Sat 10 Feb 2024

Carnival Street Show 2024

Venice becomes an open-air theater for an edition entirely dedicated to the theme of travel, discovery, and encounters with worlds once only imagined: a fantastic journey into the realm of imagination that will turn its gaze “To the East” following the path that the young Marco Polo took in the discovery of new wonders. From January 27th to February 13th, 2024, the Venice Carnival Street Show returns throughout campi, squares, alleys, and calli of the city!

The best artists from the international scene in the fields of music, circus-theater, and clowning!

 

Venice Carnival Street Show

Saturday, January 27th, 2024
Sunday, January 28th, 2024
Saturday, February 3rd, 2024
Sunday, February 4th, 2024
Thursday, February 8th, 2024
Friday, February 9th, 2024
Saturday, February 10th, 2024
Sunday, February 11th, 2024
Monday, February 12th, 2024
Tuesday, February 13th, 2024

 

Performances are scheduled in different time slots from 11 am to 7 pm, except on Thursdays and Fat Fridays when artists will be on stage in the afternoon.

A journey through the colors and emotions of live performance for a total of more than 80 companies, 200 artists and 1,000 daily show replicas. A no-limit schedule of art and performances spread in Venice in Campo San Geremia, Santa Maria Formosa, San Giacomo dall’Orio, San Cassiano, Santa Margherita, Esedra Castello; while in Mestre the artists will be found not only in Piazza Ferretto, but also in Largo Divisione Julia, Piazzetta Battisti, Via Poerio and in Via Palazzo!

Artists of this #CarnevaleVenice2024 unveiled.

  • The Merchants of Venice Two distinguished Merchants roam the square, looking for new Customers, they have various fabrics to sell, all on their backs to be well disposed to purchase. But what strange faces, what a strange way of doing things, so shady and furtive. They make promises, ask for credit, tell fibs and cheats....
  • Mongolian travelers Stanche di stare alla corte di Kublai Khan e sentire tutti questi racconti di viaggi e avventure anche Diomira e Zirma, figlie del Sovrano, decidono di mettersi in viaggio e arrivare a Venezia. Qui saranno rapite da tutte le novità, tutto così diverso e sorprendente! Diomira, più scientifica, cerca particolari e intervista i passanti, Zirma invece, più entusiasta ed euforica, sarà difficile da controllare! Per fortuna sono anni che studiano il Veneziano per poter parlare al meglio con tutti.
  • Three oriented to the East When Marco Polo finally returns to Venice in 1295, after 17 long and rich years spent in the land of the East...upon his return, our admirable traveler brings with him customs, stories, colors and flavors of an unknown land. A journey within a journey evoked by three jesters, the Acrobats of the Borgo, in a prodigious show full of magic, juggling, balancing acts and improbable virtuosity. A show that is unequivocally rooted in travel and discovery but above all in the sublime adventure of uncertain destination.
  • On the Silk Road A journey in search of traditional expressions of Eastern art where fakirism, dance and fire encapsulate the essence of fantastic discoveries.
  • Paggio e Paggetto at the court of the Great Khan Paggio and Paggetto, traveling since 1214, met and accompanied Marco Polo on the Silk Road: are we sure that the journey of the most famous Venetian in the world went just as Il Milione tells us?
  • Ritual Returning from the holy land on the Silk Road, Sigismund and Xavier have gathered with them an unspecified number of self-styled relics and spices with strange powers that, thanks to an ancient and alchemistic ritual described in the manuscript of the holy anchorite Onofrio da Licopoli, will lead (!?) poor Xavier to regain his lost sense and speech! It all revolves around a wooden trunk and its contents, which flaunted in a ritual with the audience, will give rise to a sequence of skits with disastrous results!
  • Puppets on the Road Arlecchino, Pantalone, Meneghino and Brighella will be the protagonists of a puppet journey to discover the Orient, involving families and children with fun adventures suitable for everyone.
  • Cantagallo, the minstrel with a crest for a hat Cantagallo Menestrello, the most colorful one man band ever. Accompanying his singing with a strange jumble of instruments, including percussion, bagpipes, mandoloncello and clarion, he will narrate how, having departed from the Far East, he came all the way to Venice, traveling alongside his beloved master, the celebrated merchant Marco Pollo... pardon! POLO! In a crescendo of serenades and trumpeting, the show will culminate in an all-percussive cockfight between two roosters (only one of which is real).
  • Il Cantamilione The show is a site-specific reworking of the Cantagiro della Città, a traveling show, produced by PEM- Habitat Teatrali, which between storytelling, comedy and song aims to traverse and enhance a city or a territory, narrating its history, art and culture in an amusing and captivating way. In the Cantagiro, three original actress-guides gave life to an unusual and extravagant artistic-cultural tour winding through the streets of a city. In this case, our cantar-girando stops: we will no longer go around among streets and squares, but we will transform a corner of the city into an open-air stage: we will keep the sense of travel alive by telling the audience about the most iconic and legendary of journeys, that of Marco Polo to the mythical Catai!
  • Gran Khan Can High-altitude journey of dancing music and laughter to tell the excitement of the Silk Road! Tall stilt-walkers will give color and music to the city streets enlivened by the sounds of drums and flying dragons. The parade aims to pay homage to the journey undertaken by Marco Polo and especially to the celebration of his return to Venice.
  • Cunti et canti dello Prete Gianni Madonnas, Messers and People all, sortie from your mansions for the Company named Saltafossum is treading these lands. From the cradle of the God-fearing, across the pagan moors, plying the seas that take Marco Polo to the land of the Great Khan Kublai, this masnada of wanderers is here now to take you by son of music inside their latest journey, which has seen them measure themselves against the reign of the mythical Priest Gianni.
  • Princess Dong Three visionary and bungling travelers, with their unlikely "Time Machine," find themselves on the Silk Road where they will meet little Princess Dong, daughter of the Great Khan, with whom Marco Polo will fall madly in love. Amid gags, laughter and song, they will recount their great adventure in the East.
  • Sulle orme di Marco Polo We are off and running! From Venice to Beijing, riding our steeds, we will retrace Marco Polo's route. We bring with us mind-blowing acts, surprises and wonders that we want to show the Venetians before we take to the road. Exchanges with clubs, two diablos, juggling with stones, fighting and tournaments and lots of madness.
  • At the court of the Great Khan A group of performers following the expedition of the well-known Venetian arrives at the court of the Great Khan and here they learn circus arts and vicissitudes typical of the East. It will be the heritage they take with them when they return to spread it in the squares of Europe!
  • Marco Polo Compagnia il Teatro Viaggiante presents Edoardo Mirabella aka Eddi Sick in Marco Polo: with a large canteen and a large spyglass around his neck he will face the storm and the serene, the cold and the heat, the strength and the tiredness. A comic and engaging show suitable for all ages, designed for squares. The theme? Marco Polo and his incredible journey, told in a special way, with street theater techniques and accompanied from beginning to end by music. Visual show with few words: a simple, gentle character who invites the audience to come closer to witness the story, from the beginning, from the transformation into Marco Polo.
  • On the silk road Now it is intended here to represent, in a national preview, of the well-known trade exchanges that took place between the Chinese and Venetian merchants. Knowing full well that the authentic meeting starts when ordinary masks go down. Jugglers, funanboli and stilt-walkers will gladly interpret it.
  • SAX-OH! The goal of SAX-OH! is to create a cacophonous and joyful orchestra by involving numerous volunteers from the public and having them play traditional and non-traditional instruments. All together they will create an improvised and liberating concert of spontaneous music made of sounds, noises and surprises !!! This show seeks to explore and suggest a new sound universe and musical clowning through "improvised free music"
  • AequilibrIum The story tells of the journey of a former athlete, Messer Gal, who set out from distant lands where he learned the sacred art of balance. Traveling from city to city, court to court, Gali discovers his ability to elicit laughter as well as amaze the audience. Aequilibrium combines acrobatics over tall objects, comedy, extreme balancing with fire and a constant involvement of the audience who become part of the show. Will you be amazed by his talents? ...
  • POOM-CHA POOM-CHA is an interactive comedy with completely live music. POOM-CHA is a touring performance full of energy and a fun "circle" street show. POOM-CHA is an Energetic Musical Play, it is Quirky, Funny, Brisk, Cool, Eccentric, Unhinged, Full of Colors, Charming, Peculiar, Breathes Life All Around, it is Irreverent, Original, puts in a Good Mood... and much more * (*according to reviews from about thirty countries around the world)
  • Discovering the Orient Prepare to board on the journey to the lands of the Great Khan! Gera having accidentally found himself in the convoy to the East, discovers a multitude of objects, which will become the conduit for dialogue with unknown peoples along the journey. Circus virtuosities will transport the audience, involving them in the long return journey by sea from the East, and thanks precisely to a large rope and the help of volunteers Gera and the chosen volunteers will conclude the show with the return to Venice.
  • Traveling Silk Music On the occasion of the Venice Carnival 2024 we will present a repertoire dedicated to the exploits of Marco Polo, combining oriental melodies and sounds, with pieces of our own composition. In our performances you can also appreciate variety in the instruments used: Bagpipes, Galician gaita, chalumeau, hurdy-gurdy, ocarinas, percussion, bassukulele, Irish bouzouki, bombard
  • Gypsy chariot on the silk road Long-haired gypsies, dressed in rags and flames, carry with their chariot the art that has been passed on to them from their ancestors and experiences along the Silk Road. They leave madness and dismay in every place where fate takes them, with no destination and no right sense. They earn their living by bewitching their audience with impossible balancing acts, fire manipulation, theater and hypnotic juggling, transporting them to a world of freedom, magic, danger, legends but also great truths.
  • A load of games Catalan games of skill, built by catlano master Joan Rovira. Playful machines made of re-invented salvaged materials, because each object is born with more than one function and it is up to us to discover various possibilities.
  • The Puppet Circus THE CIRCUS OF PUPPETS is a show that invites play, a funny, poetic, grotesque, elsewhere sincere and spontaneous reinterpretation of life. With cues from the world of the circus, hinging on the circle, seen as an archetype of the life cycle. The language is simple and direct: the images, the music, an essential text.
  • Sound Journey of Medieval Taverns to Mongolia From the European taverns of the Middle Ages, the musicians IN VINO VERITAS, disguised as fairy animals and armed with ancient and timeless instruments, accompany the listener from the mysterious North to Mongolia at the time of Marco Polo. Amid guttural singing, bacchic unleashing, magical and animal symbolism, and contemplative enchantment.
  • Uno, due, trino Returning to the Serenissima after a long pilgrimage, magician Abacuc presents "one two and three" a hilarious show with new magics from the Far East that the magician had as a gift from Marco Polo he met along the way.
  • LOCO MOTIV a visionary show with soap bubbles and flying objects, traveling and stationary, indoor and outdoor. A real journey observing the wind, transported, searching for the all and the nothing. Projected in graphics inspired by the style of Hayao Miyazaki, along with 2 brush-drawn characters to face this fantastical-comic, poetic and mystical journey. The stage machine comes to life among people, kites, paper airplanes, smoke and soap bubbles, measuring the direction and speed of the air, letting go of emotions through flight. That flight that each of us would like to fa re, free and light, a dedication to the air.
  • Laughing like a king In 1277, during his long journey to the East, Marco Polo encounters, in the bazaar of Camul in Chinese Turkestan, a bizarre and mysterious wandering figure. He is not one of the usual barkers trying to sell textiles, stones and perfumes but a real king. A King who has a great mission, to convince people that to achieve happiness you don't need to live in wealth and gilded palaces but just need to be able to laugh all the time. At everyday miseries and nobilities, failures and successes. A wacky king who will make you laugh out loud with rapid-fire gags and leave you speechless with never-before-seen magic. And in the end, if you listen to his advice, he will turn you into real kings too....
  • Polo and the Great Khan return to Venice! What would it be like if the great Marco Polo and the powerful Kublai Khan came back together in Venice today!!! This show aims to tell people about the relationship between Polo and the Emperor. Alternating between poetry, history, comedy and acrobatics, the two characters will engage the audience in a journey back in time when Marco Polo was the adviser of Kublai Kahn, a descendant of the great Genghis Khan.
  • Li prodigi dello Bagatto Ancient wonders or materials of extraordinary gifts? Recondite mysteries et financo leggende accompagnano Messer Lo Stramagante ne lo suo peregrinare. Former armiger, converted by the harshness of life, into a merchant of dreams. What he sells is nothing but illusion, joy and wonder, to discover, among the many objects of his merchandise, that only by realizing our desires do we really find ourselves. Fabrics, Cups et objects of all sorts, to really show people his most precious commodity: time!
  • Love Journey Marco Polo had been sailing nonstop for days, a scent of flowers seemed to be coming from the East almost indicating a love encounter that would soon make his life even more adventurous.
  • Perle d'Oriente It features a wacky character who will give you pearls of wisdom from the East, from the same areas that Marco Polo had passed through. These pearls come metaphorically in the form of jokes, fairy tales, anecdotes, ancient sayings, and songs, which will entertain you, but also make you think. But, dear spectators, you will also be able to actually see these pearls with which the character will perform juggling and contact numbers.
  • Silk Road Meetings A traveler and a monkey, on the routes already traveled by Marco Polo, meet creatures and characters that leave the audience open-mouthed, and the ventriloquist strictly closed-mouthed. A fun show for the whole family.
  • Turuk Turuk is a bold merchant, mustachioed, resourceful and visionary. He is a man who knows how to travel the world and will continue to do so with determined step and his unfailing basket of a thousand tales. He is a public charmer, able to amaze with wacky gimmicks, to astound with the instruments discovered in his countless travels between Spain, Romania, Greece, Morocco, Lebanon and Sardinia to make people dream with his tales.
  • Monk Clown "Monk Clown" is a Chinese monk (Shaolin or Tibetan depending on the humidity of the day) who, after an encounter with Western peoples (for him, men are all called Marco Polo), tries to show his art and wisdom through a sequence of comic numbers but with ironic and sarcastic backgrounds of the world we live in, made up of contradictions and stereotypes, through fake martial arts and meditation refined in a clownish key.
  • The Tarot Journey "The Tarot Journey" starts with a theatrical introduction and then moves into the interpretation of the symbols of the major arcana with personal readings.
  • Equilibrio Precario A comic and exciting show where the actor defies gravity from the beginning until the end of his performance. He walks, jumps, dances in the steel cable and plays with the audience. And then he concludes his performance by climbing above the soft wire and juggling with three flashlights at the same time.
  • Journey to the East The show offers an unusual perspective on the most incredible journey ever, the Silk Road told through numbers and virtuosity typical of Eastern culture, by a merchant tracing the footsteps of Marco Polo and his adventures.
  • IMAGINARIUS - Stories from Worlds to the Contrary. In an ordinary yet unusual circus atmosphere, IMAGINARIUS - Stories from Worlds to the Contrary tells the story of an artist and his attempts to bring the masterpieces of his life to the stage, amid acrobatics and balancing acts on taut wires and swinging trapezes, opposing the takeover by the Stage Technicians.
  • The Fan Theater After treading many stages, the Trabagai company is finally back from the East. Opening its Fan Theater, the two protagonists will find that they have brought with them from their journey a self-styled Marco Polo, who has wreaked havoc in the world of fantasy and thrown his characters into turmoil. Interacting with them, the two actors will be catapulted into a rousing adventure.
  • Play the Mind Let us take you on a journey through head breakers, geometric and figurative paradoxes, the wonders of numbers, and riddles. Play Mind: for a brain that's always in shape! Ten stations each with two games of varying difficulty: the Anagrams, Tangrams, Difficult and Impossible games, and then the three Puzzle Towers. It will transform the plaza into a family play area that will have parents and children challenging each other in guessing games.
  • BadaBimBumBand East A transforming marching band, capable of inventing itself in any situation. Turbans, skirts, saxophones and percussion for a fantastic musical journey to Marco Polo's Orient. The soundtrack is strong, the songs are enthralling, and the choreography and gags are also impressive. A dynamic musical show, to be heard and seen!
  • The Journey Here we go! Pull up anchor, hoist the sails, and let's travel the Silk Road by sea. A stilt walker and a juggler will take you to this imaginary world on the line of a bygone era.
  • Potpourri A show that pays tribute to the great clowns of the past and to human stupidity. Often when faced with life's problems, we get stubborn by finding more and more unhinged solutions. Nothing could be more comical! So here Ugo Sanchez Jr. stages "Potpourri" to never take himself too seriously.

The stage in St. Mark’s Square hosts numerous shows and animations, as well as the Most Beautiful Mask parades. The Children’s (and more!) Masquerade of the Masks Parade returns to bring tender smiles to the Ferretto Square Stage, daily at 5 p.m., with registration near the stage (registration open from 4 to 5 p.m.).

The Venice Carnival Street Show again this year is enriched with one of the world’s most famous theatrical traditions: the Commedia dell’Arte. Starting on Saturday, January 27, the “VENICE, or THE ART OF COMMEDIA” festival curated by the Pantakin Company will kick off, offering a program of comedians of art with eight different national and international companies that will alternate for more than 60 performances throughout the Carnival period on the traditional stages set up in Piazzetta San Marco and Campo Santo Stefano.

Marco Polo’s carnival journey brings the splendor of the Orient to the widespread carnival with the celebration of the Chinese New Year and the Year of the Dragon, which will be celebrated on the afternoon of Friday, Feb. 9, in Ferretto Square with the spectacular dragon dance and the adrenaline-fueled lion dance, in collaboration with the Italy-China Culture and Tourism Promotion Association (ICCTPA).

In addition to the Chinese New Year celebrations, the true traditions and arts of ancient China can be discovered during the Carnival of Venice, with parades, dances, songs and free workshops open to the public to immerse themselves in authentic Chinese tradition and culture. The Cloister of the M9 Museum also hosts part of the many workshops to learn about the culture of the East: from ancient calligraphy art to the original tea ceremony, from concerts of typical instruments to Chinese poetry readings, as well as many other fascinating activities.