Puglia
Putignano Carnival 2027: The Four Parade Dates and the Seven-Week Calendar
Putignano Carnival 2027 has four parades, on 31 January and 7, 9 and 13 February. The calendar from 26 December, the old rites and how to reach the town.
Putignano Carnival 2027 has four parades, on 31 January and on 7, 9 and 13 February.
It is the 633rd edition. The carnival itself starts much earlier, on 26 December 2026.
The carnival foundation published the calendar at the start of November, as Giornale di Puglia and Puglia Viva reported. Start times, tickets and the side events are still to come, and the foundation will post them on its official site. For anyone booking flights to Bari now, the dates are enough.
Quick answer
Parades: Sunday 31 January, Sunday 7 February, Tuesday 9 February and Saturday 13 February 2027.
Time of day: the two Sunday parades are in the morning, the other two in the evening.
Opening: Saturday 26 December 2026, with the Festa delle Propaggini.
Length: seven weeks, the longest carnival in Italy.
Still missing: start times and ticket prices.
The four parades
| Date | When | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday 31 January | Morning | First parade |
| Sunday 7 February | Morning | Carnival Sunday |
| Tuesday 9 February | Evening | Shrove Tuesday, with the funeral of Carnival |
| Saturday 13 February | Evening | Closing parade |
The floats are the reason to come. Nothing else in Puglia looks like them. They are built in papier-mâché by the town's workshops and stand more than 12 metres high, taller than the houses along the route. Masked groups walk between them.
Easter falls on 28 March in 2027, which pulls Shrove Tuesday back to 9 February and makes this a short carnival, with four parades packed into two weeks. The last one comes on the first Saturday of Lent, a habit Putignano shares with Viareggio.
A carnival that starts on Boxing Day
Putignano dates its carnival to 26 December 1394, when the relics of St Stephen were carried inland from Monopoli to protect them from raids. Farmers who were planting vines by layering, the technique called propaggine, left the fields and followed the procession with songs and jokes, and the Festa delle Propaggini still opens the season on St Stephen's Day, with satirical verse in dialect recited in the square for hours. The town tells it this way.
From there the calendar runs on rites more than on parades.
| Date | Rite |
|---|---|
| Saturday 26 December 2026 | Festa delle Propaggini |
| Sunday 17 January 2027 | Feast of Sant'Antonio Abate |
| Thursday 21 January | Giovedì dei Pazzi |
| Thursday 28 January | Giovedì delle Donne sposate |
| Tuesday 2 February | Festa dell'Orso |
| Thursday 4 February | Giovedì dei Cornuti |
| Monday 8 February | Estrema Unzione |
| Tuesday 9 February | Funeral of Carnival and Campana dei Maccheroni |
The Thursdays are each dedicated to a group of townspeople, from the mad to married women to cuckolds, and they are the evenings when Putignano celebrates among itself. On Shrove Tuesday a bell rings 365 times to mark the end, while the town eats a last plate of pasta before Lent.
Reaching Putignano
The town is in the hills about 40 kilometres south-east of Bari, between the coast at Monopoli and the trulli of Alberobello. It has a station on the Ferrovie del Sud Est line from Bari Centrale. Timetables change on Sundays and holidays, when two of the four parades fall, so look up the service for the exact date before relying on the train.
By car, expect the streets around the parade route to be closed and the parking to be at the edge of town.
Where to sleep
Putignano is small. It fills for the parades. Alberobello is about 15 kilometres away and Castellana Grotte, with its caves, is closer still. Monopoli and Polignano a Mare put the sea in the trip and are a short drive from the parade route. In February the coast is quiet and hotel prices are at their lowest of the year.
The mistake to avoid
Do not book only for Shrove Tuesday. It is a working day. The evening parade on 9 February ends with the funeral of Carnival and the bell, and it runs late for anyone with a drive back to the coast. The Sunday mornings are easier, with daylight for the floats and the afternoon free for Alberobello.
Related guides
Viareggio Carnival 2027: the six parades
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