The Nice Carnival is 15 days of festivities in the city! From February 17 to March 3, 2024.

Parades of Corsi Carnavalesques (day and night) and flower battles, entertainment, shows… are organized. This year’s theme is the “King of Pop Culture”, the Carnival of the great figures of Manga, video games and series! The Nice Carnival is a not-to-be-missed event on the Côte d’Azur.

Burlesque and magical shows, extravagant floats, big heads and elegant flower battles await you!

Nice Carnival, the premier international Carnival in France, is the most important winter event on the Côte d’Azur.

The History of Nice Carnival

What is the history of carnival and what is the history of Nice Carnival? Nice Carnival is one of the longest running carnivals in the world, if not the oldest. It has been running for centuries, ever since the Middle-Ages.

It is one of the most important events in the French Riviera and dates back to ancient times when the pagans used to celebrate the winter solstice. They would hold debaucherous and wild celebrations to mark the end of winter and the arrival of spring and harvest.

The first documented account of Nice Carnival was by the King of Sicily in 1294 when he mentioned the ‘Joyful days of the Carnival’, in his writings. For many centuries, Nice Carnival Celebrations were private events, with exclusive parties and masquerade balls thrown in luxurious residences that were attended by rich aristocrats.

However, in 1830 when the King of Sardinia and Queen of Naples and Sicily came to Nice during the carnival period, the local authorities organised a public parade to be held in their honour, which was such a success that it continued. The famous Flower Parade was first held in 1876.

OFFICIAL PROGRAMME FROM FEBRUARY 17 TO MARCH 3, 2024.

Opening Parade

King, Queen, Carnavallon, carnival floats and flowers, musical troupes, dancers, foreign guests… a sample of the Carnival’s participants gather to introduce themselves to the public!
The floats from the flower battles, combined with the grand parade, create a vibrant spectacle of colors and music.

Carnival Parade

Lots of floats decorated and brought to life under this season’s theme parade to the beat of street art troupes and music groups from various backgrounds all around the world amid a colourful, festive, family atmosphere.

Carnival Parade of Lights

In the evening, the floats are decked out with beautiful lights. Everything lights up, the visual spectacle becomes even more amazing, and the arts and music troupes that bring the route to life offer a real sound and light show.

The day’s carnival parade

The best option for families and small children! During the day, watch the parade of floats and giant heads and spend a festive, colourful afternoon in the imaginary, magical world of the Ymagiers and Carnival creators.

Flower parade

Floats decorated with floral compositions form an elegant procession, where characters in extraordinary costumes, music, scents and colours mingle for the pleasure of onlookers! Every year, costumed actresses parade on floats decked out with beautiful flowers and shower the public with them.

Lou Queernaval

The first gay carnival in France, rooted in the Nice tradition of carnival festivities, it’s a popular event open to all. It’s committed to promoting the values of sharing, inclusion and living together. Feathers, makeup, sequins, extravagant parades, colourful troupes and strange creatures set the carnival alight.

The Nice Carnival processions are incredibly modern, creative and high-quality performances that are renowned around the world. The two main events are the Carnival Parade and the Flower Parade.

Nice Carnival Parades

The Carnival Parade goes both day and night and features 20 floats and over a thousand performers. The parade works its way through Nice led by three main floats – the Kings Float, the Queens Float and one for their son Carnivalon.

All the floats are elaborate and incredible pieces of art that are meticulously designed. The floats are designed to represent the current year’s theme and are accompanied by around 50 giant puppets. These giant papier-Mache puppets are large satirical figures that wear flamboyant costumes that use centuries-old techniques created by specialist craftspeople.

Nice Carnival’s second parade is called the Parade of Lights and doesn’t start until the sun goes down. When it’s all dark the floats lights switch on to reveal the most incredibly beautiful lights decorations adorning the floats. The floats parade well into the night with a variety of musicians, entertainers and fireworks.

The Carnival of Nice is one of the largest carnivals in the world, and every year brings together an admiring crowd around the grandiose carnival parades.

The Battle of Flowers – The romantic side of Carnival

The Battle of the Flowers, also called the Parade of Flowers, is the most famous event at the Nice Carnival and takes place beside the sea on the famous Promenade des Anglais.

The Battle of Flowers showcases a wild array of beautiful flowers that are produced in the Nice regions and it pays tribute to those who grow them. Flower-decked out floats in the parade are ridden by costumed performers who throw out flowers to the audience. 80% of the flowers thrown during the parade are grown in the area.

Around 100000 fresh-cut flowers are thrown during the parade. There are sixteen flower-floats, that are 7m long and each hold about 3,000 stems of flowers. Two people on each float throw about 20kg of flowers to the crowd and in total about 100,000 fresh cut flowers are thrown during the parade.

The Battle of the Flowers started in 1876 and took place around Place Massena during the day. The floats throw flowers to the people in the audience and are decked out with thousands of flowers.

The Parade of Flowers started when the Andriot Saetone who founded the modern version of Nice Carnival gave flowers to the audience as a token of thanks and the tradition stuck and grew bigger and bigger.

Nice Carnival is an intoxicating festival designed to make you believe that winter is over, and spring is beginning!

The flower parade is made up of around fifteen allegorical floats decorated with fresh flowers, surrounded and preceded by street performers.

Because Nice has such a great bus and tram system you can pretty much stay anywhere in and around the city because you can easily reach the carnival action. Of course, if you want to be walking distance to everything then stay around the waterfront and close to the promenade.

We suggest Booking in advance because of how many tourists Nice Carnival attracts. To get the best deals and availability research and book early, you can always cancel later if your plans change. Many hotels offer carnival packages that provide you tickets to some of the shows.