Arts and Trades are the protagonists in this year’s Carnival. Live for the public in St. Mark’s Square – Mask makers, weavers, tailors and glass-makers in their 18th century Venetian workshops. Their most minute or delicate activities will be amplified on a big screen set up in the Square. Actors and masks will emphasize the important moments and phases during artisan activities; the groundwork used to transmit the message that arts and traditions in Venice, are real, unchanged over the centuries, and still present in the city. The St. Mark’s Square backdrop will be a frame to a giant living canvas with masks, costumes, and cloths, where the arts of the trades are framed by bursts of a gone-by Venetian life, where theatre and music alternate until a final triumph.

Together with the mainland, where the Carnival will spread, and celebrations become a showcase exhibiting long traditions of Venetian life, even Calli and Campi in Venice will become places for musical and theatrical events. While preparations and re-enactments once again, present Venice’s relationship with arts and trades at the Arsenale, the “factory” par excellence.

Theme-based itineraries, special openings, temporary exhibitions, and iconographic itineraries will be offered, thanks to collaborating museums and cultural institutions.

A rich and well-structured programme dedicated to music and theatre. The art of costume and disguise has had a major expression in Venice. Therefore, the 2016 Carnival rediscovers theatre, opera and comedy, not only inside the theatres – but also in the open air at St. Mark’s square to be used as a stage, and in the campi and calli. A big performance where the real world and artistic illusion meet, enhancing all the traditions in the arts and trades of Venetian culture.
Music will be brought back to the campi, calli, and Venetian canals, transforming everything into a travelling Carnival.

Here you can find the 65 highlight events. Select the date, the place or the category to see the program.

16.02.2014 Carnevale di Venezia: la “festa veneziana” a Cannaregio. © Matteo Bertolin/Unionpress