What it is
Craiova Days is the city's own festival, and unlike most municipal events in Romania it is genuinely worth planning around if you are already thinking about a June visit.
It lands in the first week of June, tied to Children's Day on the 1st, and the exact dates are set each spring by the city hall. The 2026 edition ran 5–7 June. If you are reading this before the next edition is announced, assume the first weekend of June and check before booking — we do not print dates we cannot source.
The centre of it is a free concert stage in Piața Mihai Viteazul, the same square the Christmas market uses in winter.
What actually happens
The concert stage in the main square is the headline: free, outdoors, and running across the three days.
The children's parade goes along Strada A. I. Cuza, which is the street the National Theatre sits on. It is tied to Children's Day and it is the part families plan around.
The institutions open up. The Colibri puppet theatre, the Oltenia Philharmonic, the Romanian Opera and the Maria Tănase folk ensemble all put on programmes during the festival. For a city with that many stages in a few central streets, this is the weekend they all point in the same direction — theatres and cinemas has each venue.
ExpoFlora runs alongside it. The flower and garden fair is laid out along Strada Theodor Aman in the old town. It is a selling exhibition rather than a show — growers from across Oltenia — and it is the one weekend of the year when that particular street is worth walking for its own sake.
Places in this piece
Why early June is a good time to be here anyway
The festival is a reason, but the season is the better one.
June is the sweet spot. It is before the Oltenian plain turns genuinely hot — July and August average highs around 30 °C with no evening cool-down, which is the single hardest thing about summer here. In early June you get long daylight without that. The weather page has the month-by-month, and Craiova in spring covers the run-up.
The parks are at their best. Romanescu in early June is the version of itself everything else is measured against — see the park guide.
Everything outdoors still works. The 1.5 km Brâncuși axis at Târgu Jiu is an outdoor walk and June is the right month for it; so is Oltenia generally, before the heat makes the driving unpleasant.
Where to stay nearby
Live prices and availability on a map centred on this exact spot — hotels, apartments and hostels, so you can judge the walk from here rather than guess from an address.
Bookings made through this map earn us a commission. Your price is unaffected.
Practical
Book accommodation ahead. It is a festival weekend in a city with a limited central hotel stock, which is a combination that fills. Where to stay has the city by area; stay in the centre, because the festival is in the centre.
The square is closed to traffic during the festival, as it is for the Christmas market, and the centre's parking is contested at the best of times. Park once and walk — where to park in Craiova.
Eat off the square. The centre is dense enough that two minutes' walk gets you away from the crowd: where to eat, and the restaurants listing shows what is open now. The old town lanes around Traian Demetrescu are the drinking street — Craiova at night.
With children, the parade and Colibri are the obvious draws, and playgrounds and parks covers where to go when they have had enough of a stage. Craiova with children is the broader guide.
The other festivals, so you can plan properly
Craiova's calendar is thinner than Sibiu's but it is not empty, and two of its events are genuinely significant:
The International Shakespeare Festival is the big one — biennial, and the thing that puts the city on an international theatre map. The National Theatre "Marin Sorescu" is the host.
The Elena Teodorini international festival and the Craiova Jazz Festival are the other dated entries worth knowing about.
All of them, with whatever dates have actually been announced, are on the events page. We list what has a source; where a festival has not published its next edition, we say so rather than guessing.
Where this sits in the year
If you are choosing a single weekend to see Craiova at its best, the real competition is early June against mid-November.
Early June gives you the city outdoors: the park, the walk along Calea Unirii, the day trips, and the festival on top.
Mid-November gives you the Christmas market during the fortnight when Craiova has the only one open in Romania, at off-season prices — the argument is in why Craiova opens first.
They are different cities. When to visit Craiova sets out the whole year.
