Tivat International Carnival

Tivat's International Carnival, one of the youngest carnivals on the coast, brings early-summer carnival fever to the Pine waterfront and the waters of the Bay of Kotor. The 2025 edition (6–8 June) gathered masked groups from more than ten countries, including guests from Tampa in the USA, Patras in Greece and Luxembourg.

Tivat is the Boka's most open and modern town: no walled old city, but a long, palm-lined waterfront where the whole community strolls in the evening, with the bay on one side and green hills behind. Early June suits it perfectly — the sea is already warm, the light lasts late, and the carnival arrives just before the high-season crowds do.

What sets Tivat apart is the "Masked Ball on Water": costumed revellers board the boats Katica and Tahiti and cruise the bay in full carnival dress — a party framed by the mountains of the Boka. Watching a boatload of masks glide past the shore is the kind of image only this bay can produce.

Back on land, the grand night parade sets off on Saturday at 20:00, filling the waterfront with floats, music and dancers, while concerts on the Pine waterfront keep the town buzzing across the evenings. The carnival is emphatically a family event too: the children's carnival brings together more than 500 kids in costume, parading to an audience of delighted parents and grandparents.

Though young by carnival standards, the event plugs Tivat into the wider Adriatic carnival tradition — masked groups travelling from town to town, cities exchanging visits, and a local community using costume and music to open its summer. Each edition builds the town's own version of that old coastal ritual.

Everything is free to watch. Tivat is the most compact of the Boka towns — the parade route, concert stages and harbour are all within a few minutes' walk — and early June offers warm days without the peak-season crush, making this an easy carnival to simply wander into.