PROGRAM
The Viareggio Carnival celebrates in 2020 147 years of life under the sign of a vivid tradition such as the long-established European tradition of Carnival festivals. It is no doubt one of the best known events in Italy. Each year the Viareggio Carnival attracts more than 600.000 spectators gathering to attend the magic of the grand parades of large floats in papier-maché. In 2020, THE CARNIVAL MASKED PARADES will take place on Saturday 1, Sunday 9, Saturday 15, Thursday 20, Sunday 23 and Tuesday 25 February 2020 along the extraordinary Liberty seaside boulevards.
Carnevale di Viareggio 2020
Program
Saturday 1 February @ 4 p.m.
Opening Ceremony
1st GIANT FLOAT PARADE – Evening Inauguration
Firework show and music to follow
Sunday 9 February @ 3 p.m.
2nd GIANT FLOAT PARADE
Saturday 15 February @ 5 p.m.
3rd GIANT FLOAT PARADE - Evening
Thursday 20 February @ 6 p.m.
4th GIANT FLOAT PARADE - Evening
Firework show to follow
Sunday 23 February @ 3 p.m.
5th GIANT FLOAT PARADE
Tuesday 25 February @ 3 p.m.
6th & Final GIANT FLOAT PARADE
Prize giving ceremony
&
Firework show to follow
Carnevale di Viareggio 2020 - Generations.
The month-long event will celebrate the bonds between generations with well-known special guests: mothers, fathers, sons and daughters who have left their mark in the worlds of art, culture, science, entertainment, business and sports.
9 First Class gargantuan papier-mâché allegorical floats (moving theatres towering up 70 feet over the crowds and weighing about 40 tons), 5 Second Class floats 9 Group Masquerades and 8 Individual masquerades will parade along Viareggio’s Liberty-era boardwalk, best known as La Passeggiata.
The peculiarity of the Viareggio Carnival consists in giant, allegorical papier-maché floats - the biggest ones weighing about forty tons - and expresses today the old knowledge that goes back to the ancient ‘trionfi’ (war-victory feastings) of the Renaissance, adhering even more to the building techniques of the big sailing boats, a pride of Viareggio traditions.
Every evening, there are carnival celebrations in all of the city’s different districs. The most famous bars, restaurants, discos, etc., including the largest hotels in Versilia, host colourful all night masked carnival parties.
Real travelling theatres - the allegorical papier-maché floats are the product of the unequalled creativity, of the extraordinary sculpture and painting skill of Viareggio’s ‘magicians’, and are the highest example of this popular art whose language has spread all over the world.
The parades take place in a ring-like circuit 2 kms. long, on the seaside avenue of Viareggio, best known as La Passeggiata.
Here the floats move among the spectators, who can attend the show with no barriers, becoming in turn the protagonists of the parade.
During the Carnival period, Viareggio and it’s Passeggiata become a true open air Museum where people, coming from all over the world, meet to enjoy the event together.
The parades also include folkloristic bands and performers with the most original masks, offering excitement, culture and tradition in a wide programme of entertainment and fun for children and adults.
Viareggio, the Carnival town, also known as the Pearl of the Tyrrhenian Sea for its long sandy beaches, its pine-woods, its beautiful promenade, a natural stage for its Carnival surrounded by the Apuan Alps and the Art Deco architecture of its villas along the seaside, is situated on the northern coast of Tuscany.
The town shows its identity and image to the world thanks to its Carnival. For four consecutive Sundays and during the Mardi Gras parade, thousands of people from Viareggio, and the surrounding areas, take part in this event.
