In 2026 POLIS Teatro Festival reaches its 9th edition, after eight successful years for one of the few Italian theatre festivals investigating fundamental issues such as the defence of civil rights, climate change, and the role of art in society. Since 2018, the festival has become known on the international theatre scene, becoming an established appointment, with the merit of bringing to theatre every year also citizens who do not go there for economic or social reasons and hundreds of young people (in 2025 over 500 under30).

After the second edition, in 2020 the pandemic led the festival to rethink itself in a virtuous way and transform into an international online conference on the future of theater involving 67 artists, professionals and scholars from 12 different countries (published in the book Quale teatro per il domani?, Editoria & Spettacolo 2020).

Open to the contemporary European scene since 2022, POLIS has brought leading international artists to Ravenna, including Pascal Rambert, Ivica Buljan, Oliver Frljić, Jeton Neziraj, Branko Šimić, She She Pop, Mats Staub, Rimini Protokoll, Hotel Europa, El Conde de Torrefiel, Rui Pina Coelho, Silvia Costa, Odin Teatret, La Mecànica, Italian excellences Umberto Orsini/Giovanna Marini, Teatro delle Albe, Ascanio Celestini, Elena Bucci/Le belle bandiere, Fabrizio Arcuri/Filippo Nigro, Silvia Pasello/Ares Tavolazzi, Valter Malosti, Valentina Banci, Roberta Biagiarelli, Licia Lanera, Babilonia teatri, Barletti/Waas,  Nicola Borghesi and Lodo Guenzi/Kepler-452, Fettarappa Sandri/Guerrieri, Teatro i, Nerval Teatro, Teatro Onnivoro, CapoTrave, AriaTeatro, and promising young talents Hermanas Picohueso, Isabel Costa/Os Possessos, Alejandro Postigo, Pauline Peyrade, Žiga Divjak, Gemma Hansson Carbone, Zone-Poème, Klaus Martini, Le Cerbottane, Mezzopalco/Usine Baug, Ucci Ucci, Landi/Mignemi/Paris. 

Its formula that combines the high level of artistic proposals with the care of the communicative aspects has been rewarded by a continuous increase in the audience (equal to 350% when compared to the first of 2018 edition) and attention from the national and international press (winning two Ubu Prizes, nominated more than once), but also from public and private institutions, which in a few years have significantly increased their contributions to the festival, awarding it with the highest artistic quality score in all of Italy in the Ministry of Culture’s Theatre Festival category in the three-year period 2022-2024. 

Since its international launch, POLIS has focused on a different geographical area each year:
2022 – French Focus
2023 – Balkan Focus
2024 – German Focus
2025 – Iberian Focus
2026 – Nordic Focus