FROM FEBRUARY 12 TO 24, 2009
CARNIVAL OF VENICE 2009
SENSATION | 6 SENSES FOR 6 DISTRICTS
Sensation is the Carnival of the people, for the people and where people play the leading role. It is an opportunity to have some fun in the broadest sense of the term.
Venice Carnival will be an acoustic celebration; far from the loud and deafening rhythms and far from the need to crowd St. Mark’s Square with a big stage. Instead, this year, the setting for St. Mark’s Square will be an unprecedented Renaissance garden full of lights and vegetation and decorated with theatrical backstage. It will be a place where the public can freely stroll and wander around the dividing hedges and, above all, show off their costumes as protagonists of the event.
The format chooses the general public to take the leading role … to be the protagonist, inviting them to dress up and participate.
Street theatre is the leading attraction thanks to a programme full of events, which will be held in the various districts (sestrieri) by leading Venetian, Italian and foreign theatrical companies. Sensation is the Carnival of the people and of enjoyment and belongs to Venice and to the whole world. It is the Children’s Carnival, with a series of initiatives throughout the area.
THE FIRST “MISTERO BUFFO”: THE COLLECTED PLAYS OF DARIO FO
Dario Fo – recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature – will be inaugurating the Carnival of Venice 2009 – ‘Sensation: 6 senses for 6 districts’ with his “Mistero Buffo” (The Comical Mystery) play. He will be reciting the first Mistero Buffo in St. Mark’s Square. Mistero Buffo is a series of collected plays by Dario Fo, based on the surviving texts and descriptions of the ‘giullari’, who were itinerant theatre players of the medieval times, updated with references to Venetian history and culture
Festa delle Marie 2009
On the day of Carnival dedicated to traditions, St. Mark’s Square welcomes the unfailing Festa delle Marie. The seven young Venetian ladies who are chosen to represent each of the six city districts and one from the mainland, parade in an evocative, rich and colourful procession, accompanied by historical groups and dressed in period costumes.
VENETIAN FESTIVAL 2009
A great festival in Cannaregio, livened up by the colourful parade of the Società Remiere Rowing Club and by the gastronomic specialities of the district dedicated to taste. The star of the festival is the Fritoin Express, which is a fish fry in a cone.
Venetian-style street food.
FLIGHT OF THE ANGEL 2009
In 2009, Marco Balich, artistic director, revolutionizes the scenario by making his first “angel” Margherita Maccapani Missoni descend from the Campanile into St. Mark’s Square to land opposite the Correr Museum.
FLIGHT OF THE DONKEY 2009
On the other hand, the Flight of the Donkey, which has been livening up Piazza Ferretto in Mestre for several years, is a parody of St. Mark’s Flight of the Angel. A guest, who will be the donkey of the 2009 edition, will “fly” down from the civic tower right into Piazza Ferretto square. The centre of Mestre is filled with real donkeys, as a symbol of the incredible, the surprising, the wanting to laugh and have fun that Carnival brings with it.
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL MASK CONTEST OF CARNIVAL 2009
A line-up of masks and costumes with unique taste and originality that have never been seen before will liven up the 2009 contest, which will be even more lavish. Participants and their creations will be judged by a prestigious panel of experts in the field.
Here is a photo of some of the winners of the edition.
BATHING OF THE HIBERNISTS
A retro-setting for a winter swim among the sea waves! The hibernists of the Lido of Venice are also part of the Sensation 2009 program.
