The Patras Carnival

The Patras Carnival is the largest carnival event in Greece and one of the major carnivals of Europe, held in the port city of Patras by the Municipality of Patras and its municipal carnival company. The 2027 carnival period opens on 17 January and runs to 14 March, the Sunday before Clean Monday. With Orthodox Easter falling on 2 May 2027, the season stretches to nearly two months, a span the organisers count among the longest of recent years.

The opening keeps a set form. A herald rides the music float through the streets of the city to proclaim the events to come, and the day culminates in the evening at King George I Square, where the mayor declares the official carnival period open and welcomes the Carnival King on his float. The Treasure Hunt Game starts with the same declaration.

The carnival’s lineage is traced to 1829, when the first carnival dance was held in the house of the Patras merchant Moreti; the first floats appeared in the 1870s, when the Municipal Theatre Apollo also staged the city’s first public carnival balls. The floats are still built each year by the Carnival Workshop of the Municipality of Patras. From the opening, the programme runs through the Bourboulia dances, Tsiknopempti and the Parade of Chariots to the final weekend, when the Night Parade is held on the last Saturday and the Grand Parade on the last Sunday, 14 March, the day before Clean Monday.