Carnaval De Nice, Nice (February 12th - February 28th , 2010)Back to the events list
Nice turns into a carnival in February. Carnival de Nice is one of the biggest ones in the world, along with carnivals in Venice and Rio de Janeiro. It's also very old; it was born back in 1294 when Duke of Anjou came to spend a few nice days here. The combination of balls, fireworks and general bawdiness seized the city like fire; mimes and craftspeople danced, fishermen threatened with masks…
On the first day of the holiday all participants and audience celebrate the arrival of His Majesty Carnival and choose the queen of the holiday in the evening.
Massena lights up in lights in the evening. On a regular day it's just a beautiful square with fountain and garden. During the carnival in Nice you can see entire stadium built on it; houses are covered with 120,000 square meters of veneer painted by 120 artists. The painting process is fun to observe, but their paintings may be shocking sometimes. Terrifying paintings get decorated with 150,000 lights blazing in night sky. Rotating fire wheels, horrifying smoke, people with spray bottles spraying each other in face… Long, colorful spaghetti-like foam hardens in the air and sticks to mouth, nose, eyes, carnival hats…
Carnival is also a flower parade of one hundred fifty years old. Flower processions are real parades with approximately 20 platforms decorated with fresh flowers. About 4,000-5,000 flowers are used to cover the platforms 7 meters in length, 2 meters in width and 6 meters in height. Their design and preparation is a very laborious task since every flower is individually placed in amazing aromatic flower mosaic. Florists present unique masterpieces of imagination, taste and dexterity for every carnival.
Wonderful live models, men and women, dressed in fancy costumes and extravagant hats specially made for this event, throw thousands of flowers in the crowd during the walk along Promenade des Anglais.
Every day nicely decorated carts with giant dolls from papier-mache ride around the city. These dolls are the main characters of the carnival in Nice, they weigh up to 2 tons and stick above the carts for 8-12 meters. Processions decorated with thousands of fresh flowers take part in elegant show "Flower battle". Concerts and fireworks continue funny celebration in the evening.
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