Barcelona carnival 2025 - What to see


Barcelona Carnival 2025 - Carnestoltes

Carnaval de Barcelona dates: 
Thursday 27th February to Wednesdsay 5th March 2025

2025 Barcelona Carnival week. What to see at the Barcelona Carnival. 'A Carnestoltes, bones voltes' - 'In Carnival, good times!' The Barcelona Carnival is a week long programme of events and processions 27th February to 5th March 2025, when the famous carnival sardine is buried on Ash Wednesday.

The first document history of Barcelona's carnival dates back to 1333 when a regulation from the Barcelona government prohibited orange throwing and regulated the use of masks! Pictures Barcelona Carnival

Barcelona Carnival 
Photo by Carlos Lorenzo with kind permission. More Barcelona carnival photos

2025 Barcelona Carnival. 'A Carnestoltes, bones voltes' - 'In Carnival, good times!'  The Barcelona Carnival is a week long programme of events and processions in all neighbourhoods of Barcelona in February and March 2025.  It starts with the arrival of the Carnival royalty - in 2025 on Thursday, February 27th 2025 with a parade along the streets of Sants area - and ends on Ash Wednesday, when the "carnival sardine" is buried. The first documented history of Barcelona's carnival dates back to 1333 when a regulation from the Barcelona government prohibited the throwing of oranges and regulated the use of masks. 

Pictures Barcelona Carnival

What is carnival?

The general idea of a carnival is to eat, drink, dance and generally party during carnaval week in preparation for the fasting period of Lent, which begins when the carnaval ends. To find the Carnival period on the calendar, look for the first full moon after the spring equinox. The Sunday immediately after the spring equinox is Easter Sunday and, the Sunday before Easter Sunday is Palm Sunday. It is from Palm Sunday that we count back 40 days to find Ash Wednesday, the day on which the traditional burial of the sardine is celebrated.

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent and the last day of Carnival. Ash Wednesday is a sad day for carnival lovers. Their Majesties, the King and Queen of Carnival have died and now Lent reigns for 40 days. Neighbors gather in various neighborhoods of Barcelona  to make "funeral" processions, howling and crying for the death of their beloved leaders with the burial of the sardine. After the sardine interment, it is traditional to have a community meal with lots of sardines! The Thursday before Ash Wednesday is the traditional start of Carnival week, or Shrove Tuesday. Carnaval is a festival which allows you to hide behind your mask and be someone else for a while allowing you to break the rules a little and generally let yourself go. 

In Barcelona the public carnival activities are mostly for families and children, although that said, there are many parties at nightclubs for adults and many costume balls. Carnival is called 'carnestoltes' in the Catalan language and 'carnaval' in Spanish. The carnaval parades are mostly on Saturday, March 1st 2025.
In Spain the carnaval starts on 'Fat Thursday', because this is the day when you start to stuff yourself during carnaval week. Barcelona food markets celebrate Fat Thursday with many food events and competitions all over Barcelona. The main character of the Spanish carnevals is King Carnival - called 'Rei Carnestoltes' in Catalan language and 'Rey Carnaval' in Spanish language.

The symbolic role of the Carnival King is to carry all the sins of power, and take responsibility for all the bad things that occurred throughout the year. On the last day of Carnival, the carnival king’s last will and testament is read in public. Then the king is condemned and burnt, which is the signal to start the feast. A week later the sad death of the King Carnival marks the end of the carnival with funeral corteges complete with grieving widows in black and other events in his honour all over the city.

Barcelona's main carnaval events in the city center take inspiration from the ancient carnavals from previous centuries dating back to the 14th century. Barcelona has around 100 local events and over 30 local carnaval parades in all districts of Barcelona including the neighbourhoods of the old city Ciutat Vella.

See major events on the Barcelona Carnival website or search on Social Media for Barcelona carnival information using the hashtags: #carnavalbcn #carnestoltes

For the adults we also recommend the Carnival parade nights at Sitges, a small resort town to the south of Barcelona and easily acessible by train from Barcelona. The Sitges carnaval usually takes place around the same time and has more of a street party theme for adults. Sitges, which is a popular seaside resort town just south of Barcelona, where the Sitges Carnival is celebrated on the same days as Barcelona. The Sitges carnaval is famous for its flamboyant parades, both thanks to a fantastic annual effort by Sitges residents and by the vibrant and vivacious gay community of Sitges.

Barcelona costume shops

Barcelona carnaval highlights & parades


Dijous Gras - Fat Thursday - Jueves Ladero
Thursday 8th February is 'Fat Thursday' and the first day of the carnival. Fat Thursday called 'Dijous Gras' in Catalan language and 'jueves Ladero' in Spanish language. Fat Thursday is similar to Shrove Tuesday in UK. The King Carnaval ceremony opens the carnaval week in Barcelona. 

L'Arribo Rei Carnestoltes
Carnival King arrival at plaza de Sant Jaume. The first parades of the carnival are to celebrate the arrival of King Carnival. You can see Rei Carnestoltes processions in many local 'barrios' neighbourhoods often starting from 'mercat' food markets in Barcelona. There Arrival of Carnival King and entourage is at  Plaça de Sant Jaume  at 6pm, where you can enjoy 'La Taronjada' which is one of the oldest Carnival traditions inspired by the ancient battle of orange throwing. In the modern version of the Taronjada' the battle of is one of orange colour with orange balloons and confetti.


barcelona_carnaval_parade

Las ruas de carnaval - carnival parades

More than 40 Carnival 2025 streets in the neighborhoods Typically, the districts of Ciutat Vella, Sant Martí, Nou Barris and Horta-Guinardó are the areas with the most parades scheduled or announced: a total of seven each. 

Rua 'Carnavalassu 2018'
Date: Saturday 10th February 2018
Time: 18:30 to 20:30 - 5pm to 8.30pm
Starts on: Plaça de la Mercè
Ends on:  Carrer del Pou de la Figuera
Parade route: Pl. de la Mercè, c. Regomir, c. Ciutat, pl. Sant Jaume, c. Jaume I, c. Princesa, c. Tantarantana, pl. Sant Agustí Vell, c. Serra Xic, to finish at c. Pou de la Figuera

La Taronjada Barcelona Carnival

More Barcelona carnaval activities


Most of the activities during the Barcelona Carnaval are in the barrios (neighbourhoods) of Barcelona. Each barrio (neighbourhood) organizes their own parades and festivities, so keep your eyes open for posters advertising carnaval events in your area or visit the carnival website for a full list of activities and programme. The activities are usually centred around the civic centres and the food markets in each district of Barcelona.

Carneval activities in Barcelona usually include parades, lots of children's activities and competitions, like fancy dress competitions and food and cooking competitions with prizes for everyone. Among the activities you will always find some that celebrate the traditions of eating eggs, usually in the form of tortilla (omelette) cooking and tasting competitions. 

Don't miss the 'botifarrada,' where everyone eats botifarra to their hearts content. Botifarra is a type of Catalan sausage and based on ancient recipes, either the Roman sausage botulu or the lucanica, made of raw pork and spices.  Sardines are other main ingredients in Catalan carnival tradition and there are many sardine tasting events.

The Barcelona market organization 'Mercats de Barcelona' awards the best decorated stalls and shops in each food market the traditional and much coveted Golden Pepper award called 'Pebrot d'Or' – 'Pimiento de Oro.'

The Barcelona Carnival ends on Ash Wednesday, 'el Miércoles de Ceniza' and is celebrated with the traditional 'Enterrament de la Sardina' - 'Burial of the Sardine' ( In Spanish: Entierro de la sardina) to mark the end of the carnival period.  The sardine funeral is a symbolical burial of the past to allow society to be reborn and transformed with new vigour.

This takes place in various districts of Barcelona on Wednesday 14th February

Barcelona Carnival website 
Web Barcelona food markets
Civic centres Barcelona
Sitges carnaval website
Highlights Sitges Carnival
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Barcelona Events 

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Last Updated on Thursday, 27 February 2025 10:15
 
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Wednesday, 12 March 2025


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