When is Carnival in Malta?

Malta Carnival 2027 takes place in the days before Ash Wednesday (10 February 2027), in Valletta (the main, official carnival). The Nadur Carnival on Gozo happens simultaneously and is a completely different experience — darker, improvised, with locals in grotesque masks wandering the streets after dark. Both are free.

Malta Carnival 2026: Valletta and Nadur Gozo dates

At a glance


Where	Valletta (Republic Street) and Nadur, Gozo
Cost	Free — no tickets for either event
When	The days before Ash Wednesday (10 February 2027); movable, tied to Easter
Time needed	A few hours for Valletta’s daytime parade; a late evening for Nadur
Getting to Nadur	Ċirkewwa–Mġarr ferry (around 25 min) then bus or taxi (15–20 min)
Best for	Families (Valletta) vs adventurous night owls and photographers (Nadur)

Malta’s two carnivals: a tale of two islands

Malta’s Carnival season offers two entirely different experiences happening simultaneously, 25 kilometres apart. Understanding both is essential to knowing which one (or both) to visit.

Valletta Carnival: The official, state-supported carnival. Decorated floats parade down Republic Street. Costumed groups dance in organised stages. Children in colourful costumes compete for prizes. It is festive, family-oriented, and genuinely excellent.

Nadur Carnival (Gozo): Completely unofficial, entirely spontaneous, deliberately strange. Locals dress in grotesque costumes — monstrous masks, deliberately disturbing characters, satirical and macabre themes — and wander the village streets of Nadur at night. There is no official programme. There are no floats. The event has grown organically for generations and maintains a genuinely dark, uncanny atmosphere that is unlike anything else in Europe.

If you only have time for one, the choice depends entirely on what you want: celebration or experience.

2027 dates

Malta Carnival runs in the days before Lent, determined by the movable date of Ash Wednesday, which falls on 10 February in 2027 (Easter Sunday is 28 March 2027). The main public events are on the weekend before Ash Wednesday. The exact programme is not published far in advance; check it before booking travel.

Nadur Carnival runs simultaneously with Valletta’s, with the main Nadur events concentrated on Saturday and Sunday nights.

The day-by-day programme is published by the Malta Tourism Authority at visitMalta.com; check there for the exact 2027 schedule.

The Valletta Carnival: what to expect

History

Malta’s Carnival traces its origins to the Knights of St John, who governed the islands from 1530 to 1800. The Knights brought the Italian carnival tradition (Venice-influenced, as many of the Knights were of Italian or French origin) to Malta, and the tradition has continued with varying levels of intensity since then. The modern Malta Carnival was revived and formalised in the mid-20th century with the current float parade format.

The programme

The float parade is the centrepiece. Large, papier-mâché floats built by competing groups (called Każin, based in different communities) parade down Republic Street in Valletta. The floats are satirical and political in theme — Maltese carnival culture has a tradition of using the floats to lampoon politicians, current events and national controversies. This element requires knowledge of local politics to fully appreciate, but the visual spectacle stands on its own.

Costumed groups dance alongside the floats, often in matching themed costumes. The choreography ranges from folk dance to contemporary forms.

The children’s carnival is a separate daytime event — groups of schoolchildren parade in their classroom-made costumes. This is a genuinely sweet tradition and the most photographically appealing part of the event for many visitors.

Music and street performances — carnival music bands (brass-based, uptempo) accompany the parade, and music stages operate in the main squares.

Practical notes for Valletta Carnival

It is free. No tickets, no payment. Simply arrive at Republic Street before the parade begins (check the official times, typically around 2 pm for the main Saturday parade). Position yourself early for a good viewpoint — the street fills up.

The best viewpoints:

Republic Street itself (standing room, first-come)
The steps at the Great Siege Monument at the entrance to Republic Square
The balconies of café-restaurants overlooking Republic Street (book well in advance; these tables are reserved for paying customers and sell out months ahead)

Transport: Valletta on Carnival Saturday and Sunday is extremely crowded. The Valletta bus terminus fills up; parking near the city is effectively impossible. Plan to arrive early or use Bolt rather than buses.

Hotels: Valletta boutique hotels fill up for Carnival weekend. Book at least 2–3 months ahead if you want to stay in Valletta. Sliema hotels have better availability but still book ahead.

A guided walking tour of Valletta on a non-carnival day (Thursday or Friday) before the main parade weekend is an excellent way to understand the city’s history before seeing it transformed by the carnival.

The Nadur Carnival: the dark side of Maltese culture

What Nadur is

Nadur is a village of 3,500 people in the eastern part of Gozo, perched on a ridge with views to Malta and the open sea. On the surface it is a typical Maltese-Gozitan village — a central square, a massive parish church, a few bars and restaurants.

On Carnival weekend, it becomes something else entirely.

The Nadur Carnival has no official organisation. No committee plans it. No floats are built. Instead, locals — following a tradition that has built over decades through community osmosis — dress in costumes that are deliberately disturbing:

Grotesque masks: oversized, misshapen, inhuman faces. Some are clearly DIY constructions; others are elaborate. The effect is deeply unsettling, especially when encountered after dark in a narrow village lane.
Satirical characters: dressed as doctors, police, politicians, religious figures — but in deliberately perverted or mocking ways. Maltese political and social satire at its rawest.
Horror and death themes: skeletal costumes, monster figures, representations of disease or decay.
Cross-dressing: a significant element, with men in women’s clothes as a traditional component.

There is no clean distinction between performers and observers. You walk into Nadur village on Carnival night and you are in the middle of it. Costumed figures approach you, interact with you, photograph you. The normal rules of social interaction are suspended in a very specific Maltese cultural context.

The atmosphere

Visitors describe the Nadur Carnival variously as: “the strangest thing I have ever seen,” “genuinely creepy but fascinating,” “like walking through someone’s fever dream,” and “completely unlike any carnival or festival I have experienced.”

The darkness — literal darkness, because Nadur’s narrow lanes are only partially lit, and the crowds carry lanterns and phone torches — contributes to the effect. The sounds (Maltese music mixed with shouts and laughter and the occasional deep bass from a car speaker) combine with the visual chaos of masked figures and flickering lights to create something that is difficult to describe accurately to someone who has not experienced it.

It is safe. This is important to establish: the Nadur Carnival, despite its unsettling aesthetic, is not dangerous. It is a family event in the Gozitan sense — the village’s children are present, the elderly are watching from chairs outside their houses, the bar is open and doing good business. The strangeness is performative.

It is entirely free. There is no entrance charge, no official programme, no commercial aspect beyond the local bars and restaurants doing good business.

Getting to Nadur for the carnival

From Mġarr port in Gozo (where the ferry from Cirkewwa arrives):

Bus to Nadur: approximately 20 minutes on the Gozo bus network
Taxi or Bolt from Mġarr: approximately 15 minutes

From Victoria (Gozo capital):

Bus to Nadur: approximately 15 minutes
Taxi: approximately 10 minutes

The Saturday night is the main event. Arrive in Nadur after sunset (around 7–8 pm) and the village is already in full swing. The peak atmosphere is usually 9 pm–midnight. Stay as late as you like; the carnival gradually winds down towards 1–2 am.

Stay in Gozo for the carnival weekend. If you want to do both Valletta (Saturday afternoon parade) and Nadur (Saturday night), it is logistically demanding but possible: take the afternoon parade in Valletta, cross to Gozo on the afternoon ferry, arrive in Nadur for the evening. However, staying in Gozo for the full weekend is more relaxed and gives you Nadur on both Friday and Saturday nights if you want the full experience.

Valletta vs Nadur: which one to choose?

Factor	Valletta Carnival	Nadur Carnival
Character	Festive, organised, family-friendly	Dark, spontaneous, strange
Uniqueness	Seen versions of this in Italy, Brazil	Genuinely unlike anything else in Europe
Best for	Families, first-time visitors, day event	Adventurous travellers, photographers, night owls
Time of day	Afternoon–evening parades	After dark, evening–midnight
Logistics	Easy (Valletta base)	Requires Gozo trip
Instagram moment	Colourful floats	Grotesque masks in lamplight

The best answer is both. Staying in Gozo for the full weekend allows you to take the Cirkewwa ferry to Valletta for Saturday afternoon’s main parade, then return to Gozo for Saturday evening in Nadur. Total combined experience is unlike any other Mediterranean carnival.

Carnival in Malta vs other Mediterranean carnivals

For context:

Venice Carnival: Elaborate, beautiful, very expensive, tourist-dominated
Nice Carnival: Large-scale French event, flower parade and float processions
Valletta Carnival: Smaller than Nice and Venice, but with genuine local community involvement and political edge
Nadur Carnival: Completely different category — closer in spirit to some of the strange Balkan mask traditions (like Bulgaria’s Kukeri) than to Italian carnival

Where to eat and where to stay for Carnival weekend

Carnival week lands right in the middle of Malta’s quiet winter season, which is exactly what makes it worth planning around. Hotel rates are still at their low-season lowest everywhere except Valletta itself and Gozo’s guesthouses on the Friday–Saturday of Carnival, which fill fast.

Food: prinjolata, a carnival-specific dessert of sponge, almonds, pine nuts and cherries under a mountain of whipped cream, appears in Valletta pastizzerias and cafés only during Carnival week — worth seeking out even if you skip the parade itself. Pair it with a stop at one of the best pastizzi counters nearby, since Republic Street’s cafés get overrun on parade days.

Where to base yourself: if Valletta is your main event, staying in Sliema keeps you a short ferry ride from the parade without competing for the same scarce hotel rooms. If Nadur is the priority, a Gozo guesthouse for the whole weekend removes the pressure of a late-night ferry back and lets you experience Nadur on both Friday and Saturday.

Budget note: because both carnivals are free, Carnival weekend is one of the cheapest ways to combine the two islands — see the Malta budget cost per day guide for a sense of what a Gozo weekend adds to a Malta trip.

Filling the days around the parades

Carnival only takes up a few hours of each day, so it helps to plan what surrounds it. In winter the weather can be changeable, so keep a few indoor options in mind: St John’s Co-Cathedral and the Grand Master’s Palace are both in Valletta and make a natural pairing with a parade day. If the weather turns, the rainy day alternatives give you more ideas, and the packing list covers the layers you will want for standing around outdoors.

If you are staying on the Gozo side for Nadur, use the daylight hours well. A day trip to Gozo with a stop at the Ġgantija temples fits neatly before an evening in the village, and the Ġgantija temples guide explains what you will see there. For a wider look at the island, top things to do in Gozo and the Victoria and Citadella page are good starting points.

After the parade, Valletta’s evenings stay lively. The Valletta evening bars guide helps you pick somewhere that is not on the busiest stretch of Republic Street, and a night-time open-top bus ride through Valletta and out to Mdina is a calmer way to see the islands lit up if you want a break from the crowds. If you have more time on the trip, the 3-day Malta itinerary shows how a carnival weekend can slot into a short stay.

Mistakes to avoid

Turning up to Nadur expecting a programme — there is none; the point is to wander the lanes after dark and let the atmosphere find you, not to look for a stage or schedule.
Booking a Valletta hotel at the last minute — boutique properties on or near Republic Street sell out 2–3 months ahead of Carnival weekend; Sliema is the reliable fallback.
Trying to do Nadur without checking ferry return times — the last Gozo–Malta crossing is earlier than a full night out; confirm the schedule via the Ċirkewwa–Mġarr ferry guide before committing to a late night.
Skipping Nadur because it sounds too strange — it is genuinely safe and family-oriented in the Gozitan sense, not a rowdy or dangerous event; the strangeness is entirely performative.
Driving into Valletta on parade day — parking is effectively impossible and the bus terminus is jammed; use Bolt or the ferry from Sliema instead.

Frequently asked questions about Malta Carnival

When is the Malta Carnival in 2027?

In the days before Ash Wednesday, which is 10 February 2027. The main public parade events are on the weekend before. Confirm the programme at visitMalta.com.

Is the Malta Carnival free?

Yes. All carnival events in Valletta and Nadur are free to attend. There are no entrance tickets. Restaurants and hotels cost money; the parade and street events do not.

How do I get to the Nadur Carnival from Valletta?

Take the Cirkewwa–Mġarr ferry to Gozo (foot passengers; 25-minute crossing), then bus or taxi to Nadur (15–20 minutes). Total journey: approximately 1.5–2 hours from Valletta centre including waiting times.

Is the Nadur Carnival suitable for children?

The Nadur Carnival is unsettling by design — grotesque masks, dark themes. Many Gozitan families bring their children, who are used to the tradition. Visitors with young children should be aware that the aesthetic is very different from a conventional carnival and prepare children accordingly.

Can I dress up for the Malta Carnival?

Yes. Wearing a costume is welcomed and common, particularly for the Valletta parade. Simple masks or themed costumes work well; elaborate costumes are also common. For Nadur, a costume is optional but adds to the experience. Grotesque or dark themes fit Nadur’s aesthetic; colourful costumes fit Valletta’s.

Where should I stay for the Malta Carnival?

For Valletta Carnival: a Valletta boutique hotel or a Sliema hotel (10 minutes by ferry from Valletta). For a combined Valletta + Nadur experience: a Gozo guesthouse or farmhouse for the weekend.

What is prinjolata and where do I find it?

Prinjolata is Malta’s carnival-specific dessert — sponge cake, almonds, pine nuts and glacé cherries piled under whipped cream, sometimes with a chocolate half. It appears in Valletta pastizzerias and bakeries only during Carnival week and disappears again until the following February.

Is Carnival weekend a good or bad time to visit Malta generally?

Good. It falls in the quiet winter months, so hotel rates outside Valletta and Gozo’s guesthouses are still at their lowest, flights are cheaper, and the two free carnivals give visitors a genuine event to build a short winter trip around. See the best time to visit Malta guide for how February compares to the rest of the year.