Venice Carnival 2024

Live stream, Webcams, Dates, Parades, Events, Parties

If Venice wasn't magical enough, the Venice Carnival, or to give it the correct technical title Carnevale di Venezia or Carnival of Venice is a uniquely colourful affair, bringing a festival of costumes, music and pageantry to this most fabulous of Italian cities. The origins of the carnival can be traced way back to the 12th century, but in it's current modern format it has been a fixture on the Venetian calendar since 1979.

This year's theme is To the Orient "Marco Polo's Amazing Journey"

We actually attended the Venice carnival in 2014 and found it to be a truly spectacular affair, with the majority of the crowds dressing up in everything from full period costume to just masks and hats and a series of events including parades, a boat parade on the Grand Canal, shows and live performances in St Mark's Square and just a general atmosphere of run and revelry that it is hard to imagine being replicated elsewhere, this is most definitely a top recommendation for anyone's bucket list.

Carnival Dates, Events

Venice Carnival 2024 is set to take place from 3rd February - 13th February. Full programme here.

Saturday 3rd February
Feast of the "Maries" 2.30pm
Carnival Costumes Show 9am - 5pm at St Mark Square. This will run every day throughout the Carnival.
Burano Island Carnival 8.30pm - 9.30pm

Sunday 4th February
Flight of the Angel from the Bell Tower, but due to the ongoing construction works this is cancelled for this year again.

Thursday 8th - Tuesday 13th February
Burano Island Carnival 3pm - 11.30pm

Monday 12th February
Presentation of the 12 "Mary" at St Mark Square 10am to noon
Parade of traditional carnival costumes 3pm - 5pm at St Mark Square

Throughout the festival there are treasure hunts, street theatee shows, concerts, balls, opera, dinner cruises a little bit if everything for everyone, so you'll have an incredible time!

Webcams & Streaming

There may well be live streaming of some of the main events and parades in particular, Italian TV channel Rai Uno have certainly provided coverage in the past, so we will post any links we find here as they become available.

You might also find some footage on their social media, including Facebook and YouTube

One way you will certainly be able to catch some live action from the Carnival of Venice is to check out some of the local webcam views, there are some in key positions in Venice ideally placed to watch some of the main events:

Grand Canal webcam

St Mark's Square webcam

Hotels and Accommodation

Accommodation in Venice is exceptionally pricey at any time of year, and when the carnival is taking place this is even more of an issue. Our top recommendation therefore is to head a little off the main island of Venice and use the excellent public transport to head into town for the carnival events, the trains run late into the night and are very reasonably priced.

Nearby towns on the main train live worth checking out include Padua and Vicenza, while even Verona is little over an hour away on the faster trains. Not only are these places much more reasonably priced and easily accessible they are also fabulous holiday destinations in their own right.

You can check availability and make reservations for local hotels here.

Reviews & Sharing

Page content by Martin Kerrigan. If you have found the content on this page useful then please feel free to share it with your friends and family, or if you have any information or updates that might be useful for us to add to the page then please contact us

This site uses cookies, continued use constitutes acceptance - see our Privacy Policy