rekindled the pride and deep sense of human dignity of the people, whose only desire was to leave behind the horror and ferocity of a fratricidal war to regain, through music, their lost serenity.