Budva International Carnival

The Budva International Carnival opens the summer season on the Budva riviera each spring — the XXII edition ran 30 April to 4 May 2025 under the slogan "Širimo ljubav" ("Spreading love"). Budva is a member of FECC, the federation of European carnival cities, and its carnival is the coast's great rite of seasonal awakening.

Budva's Old Town is a compact peninsula of stone: Venetian walls, a citadel above the sea, lanes barely wide enough for two, and squares that open suddenly between them. It is a stage in itself, and the carnival uses it exactly that way — costumes brushing the walls, brass echoing between the houses, spectators leaning from balconies above the route.

The festivities begin before the parade itself with the "Abrum" — musical processions that travel through the coastal villages of Petrovac, Pržno, Sveti Stefan and Rafailovići, announcing the carnival the old way, from square to square. By the time the main days arrive, the whole riviera knows the party is coming.

The climax is the grand parade through the walled Old Town, where locals offer treats to passers-by as masked groups move through the stone lanes. Music stages inside the walls keep the celebration going, and the closing children's carnival brings together more than forty groups of young masqueraders.

The timing carries its own meaning: this is the riviera's rite of passage from winter to summer, the week the shutters open, the terraces return and the town remembers what it is for. Joining the carnival is joining that turning of the year.

Everything is free. Late April and early May are a lovely, uncrowded window on the riviera — mild days, an awakening sea, easy room in the hotels — and carnival week is the moment Budva shakes off winter in full costume.