Venice Carnival

What:  The pres­ti­gious Venice Car­ni­val is world-famous for its icon­ic masks as some 3 mil­lion peo­ple gath­er in the san Mar­co square over the course of two weeks to not just cel­e­brate the cen­tu­ry old venet­ian tra­di­tion of wear­ing masks to allow for lib­er­ty, but to be enter­tained by parades,  free con­certs, jug­glers, acro­bats, mar­kets, food, music, mask com­pe­ti­tions and of course par­tic­i­pate in the lav­ish mas­quer­ade ball.

Dat­ing back to 1162 where the car­ni­val com­mem­o­rat­ed the vic­to­ry of the Venice repub­lic, the car­ni­val begins with the Flight of the Angel per­for­mance, where a lone acro­bat takes flight from the cen­tre clock in St Mark’s square, with the fol­low­ing weeks fea­tur­ing the famous gon­do­las lit up each night to parade through the streets of Venice in the ‘fes­ti­val of the waters’ a dai­ly and free to par­tic­i­pate in best mask con­test, a beau­ty con­cert and the mas­quer­ade pub crawl – and not for­get­ting the mul­ti­ple mas­quer­ade balls that spring up all over the city over the course of the two weeks, includ­ing the grand­est of them all – the Grand Mas­quer­ade Ball – which still defines the ele­gance of the car­ni­val as hun­dreds of masked ballers waltz the night away against the back­drop of the beau­ty of Venice.

When: The car­ni­val takes place for the 2 weeks pri­or to Shrove Tues­day, with the flight of the angel tak­ing place on the start day of the car­ni­val, the fes­ti­val of the waters begin­ning from the first Sun­day and the best mask com­pe­ti­tion begin­ning on the day of the car­ni­val and last­ing until the last Sat­ur­day of the car­ni­val – when the ulti­mate best masked win­ner of the car­ni­val will be crowned.

Where: The car­ni­val takes place all over Venice, with the main events – includ­ing the flight of the angel per­for­mance, the mask com­pe­ti­tions, and the var­i­ous free enter­tain­ment (includ­ing music, jug­glers and acro­bats) tak­ing place in St Mark’s Square.

You can also expect numer­ous free activ­i­ties around the cities muse­ums, includ­ing guid­ing tours, and for those wish­ing to take part in the final grand mas­quer­ade ball, you can scout your tick­ets ear­ly and then head to the cities beau­ti­ful Palaz­zo Con­tari­ni del­la Por­ta di Fer­ro.

Dura­tion: The Venice Car­ni­val lasts for around 2 weeks end­ing on shrove Tues­day, while the pro­gram varies from year to year you can bank on the flight of the angel begin­ning at 12pm sharp in St marks square and last­ing for an hour – with the dai­ly fes­ti­vals of the water tak­ing place at 10:30am and nor­mal­ly last­ing till lunch time, and the mask parades tak­ing place in the square each night begin­ning as dusk sets, it’s also advised to arrive at 9am for the free muse­um tours – as while they run dur­ing the day they tend to fill up sharply.

Tick­ets: A num­ber of the events dur­ing the car­ni­val, includ­ing the main per­for­mances and the fes­ti­val of the waters are free and take place in the cities St Marks Square — for the mas­quer­ade balls tick­ets are required, with prices begin­ning at 500 euros, tick­ets and being avail­able at the offi­cial car­ni­val tick­et web­site [https://www.vivovenetia.com/venice-masquerade-ball/] – you should also bud­get around 200 euros for your Venice car­ni­val cos­tume – whether you attend the balls or not as you can expect mask prices to rise in the weeks lead­ing up to and of the fes­ti­val.

Need to Know: Tick­ets to the ball, whilst being expen­sive, sell out almost a year pri­or to the Venice car­ni­val tak­ing place, with the same being true for masks and cos­tumes which can be found and rent­ed in advance or from shops in Venice. It will also come as no sur­prise that Venice gets crowd­ed dur­ing the car­ni­val, even more so than nor­mal – so it’s rec­om­mend­ed to book well in advance and be pre­pared for long queues and waits.

More Infor­ma­tion: The offi­cial car­ni­val web­site hosts infor­ma­tion on pur­chas­ing tick­ets, per­for­mances and dates for the fes­ti­val – as well as advice on how to han­dle the crowds: https://www.vivovenetia.com