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Home --> Special Events
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As recently as just one generation ago
Venice was a night city, where the residents
of each parish set out tables on the
street at the flimsiest excuse. Nowadays,
with the pavements overrun by outsiders,
the social life of the Venetians is more of
an indoor business � a restaurant meal or
a drink with friends might feature in most
people�s diary for the week, and a conversational
stroll is certainly a favourite
Venetian pastime, but home entertainment
takes up most time and energy. That
said, Venice�s calendar of special events
is pretty impressive, with the Carnevale,
the Film Festival and the Biennale ranking
among the continent�s hottest dates. To
find out what�s on in the way of concerts
and films, check Un Ospite di Venezia, a
free bilingual magazine available from the
tourist office and some of the more
expensive hotels � it�s produced weekly in
peak season, monthly in winter.
Information and listings for bars, events,
festivals can also be found at wwww
.govenice.com.
The Venice Film Festival, founded in 1932, is the world�s oldest and the most important in Europe after Cannes. The eleven-day event takes place on the Lido every year in late August and/or early September. Posters advertising the Festival�s schedule appear weeks in advance, and the tourist office will have the Festival programme a fair time before the event, as will the two cinemas where the films are shown � the Palazzo del Cinem� on Lungomare G. Marconi and the neighbouring PalaGalileo. Tickets are available to the general public, but you have to go along and queue for them at the Pala- Galileo on the day before the performance. Any remaining tickets are sold off at PalaGalileo one hour before the screening, but nearly all shows are sold out well before then. The Venice Biennale, Europe�s most glamorous international forum for contemporary art, was first held in 1895 as the city�s contribution to the celebrations for the silver wedding anniversary of King Umberto I and Margherita of Savoy, and is now held every odd-numbered year from June to November. The main site is in the Giardini Pubblici, where there are permanent pavilions for about forty countries plus space for a thematic international exhibition. This central part of the Biennale is supplemented by exhibitions in larger venues all over the city, such as the salt warehouses on the Z�ttere or the colossal Corderie. In addition, smaller sites throughout the city � including the streets and parks � host fringe exhibitions, installations and performances, particularly in the opening weeks. Some pavilions and other venues are used in non-Biennale years for an independent Biennale for architecture. Information on the Biennale is available at wwww.labiennale.com. John Evelyn wrote of the 1646 Carnevale: �all the world was in Venice to see the folly and madness . . . the women, men and persons of all conditions disguising themselves in antique dresses, & extravagant Musique & a thousand gambols.� Not much is different in today�s Carnevale, for which people arrive in such numbers that the causeway from the mainland has sometimes had to be closed because the city has been too packed. Carnevale takes place over the ten days leading up to Lent, finishing on Shrove Tuesday with a masked ball for the glitteran, and dancing in the Piazza for the plebs. During the day people dress costumes and go down to the Piazza to be photographed; parents dress up their kids; businessmen can be seen doing their shopping in the classic white mask, black cloak and tricorne hat. In the evening some congregate in the remoter squares, while those who have spent hundreds of euros on their costumes install themselves in the windows of Florian�s and pose for a while. But you don�t need to spend money or try to be �traditional� in your disguise: a simple black outfit and a painted face is enough to transform you from a spectator into a participant. The feast of La Sensa happens in May on the Sunday after Ascension Day � the latter being the day on which the doge enacted the wedding of Venice to the sea. The ritual has recently been revived � a distinctly feeble procession which ends with the mayor and a gang of other dignitaries getting into a present-day approximation of the Bucintoro (the state barge) and sailing off to the Lido. A gondola regatta follows the ceremony, but far more spectacular is the Vogalonga (long row), which is held on the same day. Established in 1974 as a protest against the excessive number of motorboats on the canals, the Vogalongais now open to any crew in any class of rowing boat, and covers a 32-kilometre course from the Bacino di San Marco out to Burano and back; the competitors set off at 8.30am and arrive at the bottom of the Canal Grande anywhere between about 11am and 3pm. The Festa del Redentore is one of Venice�s plague-related festivals, marking the end of the epidemic of 1576. Celebrated on the third Sunday in July, the day is centred on Palladio�s church of the Redentore, which was built by way of thanksgiving for the city�s escape. A bridge of boats is strung across the Giudecca canal to allow the faithful to walk over to the church, and on the Saturday night hundreds of people row out for a picnic on the water. The night ends with a grand fireworks display, after which it�s traditional to row to the Lido for the sunrise. Held on the first Sunday in September, the Regata Storica is the annual trial of strength and skill for the city�s gondoliers and other expert rowers. It starts with a procession of richly decorated historic craft along the Canal Grande course, their crews all decked out in period dress, followed by a series of races right up the canal. Re-enacting the return of Caterina Cornaro to her native city in 1489, the opening parade is a spectacular affair, and the races attract a sizeable (and partisan) crowd. The first race of the day is for young rowers in two-pared pupparini; the women�s race comes next, and then it�s the big one � the men�s race, in specialized racing gondolas called gondolini. Named after the church of the Salute, the Festa della Salute is a reminder of the plague of 1630�31, which killed onethird of the population of the lagoon. The church was built in thanks for deliverance from the outbreak, and every November 21 since then the Venetians have processed over a pontoon bridge across the Canal Grande to give thanks for their good health, or to pray for sick friends and relatives. It offers the only chance to see the church as it was designed to be seen � with its main doors open and hundreds of people milling up and down the steps. |