From January 31st to February 17th, the Venice Carnival celebrates the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics with a special edition themed "Olympus - The Origins of the Game", a grand collective narrative that intertwines myth, history, art, and sport, repositioning the game at the center of celebration, competition, and community. It starts on Saturday, January 31st, at 5:00 p.m. in Piazza San Marco, with the Grand Carnival Ball with Bridgerton, the first major event that introduces the public to the atmosphere of the 2026 edition. The next day, Sunday, February 1st, the tradition is brought to life with the Festa Veneziana, an evocative water parade along the Grand Canal that formally kicks off the event's historic and traditional program. The highlight will be the explosion of the Pantegana beneath the Rialto Bridge, an undeniable emblem of the start of Carnival. On the same day, the stage program in St. Mark’s Square—the beating heart of the festival—also gets underway: the city will begin to vibrate to the rhythm of the most beautiful mask parades and over 1,000 shows, featuring 80 companies and 350 artists who will brighten up the streets, squares, and piazzas. Hundreds of thousands of people from all around the world are expected.