The 2026 Venice Carnival began with an atmosphere of tradition and spectacle. The evocative water parade along the Grand Canal was the undisputed highlight of the festival on the first Sunday. The parade was led by the renowned seven-meter-long papier-mâché pantegana, which has become a symbol of the Venetian Carnival and it was accompanied by approximately one hundred multicolored rowing boats, each manned by masked rowers. The departure was from Punta della Dogana, in front of the Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute, with arrival at Rialto, where—according to tradition—the pantegana “explodes".
The Carnival officially began in Piazza San Marco with the Grand Carnival Ball featuring Bridgerton, an event produced in collaboration with Netflix to promote the fourth season of the series. The subject for the 2026 edition is "Olympus - The Origins of the Game", an invitation to rediscover play as a global language of contact, sharing, and collective imagination, in honor of the Winter Olympics. The Grand Ball was brought to life with graceful choreography performed by professional dancers dressed in early nineteenth-century clothes, topped off by a breathtaking vertical dance with two performers suspended on heliospheres. Mestre took center stage in the afternoon, with a parade of the most beautiful masks, as well as other performances and shows by traveling artists, taking place on Piazza Ferretto. Today, Carnival continues on both land and water with the Venetian Festival, the boat procession to Rialto, the float parade in Dese, and the performances on the stages of Piazza San Marco and Piazza Ferretto.