Nice Carnaval 2025

Nice Carnaval poster for 2025The Nice Carnaval is the third biggest in the world after Rio and Venice!

From Saturday February 15th to Sunday March 2, 2025, come take part in this 150-year-old tradition, and see a rollicking and irreverent Carnaval parade with gigantic floats you will never forget… The 2025 theme is King of The Oceans, so it is guaranteed to be very wonderfully weird!

A lot of locals avoid Carnaval like the plague, but it can be fun, free, surprising, and worth the effort… IF you follow these Insider Carnaval Tips that will make all the difference for your Carnaval experience.

What’s FREE for 2025:

Party on the stage of the Nice Opera

  • The night before Carnaval, the Nice Opera is throwing a Masked Ball called the Veglione, Friday February 14, 2025, on the actual stage of the Opera House!  The first part is FREE: a Viennese waltzing from 7pm-8:30pm, accompanied by the Nice Philharmonic.  The second part is a disco show and DJ dance party from 9:30pm on, but this part requires a ticket 5€ for students, 15€ for everyone else.  Only rule: must be masked!
  • The FREE Carnaval Village on the Promenade du Paillon, featuring displays, floats, workshops, food, music and surprises.  From Saturday February 15, 2025 11am-6pm.
  • FREE teaser on Opening Night.  Less crowded, much shorter, and completely free, the opening night festivities on Saturday, February 15 at 8:30pm, feature three Carnaval floats (including the King and Queen floats), three Flower Parade floats, plus lots of music and pageantry.

  • Nice Carnaval float at night with giant ferris wheel in background

    Wear a costume and get FREE entry to standing zones for the Corso (but not flower) parades!  The costume must be full-on (sorry, funny hat and face paint won’t cut it…) and in good taste… nothing off-putting.  And you still need a ticket, so just pass by the ticket booth for your free ticket on the way to the entry, and be sure to get there early as each section has a limit for free costume entries.

  • Kids under 12 are FREE to the Corso standing zones (but again, not flower parades), and people with disabilities are free in a dedicated section of the standing zones (even for the flower parades).  In both cases, tickets are still needed, so order free tickets in your online basket or just pass by the ticket office ahead of time.
  • The super-fun and totally FREE Queernaval is held at Place Massena the first Friday night February 21.  Its the only parade that is completely FREE for everybody, and definitely the most fun, flamboyant, exuberant and participative.  It’s the only gay Carnaval in France and features drag queens, dancers, and amazing costumes full of feathers and sequins.  Last year they hit 9000 spectators.
  • The FREE final night burning of the King, right after the final night parade. Join the troupes of Big Heads, dancers, local groups and musicians, who head to the beach at Opera Plage where the King float awaits them… to be dramatically set on fire at 10:45pm, followed by fireworks!

Okay, on to the Insider Tips:

1. First, pick up the free printed program – It’s worth popping in to the Tourist Office/Ticket Booths/Carnaval Village to pick up your free Official Program Guide (or just check out the 2024 drawings online here) with the drawings and a quick blurb from each float’s conception. This will give you the inside track on decoding the humor, satire, and ironic meanings of the more esoteric floats and you will notice details that otherwise might escape you.

2. Avoid the crowds and get your ticket online – Ticket booths open 2 hours before each parade, so unless you want to spend your lunch or dinnertime hanging out in a queue, smart shoppers buy online (even for the free tickets)…Cork popping Carnaval Float

3. Best Bang for the Buck – The first afternoon Grande Parade on Saturday  February 18th, is the most expensive ticket (17/10€ for standing, 32€ for sitting), but they mix up the floats from Carnaval and the Bataille des Fleurs, so you get to see a bit of everything and only have to brave the crowds once!

4. Secret skyboxes – There are three spots where you can avoid the crowds, have a seat, and get a very civilized view of the action, all while sipping a frosty beverage:

  • The best is the vast rooftop restaurant/bar at the new elegant 5-star Ananatara Plaza Hotel, which looks directly down onto all the action at Place Massena (…and if you stay there and take a sea-view room, you really will have a Carnaval VIP box all to yourselves!)
  • Second best is the lobby bar on the second floor of the Hotel Le Meridien where you can sip pricey cocktails as the giant floats parade by right at eye-level.
  • The third option is not very glam but much more budget friendly: load up on Big Macs and score a window table on the second floor of the McDonalds next to the Hotel Le Meridien for the same eye-level view as the Hotel Meridien but at a fraction of the bar bill.

5. Secret stealth way to see the floats but avoid the crowds – Approximately 2 hours before each parade (so between 6:30-7pm for the night parades Tuesdays and Saturdays), the floats drive in from the Carnaval workshop in the port.  Hang out on the city side of the Promenade du Paillon and wait for the Carnaval to come to you, as the impressive floats meander past with none of the muss or fuss.  Even better: 15 minutes after the end of the Carnaval the process happens in reverse… and for this direction you can hang out at one of the many bistros and bars on the Old Nice side of the Promenade du Paillon and get your mini-taste of the Carnival in sidewalk café-style comfort!

Poster with mischievous gnome with a tambourine6. Carnaval Populaire Independant – Sunday February 25th, 2024 – If you are adventurous and not afraid of getting hit with eggs, flour, and what-have-you, try the Carnaval Populaire to experience the true spirit of this 2000-year-old tradition.

Carnaval was originally a day of church-sanctioned debauchery, when disguised locals were free to cut loose and mock the patriarchy, and anyone not in costume got the flour/egg treatment.  Rdv at Place Saint Roch (tramstop Saint Roch) at 1pm for a pot-luck lunch, or just show up at 2pm for the tipsy parade of hand-made floats through the neighborhood.

7. Don’t miss the Massena Museum’s permanent Carnaval exhibit on the 3rd floor, with fascinating historic photos, paintings, vintage Carnaval posters, floats and all kind of amazing artifacts from the Nice Carnaval.

8. Where to park –  The NiceEtoile shopping center (5 minutes walk) offers a parking deal on Carnival days of 5 hours for 5€.  But you can park for even less: take advantage of the ParcAzur park and ride lots where you can park all day for the price of a round-trip tram ticket (3.40€), and the tramway will deliver you right to the action.  By the way there are extra trams scheduled after each event to make getting home faster and easier.

9. Silver lining for Carnaval haters: The Prom is basically closed off all day Saturdays, Sundays, and Wednesdays, plus late afternoon/evenings on Saturdays and Tuesdays, so these are the most wonderful times to go have lunch, dinner or drinks and one of the cafes/bars facing the sea, with no cars for once, only the soothing sounds of the waves and birds… ahhh.

But in general, basically avoid downtown daytime Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays, and evenings/nights Saturdays and Tuesdays, as traffic is blocked and the tramway line 1 doesn’t go all the way through (line 2 is fine, though).

Click here for the Official Nice Carnaval site in English

And if you didn’t get your fill of floats, fruit and flowers in Nice, check out:

See Related Pages:  

Back up to main Events in February page

Photo credits: Carnaval by Night by debs-eye photostream, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons, Cork Popping Carnaval Float by Best of Nice

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