Floats and Fireworks at the 2025 Viareggio Carnival

 

VIAREGGIO CARNIVAL. Viale Mazzini, Viareggio.  The parades will be held on Saturday, February 8 (5 pm, followed by fireworks), Sun. Feb. 16 (3 pm), Sat. Feb. 22 (5 pm), Thurs. Feb. 27 (6 pm), Sun. Mar. 2 (3 pm), Tues. Mar. 4 (3 pm, culminating with a fireworks display).

February is Carnival month, and Viareggio hosts the biggest celebrations in Tuscany.  Carnival, Carnevale in Italian, has origins in the pagan Roman festival of Saturnalia and the term, derived from the Latin carnem levare, means ‘take away the meat.’  The name indicates the feast of unrestrained enjoyment of food, drink and sensual pleasures leading up to Martedì Grasso, or Fat Tuesday, which is followed by 40 days of Lent, a time when good Catholics fast or deprive themselves of something they enjoy.  

Parades, fireworks, masked balls, music, theatre, sports and culinary events are in the works in the seaside city of Viareggio.  During the weeks leading up to Martedi` Grasso, or Fat Tuesday, the city becomes transformed into a scene of fun and frivolity with merry makers engaging in daytime festivities and Bacchanalian nightlife.

Viareggio, set on the Mediterranean Sea with a backdrop of the Apuan Alps, boasts of historical rulers from the Bonaparte and Bourbon royal families as well as onetime residents Giacomo Puccini, Percy Bysshe Shelly and Lord Byron.  Today the city thrives as a seaside resort, with shipyards building most of the world’s luxury yachts. The beachfront promenade, lined with cafes, shops and Liberty style buildings, teems with sun seekers during the summer months.  However, the city remains most well-known for hosting its Carnival celebration, Italy’s largest folklore affair now ongoing since 1873.

Floats, the centerpiece of the Viareggio Carnival, could be seen as works of art on wheels and date back to 1873. Called carri in Italian, they depict various themes with satire and humor mocking the strengths, weaknesses, vices and virtues of society. Made pf papier mâché, they’re as large as 20 meters (66 feet) high and 12 meters (40 feet) wide, taking up the entire seafront promenade.

The history of papier mâché is connected to Viareggio as in 1925 builder and painter Antonio D’Arliano perfected the art of creating larger and lighter weight works with paper and glue. In fact, all the news of the world arrives in Viareggio, with newsprint being used to create the massive floats. Every year hundreds of artists, designers, builders and creative thinkers work all year to produce these ‘traveling theatres’ which amaze and inspire the public. Hundreds of costumed people ride on them, singing, dancing and presenting the theatre on wheels.

General admittance gives entrance into the festival area all along the seafront promenade allowing close-up viewing of the floats, mingling with the festive costumed crowd follow merrily along throwing confetti, singing and engaging in the revelry. The objects of ridicule and denouncement, politicians, cultural icons and evils of contemporary society, are brazenly portrayed in caricature on the floats. If you look around, you are sure to catch a glimpse of Burlamacco the smiling clown, the symbol and mascot of the city’s yearly event,dressed in red and white, a huge black cape billowing behind.

 For an extra fee, one can sit in the press stands facing the sea with the bright sunlight reflected off the water giving an even more festive atmosphere. The enormous floats move slowly past the stands giving the onlookers the opportunity to enjoy the details of the creations.

The floats this year portray diversity, the folly of material wealth, isolation in society and the importance of children for our future. Despite the doom and gloom predictions of the themes, the atmosphere remains one of revelry and merriment. Here are just a few of the floats spectators can expect to see.

The Monster Is Scared

With Frankenstein as the centerpiece, the creator addresses the theme of diversity to erode the wall of differences and asserting the beauty of a planet in which we are all unique.

Happiness Is Like a Butterfly

In a time in which technology, social media and advertising urge us to be busy, accomplish incessantly and accumulate material goods, the builder reminds us that true happiness does not come from possessing objects. Inspired by American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, who said, “Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi: How Transitory Are the Things of the World

The allegorical construction depicts the imaginary portrait of a woman pope. Although nonexistent, it urges the viewer to reflect of the role of women in the Catholic Church. Perhaps a new concept of equality and inclusion can challenge centuries-old traditions.

The Last Heroes of Innocence

Small children play beneath a dove of peace while demons with sharp teeth and swords lurk above menacingly flanked by flags of world power.

Tickets to the parades start at €25 for adults and €19 for children under 14 with a supplement charge for reserved seating in the grandstands. For tickets to the parades, map of the Carnival area and links to museums and other related activities, see the bilingual website: https://viareggio.ilcarnevale.com/ 

The Box Office, located at the entrance to the Cittadella will be open from Monday to Thursday 9 am -1  pm / 3 – 6 pm Fridays 9 am -1 pm / 3 – 5 pm.  (Rita Kungel)

 

 

 

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