Kotor Carnival

The Zimske kotorske karnevalske feste — Kotor's winter carnival — is one of the two carnivals the town stages each year, the other being its summer twin in August. Organized by the Cultural Centre of Kotor (KC Kotor), the 2026 edition was held from 6 to 15 February.

February is the month when Kotor belongs to itself. The cruise crowds are gone, the stone squares are quiet, and the medieval walls climbing the mountainside above town frame streets that suddenly feel local again. Into that stillness the carnival brings noise, colour and mischief — which is precisely the point of a winter feste.

For ten days, masked parades wind through the Old Town's streets and squares, led by the town's carnival groups. Visitors who wander in during carnival days find the town in costume: processions squeezing through narrow lanes, music echoing off the stone, satire and masks taking over spaces that in summer belong to sightseers.

The festivities build towards the traditional finale: the great carnival procession on the closing Sunday, which in 2026 fell on 15 February. It is the day to come if you can only come once — the whole carnival gathered into a single procession through the town, with the largest crowds of the ten days lining the route.

Kotor takes its carnival heritage seriously — masks, satire and processions are woven into the town's identity, and the winter feste bring the Old Town to life at a time of year when it belongs almost entirely to locals. Of the town's two carnivals, this is the more intimate one, staged for the community itself rather than the summer crowds, and that is exactly its charm for a visitor.

The winter carnival is held every February in Kotor's Old Town; the 2026 edition ran from 6 to 15 February. All events are free to watch from the streets and squares, and no tickets or reservations are needed — just a place along the route.