Festivals
Rio Carnival
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Samba schools compete in the Sambadrome with enormous floats, costumes and music, while street parties fill the city.
Usually: February–March · Theme: Samba parades · Months: February, March
Carnival season
Costumes, music and parades before Lent and beyond. Compare how different communities make carnival their own.
The places
Festivals
Carnevale di Venezia
Venice, Italy
Costumed visitors wear elaborate masks and gowns in Venice's squares in the weeks before Lent.
Usually: February · Theme: Masks and costumes · Months: February
Festivals
Mardi Gras
New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Parades with floats and marching bands, costumes, and beads thrown to the crowd fill New Orleans in the weeks leading up to Fat Tuesday.
Usually: February–March · Theme: Carnival before Lent · Months: February, March
Festivals
Trinidad Carnival
Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
Two days of masquerade bands in feathered costumes, calypso and soca music, and steel pan competitions before Lent.
Usually: February–March · Theme: Soca, steel pan and masquerade · Months: February, March
Festivals
Junkanoo
Nassau, Bahamas
Groups in elaborate cardboard-and-crepe-paper costumes parade before dawn through Nassau with cowbells, goatskin drums and horns.
Usually: 26 December and 1 January · Theme: Dawn parade of costumes and drums · Months: December, January
Festivals
Notting Hill Carnival
London, England, United Kingdom
Founded by the Caribbean community in the 1960s, it is Europe's biggest street festival, with steel bands, sound systems, costumes and food.
Usually: August bank holiday weekend · Theme: Caribbean carnival · Months: August