Rock in Roma – Ippodromo Capannelle

Rock in Roma takes place at the Ippodromo delle Capannelle, Via Appia Nuova 1245, 00178 Rome, on the right side of the Appia Nuova leaving the city, a few hundred meters from the Grande Raccordo Anulare. By train you reach Capannelle station on line FL4 from Roma Termini: about nine minutes of travel and then 400 meters on foot. By bus you need lines 520, 664 and 789, which stop at Capannelle on the Appia Nuova, about 100 meters from the entrance: the 664 is taken at the Colli Albani stop of subway line A, the 520 at the Cinecittà stop of subway line A. By car you leave at exit 23 of the Raccordo, Appio San Giovanni, and enter the racetrack's parking lots, numbered P1 to P6, which open at staggered times in the afternoon. Anyone with a disability enters from Gate A and parks at P4, with volunteers at the welcome. The gates almost always open in the early afternoon, the concert starts late in the evening. The lineup, prices and hours change every year and should be read on the official website, rockinroma.com, which publishes for each date a page of useful information with hours, assigned gates and parking.

This guide doesn't list the dates of the current edition, because they change from season to season and go stale within a week. It tells instead what stays the same: what Rock in Roma is, where it takes place, how the racetrack that hosts it is laid out, how an evening really works from arrival to the last shuttle back. If you're looking for the full picture of the Roman summer of music, the same city offers in parallel the Cavea of the Auditorium Parco della Musica, the Baths of Caracalla and the Circus Maximus.

What Rock in Roma - Ippodromo Capannelle is

Rock in Roma is a concert series, not a festival in the strict sense of the word. The difference matters more than it seems. A festival concentrates dozens of names in three or four days, asks the audience to camp, to choose between overlapping stages, to endure a marathon. Rock in Roma does the opposite: it spreads about 60 evenings across June, July and in some editions August too, and each evening it books one main name with one or two openers. You buy the ticket for the night that interests you, you arrive, you listen, you go home. It's a model that resembles an open-air theater season more than Glastonbury.

The choice is no accident: Rome has never had a tradition of residential festivals, and has instead a very long tradition of widespread summer entertainment, born with Renato Nicolini's Estate Romana at the end of the 1970s. Rock in Roma grafts onto that city habit and brings it into the grounds of a racetrack, which is the only space in the city able to hold 40,000 people without closing a street.

The musical approach is openly rock in the name, far broader in fact. Over the years the series has hosted metal and techno, rap and singer-songwriters, electronic and classic pop, alternative indie and reggae. Anyone arriving expecting only distorted guitars also finds a trap stage and a dance one. The common denominator is not the genre but the level: on the Appia Nuova perform names that in the rest of Italy play arenas or stadiums.

Where Rock in Roma - Ippodromo Capannelle is and how to get there

The address is Via Appia Nuova 1245. The high street number already says a lot: the Appia Nuova is a road that runs from San Giovanni toward the Castelli for kilometers, and 1245 falls in the stretch between Capannelle and Ciampino, beyond the Raccordo. It's neither center nor countryside: it's that in-between Rome made of workshops, plant nurseries, car dealerships and sudden fields with sheep, where the Claudian Aqueduct still pops up between one warehouse and another.

By subway and bus to Rock in Roma at Capannelle

Subway line A doesn't reach the racetrack. No subway line does, and it's good to know before setting out with the idea of getting off right under the stage. The classic route is subway A to Colli Albani, exit on Largo Colli Albani, and from there bus 664, which runs along the Appia Nuova southbound to the Capannelle stop. Alternatively you get off at Cinecittà, the functional terminus of the area, and take the 520. The 789 covers a different route but touches the same point. The stop is about 100 meters from the gate, so the walk is minimal: the problem, if anything, is the frequency of buses at the concert's peak hours, when 2,000 people want to board the same vehicle.

The advice is to consider the bus good for the trip there and mediocre for the trip back. Going, the flow is spread over five or six hours, from 15:30 to 21:00. Coming back, when the concert ends, everyone leaves in the same quarter of an hour.

By train: Capannelle station

The best solution, and the least used by Romans themselves, is the train. Capannelle station is on line FL4, the Castelli line, which goes from Termini toward Frascati, Albano and Velletri. The trip takes a handful of minutes and the station is about 400 meters from the racetrack entrance. The regional ticket costs on the order of a euro and a half, to be verified at the time of purchase. Anyone arriving by air at Ciampino takes the FL4 toward Termini and gets off at Capannelle after very few stops. Anyone landing at Fiumicino uses the direct link to Termini and then changes to the FL4.

The limit of the train is the schedule: evening frequency thins out and the last useful run may fall before the end of the concert. Before counting on it, check the timetable for the exact day.

By car, and the real question of parking

By car you arrive from the Grande Raccordo Anulare, exit 23, marked Appio San Giovanni, and take the Appia Nuova outbound. From the center of Rome the trip takes just under half an hour in normal conditions and much more on concert nights, when the last kilometer of Appia becomes a single queue. The racetrack has its own numbered parking lots, which open at different times: the one reserved for those entering from Gate B, for example, opens in the early afternoon. The spots reserved for people with disabilities are at P4.

A blunt opinion: if there are two of you, the car pays off only if you accept leaving the lot 40 minutes after the last encore. If there are four of you, it always pays off. If you're alone, take the train.

The shuttles and the return in the dead of night

The crux of every evening at Capannelle is the return. Each year the organizers contract shuttle services departing from a few points in the city, generally San Lorenzo, San Giovanni and Piramide, with return runs leaving the racetrack around 00:30 and 01:00, headed for San Giovanni and Termini. The cost is around €10 each way and the ticket is booked in advance: seats run out. The list of departure points and exact times change from season to season and are published on the useful-information page of each date on the official website.

Anyone who doesn't book the shuttle has two options: the night bus along the Appia, with the waits you can imagine, or a taxi, which at Capannelle at 00:30 is a rare commodity and has to be called by phone or with an app, not looked for on the street.

The Ippodromo delle Capannelle, the place before the music

Before being the biggest stage of the Roman summer, Capannelle is the oldest racetrack in Italy. It's worth knowing, because the shape of the space in which you listen to the music depends entirely on its original function.

The name, the huts and the Appia

The place name comes from the rural huts that in the 1800s dotted the countryside at the crossing of the Appia Nuova and the Appia Pignatelli. They were shelters for shepherds and farmhands, constructions of brush and reeds: nothing monumental, so much so that the diminutive stayed attached to the place even after the huts disappeared. On that land, which served as a reserve for fox hunting, in 1844 an Englishman named Lord George Stanhope organized the first horse races. These are the years in which the Jockey Club Italiano and the Società degli Steeple Chases were born in Rome, and in which the Roman aristocracy imported from England a pastime that would become an industry.

From 1881 to today: the dates that count

The racetrack proper was inaugurated in 1881. It's the oldest Italian horse-racing facility still in operation, and that alone would justify a visit even outside the concert season. In 1926 the facility was renovated, taking largely the layout still recognizable today in the grandstands facing the straight. For over a century racing here was only flat racing. Trotting arrived in March 2014, after the closure of the Tor di Valle racetrack, which moved its meetings to Capannelle.

Two technical dates deserve attention because they changed the life of the facility. In October 2005 the first Italian all weather track, with a synthetic surface, designed to allow racing even when the ground is unusable, came into operation at Capannelle. On September 9, 2006 the lighting system was switched on: 25 floodlight towers with 550 floodlights of 2,000 watts each. That light is the reason the racetrack can host large-scale night events without having to set up a lighting tower from scratch: when summer arrives, the structure to light up a 40-hectare meadow is already there.

Numbers, grandstands and tracks of the Ippodromo delle Capannelle

The complex extends over about 140 hectares. There are four grandstands, plus the parterre, and in the racing configuration they hold around 20,000 people. In the concert configuration capacity rises to 45,000. Two stable areas can house up to 1,000 horses. The historic races held here are the Derby Italiano for flat racing, the Premio Regina Elena and the Premio Tudini: names that tell a horse-racing fan what the Palio tells a Sienese.

For concertgoers, the practical translation of these numbers is simple. The big main stage is set up on the inner meadow and holds up to 45,000 spectators. Then there are smaller configurations, from 14,000 to 30,000 people, and secondary arenas that go down to 3,500 seats for the more intimate evenings. The same evening, then, can have the scale of a stadium or that of an open-air club: it's always worth looking at which stage is indicated on the ticket, because everything changes, from the distance from the gate to the time it takes to clear out.

The history of Rock in Roma - Ippodromo Capannelle since 2009

The first edition of Rock in Roma was in June 2009. It wasn't born as a timid experiment: from the start the idea of the founders, the artistic directors Maxmiliano Bucci and Sergio Giuliani, was to build in Rome a season of international concerts that could stand comparison with those of northern Europe, using an already equipped space instead of inventing a new one every year.

The growth, the numbers, the tally

In a little over 15 years the series has passed 3 million spectators overall and 300 concert evenings: these are the figures the organizers themselves present as a tally of their history. The typical program covers about two full months, from June to the end of July, and in some seasons extends to August. The 2026 edition, the 16th actually held, doubled attendance compared with the previous one, and the organizers announced two directions of development: a winter version concentrated in one month and a special edition abroad, hosted at a racetrack or a large international venue for about 15 days.

The two missed summers

The 2020 and 2021 editions were not held because of the Covid 19 epidemic. It's the arithmetic reason why the count of editions doesn't match the difference between the current year and 2009: two summers are missing. Anyone who frequented Capannelle remembers well the silence of those two Julys, with the meadow mowed and no stage on it.

Who has stepped onto the Capannelle stage

The list of artists who have played Rock in Roma is long and crosses almost every genre. Among the international names of rock and alternative are Franz Ferdinand, Nine Inch Nails, Motorhead, The Cranberries, Ska-P, Skunk Anansie, Mika, Shaggy, UB40, White Lies, Calexico, 30 Seconds to Mars, Radiohead, Lenny Kravitz, Goran Bregovic, Simple Minds, Beach Boys, Placebo, Green Day, Korn, Iggy Pop, Arctic Monkeys, The Smashing Pumpkins, Deep Purple, Sigur Ros, Blur, Editors, The Prodigy, Metallica, The Black Keys, Queens of the Stone Age, Mumford and Sons, Slipknot, Muse, Robbie Williams, Interpol, Linkin Park, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Marilyn Manson and Chemical Brothers.

Black music and international rap had just as much room, with Cypress Hill, Snoop Dogg and Lauryn Hill among the most cited appearances. On the Italian side the series has hosted Coez, Liberato, Afterhours, Daniele Silvestri, Bandabardo, Subsonica, Negrita, Modena City Ramblers, Marlene Kuntz, J-Ax, 99 Posse, Caparezza, Elio e le Storie Tese, Fabri Fibra, Noyz Narcos, Gemitaiz, Salmo, Gue Pequeno, Mannarino, Marracash, Lo Stato Sociale, Sfera Ebbasta, Carl Brave and Calcutta.

Lined up, these names tell something precise: Capannelle has been for the Roman scene what the Forum di Assago has been for Milan, with the advantage of an open sky and the drawback of rain. A whole generation of Romans saw the first international concert of their lives on that meadow.

The Other Venues Used by Rock in Roma, Ippodromo Capannelle

The racetrack is home, but it's not the only address. Over the years the festival has also brought concerts to the Circus Maximus, the space Rome reserves for events on the largest scale, where the crowd spreads out over the valley between the Palatine and the Aventine. The Circo Massimo is something else compared to the Capannelle: more central, harder for the city to manage, much more impressive to see from above.

The second permanent venue is the Cavea of the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone, used in its indoor format and with the acoustic cover of Renzo Piano's open-air theater. There the festival changes register: seated audience, reduced capacity, repertoires better suited to listening than to the mosh pit. If you have an evening planned at the Cavea, you can read the page on the Roma Summer Fest and the general one on the Auditorium Parco della Musica.

All the rest of the Roman music summer moves around these two venues: the Caracalla Festival of the Teatro dell'Opera, the free concerts of Jazz and Image under the Baths, the Romaeuropa Festival in the fall, the evenings of Testaccio Estate and the Ninfeo Village in EUR. If you like club jazz, a historic reference point is the Music Inn and the Casa del Jazz.

How an Evening at Rock in Roma, Ippodromo Capannelle Works

Anyone going to the Capannelle for the first time brings along the habits of the indoor arena and gets almost everything wrong. An evening at the racetrack has a liturgy of its own, and it's worth knowing.

Gates Opening and the Wait

The gates usually open in the early afternoon, around 15:30, while the main concert starts right around 22:00. That means a six-hour gap. If you're aiming for the barrier, you arrive when the gates open and expect a long wait in the sun on a lawn with no shade. If you just want to listen, you can comfortably show up at 20:00 and still find decent space in the middle of the field. Accreditation pickup, for those entitled to it, usually follows the same time window as the gates and closes shortly after the concert begins.

There is more than one entrance, identified as gates with a letter. The practical rule is simple: the gate you're assigned depends on your ticket sector and the parking lot you use, and it's listed in the useful information for each date. Getting the gate wrong means walking for several hundred meters along the fence, at night, with no sidewalk.

The Sectors: Lawn, Pit and General Admission

The typical setup includes a standing general admission area on the lawn and a pit, the limited-capacity zone in front of the stage, with a separate entrance. On some evenings the racetrack's grandstands stay open and offer a view from above and a real seat. On others they stay closed. The pit is worth the extra cost if the artist is the kind you watch. For a concert where the sound matters, the middle of the field, about 40 meters from the stage, is almost always the best position, because the sound system is calibrated for the mass and not for the front row.

Eating, Drinking and the Lines

Inside there are refreshment areas with street food stalls and bars. Prices are those of big events, and the lines get worse in the half hour before the main artist comes on. If you want to eat, do it before 20:00. Sealed bottled water usually can't be brought in and the caps are taken away at the gates, standard practice at events with large crowds. Water refill points are available inside. On July nights, with 35 degrees at 18:00 and a lawn that reflects the heat, hydration is a serious matter and not a courtesy recommendation.

What to Put in Your Bag for Rock in Roma at the Capannelle

Closed shoes, always: the lawn of a racetrack is packed earth and grass, and after three hours of 40,000 people it turns to dust. A light sweatshirt, because at the Capannelle the temperature at night drops more than downtown, being an area open toward the countryside. Cash in small bills as a reserve. Small bags: the checks at the entrance are serious and big backpacks slow everything down. Umbrellas and folding chairs are generally forbidden, like rigid objects and glass bottles: the precise list is published each time in the rules for the date.

Accessibility and Services at Rock in Roma, Ippodromo Capannelle

The racetrack offers a dedicated route for people with disabilities: entrance from Gate A, reserved parking at P4 and assistance from volunteer staff. The ground, though, remains what it is: dirt and grass surfaces, slight but continuous changes in level, distances between the parking lot and the stage measured in hundreds of meters. Anyone who uses a manual wheelchair should take this into account, and anyone accompanying them should expect to push over uneven ground. The raised platforms for the public with disabilities are set up based on the stage configuration of the evening and must be requested in advance through the channels indicated by the organizers.

On the rest of the services: there is no coat check in the strict sense, the restrooms are portable and spread around the perimeter of the lawn, and phone coverage on nights with 40,000 people degrades a lot. Agree with whoever is with you on a physical meeting point before going in, because sending a message at midnight in the middle of the crowd is often useless.

Rock in Roma, Ippodromo Capannelle with Kids

Many evenings of the festival have a very young audience, especially the rap and pop ones. Minors get in under the rules indicated for each date, which generally require the accompaniment of an adult below a certain age. For a 14 or 15 year old, general admission on the lawn is a manageable experience if you stay in the middle of the field. Down front, in the pit, the pressure of the crowd on the busiest nights is that of a stadium event and I don't recommend it.

A practical detail that Roman parents know well: leaving the Capannelle at 00:30, with the Appia Nuova clogged and the shuttles full, is the most complicated part of the evening. Organize the trip back before buying the ticket, not after the encore.

What's Around the Ippodromo delle Capannelle

The quadrant between Appia Nuova, Appia Antica and Tuscolana is one of the densest in archaeology of the entire Roman periphery, and almost none of the Rock in Roma audience knows it. A few kilometers away you find the Aqueducts Park, with the arches of the Claudian aqueduct and the Felice cutting across the meadow, and the Caffarella Park, the valley of the Almone that has stayed agricultural inside the Grande Raccordo. On the Appia Antica, a little farther on, you can visit the Villa of the Quintilii, the largest private villa of imperial Rome, and the Catacombs of San Callisto. The Appian Way Park holds all of this together.

On the other side of the Appia Nuova, a short walk away, are the Cinecittà Studios, the neighborhood born around the movies and the metro stop that carries the same name. If you land an evening with gates at 15:30 and the concert at 22:00, the smartest way to spend the afternoon is a visit to the Studios or a walk among the arches of the Aqueducts, rather than four hours in line in front of a closed gate. It's the most useful advice: the day is built around the concert, not just inside it.

A Curiosity About Rock in Roma, Ippodromo Capannelle

The curiosity is about light. When in 2006 25 floodlight towers with 550 reflectors of 2,000 watts each were turned on at the Capannelle, the declared goal was only one: to race at night. Night racing was a bet by Italian horse racing to reach the summer public that doesn't go out at three in the afternoon in the summer. That investment, designed for the horses, turned out to be the dowry that made Rock in Roma possible three years later.

A concert of 40,000 people requires safety lighting on the paths, the exits and the service areas, and that lighting costs a not insignificant part of the production. At the Capannelle it already existed, mounted on fixed towers, powered by a grid sized for a large sports facility. In 2009, when the festival was looking for a space able to hold tens of thousands of spectators 20 minutes from the Raccordo, the racetrack offered at the same time an enormous lawn, a perimeter fence, four grandstands, its own parking lots and the lighting already in place.

There is a second curiosity inside the first: the synthetic all weather track, inaugurated in October 2005, was the first in Italy. It was built so races wouldn't stop when the natural ground became impassable. This technical choice also has an impact on concerts, because a facility used to working in any weather has protocols, equipment and drainage that an improvised lawn doesn't have. The reason a July thunderstorm rarely cancels the evening at the Capannelle is that the facility was built to work wet.

Something Nobody Tells You About Rock in Roma, Ippodromo Capannelle

Nobody tells you that the stage is not always the same, and that the word Capannelle indicates at least four different spaces. The main stage, the white one set up on the inner lawn, holds up to 45,000 people. There is an intermediate configuration that ranges between 14,000 and 30,000, a secondary arena that can go down to 3,000 seats and up to 30,000 depending on the setup, and a small stage of 3,500 that is used for niche evenings. These are numbers the organizers state openly for their own space, but almost nobody reads them before buying the ticket.

The practical consequence is enormous. With the same wording on the ticket, general admission at the Ippodromo delle Capannelle, you can find yourself at a stadium gathering or at a club night under the stars. The entry point changes, the walking distance from the parking lot changes, the quality of the listening changes, the outflow times at the end of the concert change, and in a large configuration they can exceed an hour.

The second thing nobody says concerns the ground. The inner lawn of a racetrack is designed for hooves, not for soles. After a few hours of trampling by tens of thousands of people, the surface turns into fine dust that rises with the wind and ends up everywhere, in your eyes, in your throat, on the lens of whoever is taking photos. If it rains, the same surface becomes thick mud in 20 minutes. Regulars bring shoes they're willing to sacrifice and a change of clothes in the car. No official communication writes it down, but it's the difference between a good evening and a miserable trip home.

The Advice I Give You for Visiting Rock in Roma, Ippodromo Capannelle

There is one piece of advice and it's worth more than all the others: plan the return before buying the ticket. It sounds trivial, and it's the thing that ruins the most evenings at the Capannelle. The concert ends between midnight and 01:00, in a point of the city where the subway doesn't arrive, the regional train has already thinned out its runs and the taxi doesn't pass in the street. The shuttles contracted with the organizers have limited seats and are booked in advance. The return runs usually leave around 00:30 and at 01:00 toward San Giovanni and Termini. If you don't book that seat when you buy the ticket, at midnight you won't find it anymore.

Second piece of advice, on which I don't compromise: arrive early even if you don't care about the barrier. Not for the stage, for the entrance. Security checks on 40,000 people concentrated in the last hour before the concert produce lines of 40 minutes and more. Arriving at 20:00 when the concert starts at 22:00 means going in relaxed, finding a good position in the middle of the field, eating without a line and having time to find the right exit.

Third: look at the weather and dress for the night, not for the afternoon. At the Capannelle, an area open toward the countryside south of Rome, the night temperature drops quite a lot compared to the historic center, where the stone gives back heat until dawn. An extra light shirt in the backpack is the oldest advice in the world and remains the most useful.

Fourth, and here I become unpleasant: don't bring small children. It's not a question of music, it's a question of crowd, dust, hours and getting home. Under 10 years old, for a concert that ends at one in the morning on a lawn with 40,000 people, the answer is no.

Another Well-Known Fact, Yet Rarely Cited

Many people know that the Capannelle is the oldest racetrack in Italy. Few remember that it has been in operation since 1881 and that racing on that land began as early as 1844, and almost nobody among the tens of thousands of people who go in every summer for a concert. Yet it's the fact that explains everything else: the scale of the facility, its location outside the gates, the fact that it has its own parking lots and a continuous fence.

In 1844 Lord George Stanhope organized races on land that until then had been a reserve for fox hunting. In those same years the Jockey Club Italiano and the Società degli Steeple Chases were born. The racetrack opened in 1881 was the formalization of a practice that already had some 40 years of history. The 1926 renovation gave the facility the look that is still recognizable, with the grandstands lined up on the finishing straight.

The little-cited fact is the transformation of 2014: until March of that year only flat racing was run at the Capannelle. With the closure of the Tor di Valle racetrack, harness racing moved here. Since then the Capannelle has been the only Roman facility that hosts both disciplines, something rare in Italy and almost unique for a European capital. And it's the reason the facility stays active all year: anyone who goes in winter finds a working racetrack, with its race meetings, its public of enthusiasts and its stables that can hold up to 1,000 horses. The Derby Italiano for flat racing, the Premio Regina Elena and the Premio Tudini remain the events that mark the calendar.

The Right Photo to Take at Rock in Roma, Ippodromo Capannelle

The photo everyone takes is the stage seen from the middle of the lawn, with hands raised against the light. It's a photograph that already exists in 100,000 identical copies and that rarely conveys the idea of the place. The right photo at the Capannelle is another one: the racetrack's grandstands in the background, with the crowd in front and the sky still light above.

The technical moment is what photographers call the blue hour, the 20 minutes after sunset in which the light of the sky and the artificial light of the stage have comparable intensity. Before, it's too bright and the stage lights don't show. After, the sky turns black and the photograph loses the context, that is, the racetrack itself. In July in Rome this interval falls roughly between 20:45 and 21:15, and it almost always coincides with the opening act.

The second shot I recommend, and that almost nobody tries: the row of floodlight towers lit above the crowd. There are 25 towers with hundreds of reflectors, a system that belongs to horse racing and not to the concert, and in a wide shot they tell better than any caption that you're listening to music inside a sports facility from 1881. Position yourself at the edges of the lawn, not in the center: from the center you see nothing but backs.

On the practical side: cameras with interchangeable lenses are normally forbidden without accreditation, while phones are allowed. The dust kicked up from the lawn is the real enemy of the optics, so don't change anything outdoors and keep the phone in your pocket when you're not using it. One last thing, which counts as a matter of manners before technique: continuous filming for three hours serves nobody, not even you. Two good minutes, then watch the concert.

Some Important Events That Happened Here in History

The first event is the founding itself. In 1844 an English aristocrat, Lord George Stanhope, organized horse races on land in the Roman countryside used until then for fox hunting. Everything descends from that private initiative: the birth of the Jockey Club Italiano, the Società degli Steeple Chases and finally the official opening of the racetrack in 1881, the oldest in Italy still in operation today.

The second is the 1926 renovation, which reorganized the facility and gave it the form still recognizable in the four grandstands and the parterre. It's the work that turned a nineteenth-century racecourse into a modern sports facility, able to hold 20,000 spectators.

The third event is technological and has a precise date: October 2005, when the first all weather track with a synthetic base in Italy went into operation at the Capannelle. Less than a year later, on September 9, 2006, the lighting system with 25 floodlight towers and 550 reflectors of 2,000 watts each was switched on: night racing and, as a consequence, big evening events became possible.

The fourth is June 2009, the first edition of Rock in Roma. From that moment the racetrack has a double life: sports facility from fall to spring, concert arena in summer. In a little more than 15 years the festival has gathered over 3 million spectators and more than 300 evenings.

The fifth is March 2014, when the closure of the Tor di Valle racetrack moved harness racing to the Capannelle too, never before run on this track.

The sixth, and the saddest, are the summers of 2020 and 2021, when the festival was not held because of the Covid 19 epidemic. Two years of empty lawn in a place that at that time of year had always had a stage.

The seventh, finally, is sporting in nature and concerns the racetrack as such: the Capannelle has hosted the Cyclocross World Championship, along with exhibitions and non-racing events. A facility of 140 hectares, in a city that has very few enclosed spaces of that size, inevitably ends up hosting anything that requires space.

Who Has Played at Rock in Roma, Ippodromo Capannelle

On the lawn of the Capannelle, a substantial portion of the recent history of live music has passed through in 15 years. On the rock and alternative side, the performers have included Radiohead, Metallica, Muse, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Deep Purple, The Smashing Pumpkins, Blur, Placebo, Green Day, Korn, Slipknot, Queens of the Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, Nine Inch Nails, Motorhead, Testament, Interpol, Editors, White Lies, The Black Keys, Mumford and Sons, Sigur Ros and The Cranberries.

Alongside them have come figures who belong to different stories: Iggy Pop, Lenny Kravitz, Marilyn Manson, Robbie Williams, Mika, Skunk Anansie, Simple Minds, the Beach Boys, Goran Bregovic with his Balkan orchestra, the Spanish Ska-P, the reggae of UB40 and Shaggy, the melancholy Americana of Calexico, the electronica of the Chemical Brothers and the Prodigy, the rock theater of 30 Seconds to Mars.

The international black and hip hop scene has brought Cypress Hill, Snoop Dogg and Lauryn Hill here. On the Italian side the list is just as long and crosses three generations: the Afterhours and Marlene Kuntz of the 1990s alternative rock, the Subsonica and the Negrita, the Modena City Ramblers and the Bandabardò, Daniele Silvestri, Elio e le Storie Tese, Caparezza, the 99 Posse, J-Ax, and then the following generation with Fabri Fibra, Noyz Narcos, Gemitaiz, Salmo, Gue Pequeno, Marracash, Mannarino, Lo Stato Sociale, and finally the names raised on streaming platforms, from Coez to Liberato, from Calcutta to Carl Brave up to Sfera Ebbasta.

There is an honest way to read this list: the Capannelle was the place where Rome saw for the first time artists who elsewhere filled stadiums. For a city that for decades was skipped by international tours in favor of Milan, having a facility able to host 45,000 people 20 minutes from the Raccordo changed things. The credit should be split between the structure, which was already there, and the two artistic directors who had the idea of using it, Maxmiliano Bucci and Sergio Giuliani.

Quick Questions About Rock in Roma, Ippodromo Capannelle

Where Exactly Is Rock in Roma at the Ippodromo Capannelle?

At the Ippodromo delle Capannelle, Via Appia Nuova 1245, 00178 Rome, in the southeast quadrant of the city, just outside the Grande Raccordo Anulare in the direction of Ciampino.

How Do You Get There by Subway?

No subway line reaches the racetrack. You take metro A to Colli Albani and then bus 664 along the Appia Nuova, or to Cinecittà and then the 520. The bus stop is about 100 meters from the entrance.

Is There a Rail Connection?

Yes, the Capannelle station on the FL4 line from Roma Termini, about 400 meters from the racetrack. The trip takes about 10 minutes. Check the time of the last evening run before counting on it for the return.

Which Buses Serve the Ippodromo delle Capannelle?

Lines 520, 664 and 789, with the Capannelle stop on the Appia Nuova.

Is There Parking at Rock in Roma at the Ippodromo Capannelle?

Yes, the racetrack has its own parking lots numbered P1 to P6, with staggered opening times in the afternoon. The parking lot reserved for people with disabilities is P4.

How Do You Get Back to the City After the Concert?

With the shuttles contracted by the organizers, which usually leave around 00:30 and at 01:00 toward San Giovanni and Termini, with limited seats to be booked in advance. Alternatively, the night bus or a taxi called by phone or app.

What Time Do the Gates Open?

Usually in the early afternoon, often around 15:30, with the main concert starting late in the evening. The exact time is listed for each date on the official site.

How Much Does a Ticket for Rock in Roma at the Ippodromo Capannelle Cost?

The price varies for each concert and each sector, and changes every season. The official price of each date is published on the festival's site, which also lists the authorized seller.

How Many People Fit in the Ippodromo delle Capannelle?

Up to 45,000 spectators in the configuration with the main stage. There are intermediate setups from 14,000 to 30,000 and smaller arenas of a few thousand seats.

What's the Difference Between Pit and General Admission?

The pit is the limited-capacity zone in front of the stage, with a separate entrance and an extra charge. General admission is the standing lawn. For listening, the middle of the field about 40 meters from the stage is often the best position.

Can You Bring Water Inside?

As a rule, sealed bottles can't be brought in and the caps are taken away at the gates. Water refill points and refreshment stands are available inside. The precise rules are published for each date.

Can You Take Photos at Rock in Roma at the Ippodromo Capannelle?

With a phone, yes. Cameras with interchangeable lenses are normally forbidden without press accreditation.

Is It Accessible to People with Disabilities?

Yes, with entrance from Gate A, parking at P4 and assistance from volunteers. The ground, though, is dirt and grass and the internal distances are hundreds of meters: take that into account.

Is Rock in Roma Suitable for Children?

Under 10 I advise against it, because of the hours, the crowd and the dust. For older kids it's a good experience if they stay in the middle of the field and the return is organized in advance.

What Happens If It Rains?

The facility was built to work in any weather and concerts are rarely canceled for a summer thunderstorm. The lawn does turn to mud, though: closed shoes and a change of clothes in the car.

In Which Months Does Rock in Roma Take Place?

Between June and July, with extensions into August in some editions. The program covers about two months.

How Many Years Has Rock in Roma Existed?

Since June 2009. The 2020 and 2021 editions were not held because of the Covid 19 epidemic, so the number of editions actually held is lower than the years elapsed.

Is Rock in Roma Held Only at the Capannelle?

No. The main venue is the Ippodromo delle Capannelle, but the festival has also used the Circo Massimo for events on the largest scale and the Cavea of the Auditorium Parco della Musica for the more intimate format.

What's the Difference Between Rock in Roma and the Other Roman Festivals?

Rock in Roma is a series with one concert per night over two months, not a festival concentrated in a few days. The Baths of Caracalla host the summer Opera season, the Cavea of the Auditorium a program more geared to listening, the Romaeuropa Festival contemporary theater and dance in the fall.

Can the Ippodromo delle Capannelle Be Visited Outside Concerts?

Yes, it's a horse racing facility in operation all year, with flat racing and, since 2014, harness racing too. Race days are an excellent way to see the place without 40,000 people in front of you.

How Far Is the Racetrack from Ciampino Airport?

A few kilometers. From the airport you can use the FL4 rail line in the direction of Termini, getting off at Capannelle, or a taxi for the short trip.

Is It Worth Arriving When the Gates Open?

If you're aiming for the barrier, yes, expecting hours of waiting in the sun. Otherwise show up a couple of hours before the main concert: you get in without long lines and still find a decent spot.

One last thing. The Capannelle is not a beautiful place in the sense that the Circo Massimo is, and anyone who arrives looking for the postcard is disappointed: it's a sports facility on the outskirts, dusty, far away, inconvenient. Yet it's the place where Rome learned to host big live music, and on a July night, with the floodlight towers lit above 40,000 people and the dark Appia stretching toward the Castelli, the feeling you get in there can't be found anywhere else in the city. Go with sturdy shoes, the return already booked and no rush.

Frequently Asked Questions About Rock in Roma, Ippodromo Capannelle

Where Exactly Is Rock in Roma at the Ippodromo Capannelle?

Rock in Roma is held at the Ippodromo delle Capannelle, at Via Appia Nuova 1245, in the southeast quadrant of Rome, just outside the Grande Raccordo Anulare in the direction of Ciampino. The high street number places the venue in the stretch between Capannelle and Ciampino, beyond the Raccordo, in a peripheral area of workshops, nurseries and fields.

How Do You Get to Rock in Roma by Subway?

No subway line reaches the Ippodromo delle Capannelle, home of Rock in Roma, directly. You take metro A to the Colli Albani stop and then continue by bus 664 along the Appia Nuova, or you get off at the Cinecittà stop for an alternative route.

Is Rock in Roma Accessible to People with Disabilities?

The Ippodromo delle Capannelle, home of Rock in Roma, offers a dedicated route for people with disabilities, with entrance from Gate A, reserved parking at P4 and assistance from volunteer staff. The ground remains largely dirt and grass, though, with slight but continuous changes in level and distances between the parking lot and the stage measured in hundreds of meters.

Is Rock in Roma Suitable for Underage Kids?

Many Rock in Roma evenings have a very young audience, especially the rap and pop ones, and minors get in under the rules indicated for each date, which generally require the accompaniment of an adult below a certain age. For a 14 or 15 year old, a spot on the lawn is manageable in the middle of the field, while down front the pressure of the crowd on the busiest nights has to be considered.

What Time Do the Concerts Start at Rock in Roma?

At Rock in Roma the gates usually open in the early afternoon, around 15:30, while the main concert starts right around 22:00, with a six-hour gap between opening and the start of the show. The concert ends between midnight and 01:00, at a time when the subway no longer runs out to the racetrack.

How Many Spectators Can Rock in Roma Hold at the Capannelle?

The main stage of Rock in Roma, the white one set up on the inner lawn of the Ippodromo delle Capannelle, holds up to 45,000 people. There is also an intermediate configuration that ranges between 14,000 and 30,000 seats and a secondary arena that can go down to 3,000 seats depending on the setup of the evening.

What Is There to See Near the Ippodromo delle Capannelle?

The quadrant between Appia Nuova, Appia Antica and Tuscolana, around the Ippodromo delle Capannelle, is one of the densest in archaeology of the Roman periphery: a few kilometers away are the Parco degli Acquedotti, with the arches of the Claudian aqueduct and the Felice, and the Parco della Caffarella, the valley of the Almone that has stayed agricultural inside the Grande Raccordo.

Has the Capannelle Been the Oldest Racetrack in Italy Since 1881?

Yes, the Ippodromo delle Capannelle, home of Rock in Roma since 2009, is the oldest racetrack in Italy still in operation: racing on that land began in 1844 at the initiative of the English aristocrat Lord George Stanhope, and the official opening of the racetrack dates to 1881, after the birth of the Jockey Club Italiano.

If you're organizing an evening at the Capannelle within a broader trip, or need to move a group from the center to the Appia Nuova and bring it back late at night, you'll find professional assistance at TourLeaderPro and you can write directly from the contact page. For those coming from abroad and building their Roman stay around a concert, the English guide to the best things to do in Rome and the 3 day itinerary help fit the days together.

Article written by the editorial team of TourLeaderPro, contact them for Private/Corporate/V.I.P. Tours and Experiences.

Planning a trip to Rome? The English guides to visiting the city are on ItalyPlanner.com.