On 17 January 2027, St Anthony the Abbot's day, Val di Fassa lets the carnival off the reins, ‘se deslea carnascèr’ in Ladin. Until Shrove Tuesday, 9 February, there are hand-carved wooden masks, Ladin theatre in Penìa, parades, torchlight processions and bonfires.
The Ladin Carnival officially opens on 17 January, St Anthony the Abbot's day, with the words ‘se deslea carnascèr’: the carnival is let off the reins. On 20 January, St Sebastian's day, the celebrations move to Penìa, and from there a string of events carries the valley through to Shrove Tuesday, which falls on 9 February in 2027: parades, floats, village festivities, masked balls, torchlight processions and bonfires. The heart of it is Penìa and Alba, a few kilometres from Canazei at the foot of the Marmolada, where the two villages' mask group looks after the historic masks and renews the customs every 17 January.
The key figures are the Lachè, the Bufon and the Marascons, wearing ‘faceres’, wooden masks carved by craftsmen from the valley. They used to be played by the ‘conscric’, the young men of that year's call-up, and in the past only men were allowed to wear masks. The processions also include group masks: the ‘mèscres a Bel’, graceful and elegant, and the ‘mèscres a Burt’, grotesque and pushy. In Penìa, in the former primary school, the ‘mascherèdes’ are performed: comedies in Ladin, born within the community, that play on events and people everyone in the village knows.
The carnival sweets are grostoi, fortaes and grafons. Carnival also crosses to the other side of Passo Costalunga: on Tuesday 9 February Welschnofen (Nova Levante) holds its 61st ‘Fasching in Schuffa’ parade, and on Carnival Monday, 8 February at 10:00, anyone who turns up in costume on the Carezza slopes gets a carnival doughnut.
Where Ladin Carnival in Val di Fassa falls in the Dolomites year, and what happens in the other weeks: Best time to visit the Dolomites: a month-by-month guide.
Good to know
- Admission: The official calendar mentions no tickets for parades and village festivities; the detailed programme is due from late January.
- The detailed programme comes out from late January. For now the fassa.com calendar lists four dates: 17 January at 10:00, 20 January at 10:00, 4 February at 16:30 and 9 February at 14:30, without details of the individual events.
- The parades in the individual villages have no official dates yet: wait for the programme due in late January before you plan.
- You can see the carnival masks all year round at the Museo Ladino di Fassa in San Giovanni di Fassa (Vigo), in the room devoted to the valley's rituals.
- Welschnofen (Nova Levante), 9 February: the ‘Fasching in Schuffa’ parade leaves Rosengartenstraße (Via Catinaccio) at 15:03 and reaches the village community centre at 16:00 for music and dancing, with a DJ party from 22:00.
Official website (tickets & info) ↗
Dates, times and prices change every year: always check the official pages before you go.