IN PICTURES: Venice Carnival gets off to a flying start

The Venice Carnival kicked off in typically extravagant style over the past week, as thousands of visitors to the lagoon city joined locals at the annual festival.

Published: 7 February 2024 12:20 CET

People in carnival costumes parade across St. Mark's Square during the traditional Venice Carnival, on February 3, 2024.

People in carnival costumes parade across St. Mark's Square on February 3, 2024. Photo by MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP.

Each year, Venice’s world-famous Carnival injects some colour into the grey days of January and February with extravagant shows, festivities, and of course magnificent costumes.

The Venice carnival is believed to have first started in 1162, when Venetians gathered to celebrate a military victory in Saint Mark’s Square.

During the Renaissance period, the carnival became an official celebration, offering Italians of the era the chance to forget about their everyday worries by donning elaborate masks and costumes and attending lavish parties.

After the Austrian conquest of Venice in 1797, however, the festival was abandoned, and in the 1930’s Mussolini’s fascist government banned the celebrations altogether.

It didn’t start up again until 1980, when locals decided to revive the carnival to promote Venetian culture and history (and try and get the city’s off season tourism industry going).

These days, Venice is grappling with the problem of overtourism, with around one million visitors arriving on average over the course of the festival. Local transport services are increased for the festival’s duration to avoid overcrowding on buses and water buses.

The carnival opens with the ‘Flight of the Rat’ (Svolo della Pantegana), when a giant model rat leads colourful decorated boats in the opening parade sailing down the Grand Canal.

The parade typically features over 100 boats with 800 costumed rowers, accompanied by traditional Venetian songs.

Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP.

It’s followed by the Festa delle Marie – a historic beauty pageant during which 12 young local women are dressed up in Renaissance costumes and paraded throughout the city. A vote is then held at the end as to which of them makes the best Maria.