The Goa Carnival: When It Happens, Why the 2027 Dates Aren't Out Yet, and the Mapusa Parade We Saw

The Goa Carnival, the carnival in Goa that ends on the eve of Lent, is held every year in February or the first days of March; in 2026 it ran from 13 to 17 February. The 2027 dates hadn't been announced when we checked in October 2026: Goa's Department of Tourism sets them, and its calendar said only "February 2027", tentative, across six towns.

We saw one of the two closing parades of 2026, in Mapusa, on the evening of 17 February, and I'll tell you about that evening after the dates.

Everything above was read on 10 October 2026 and checked again on 15 October 2026: the department's calendars, route sheet and website, the Goa papers in English and Marathi, Hindi national reports, and a church calendar for Lent; we didn't search the Konkani press. We'll update this page when the 2027 schedule is announced, and date the change in the log below.

When is the Goa Carnival in 2027?

As of October 2026, no dates for the Goa Carnival 2027 had been announced that we could find; the Department of Tourism's calendar says only "February 2027". That's its "Calendar of Events for 2026-2027, State Festivals", which lists the Carnaval, as the department writes it, for February 2027 in Porvorim, Panaji, Margao, Vasco, Mapusa and Morjim, with dates and venues marked tentative. Two versions of the file are online, the newer dated August 2026, and neither gives a day. Shiv Jayanti, the birth anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, has one on the same sheet: 19 February 2027.

The Carnival's dates are tied to Lent, the weeks of fasting before Easter. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, and because the date of Easter moves from year to year, so do Ash Wednesday and the Carnival. The last parade falls on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, and it has done so in every year from 2022 to 2026: 13 February in 2024, 4 March in 2025, 17 February in 2026. Ash Wednesday 2027 is on 10 February, by the US Catholic bishops' liturgical calendar.

Our estimate, not announced So, by our reading, the parades would run from Saturday 6 to Tuesday 9 February 2027, with a curtain-raiser (the opening parade) in Porvorim on Friday 5 February if the department holds one again. The department hasn't said any of this, and the pattern has broken before: in 2021, under the Covid rules, the parades we found reports of were on 13 and 14 February, not on Shrove Tuesday (16 February).

Several travel pages (Culture Atlas, Carnifest and Deshraah among them), and Google's AI answer when we searched, give "6 to 9 February 2027" without saying it isn't announced. Those are the days our own Lent arithmetic gives, and none of the pages we read cites an announcement; Wikipedia's infobox computes the same dates from a template. Two pages we read on 15 October 2026 go further and are wrong: Noble House Tours says the 2027 dates "have been announced" and gives 13 to 16 February, which falls after Ash Wednesday, and SoulVacation gives 28 February to 4 March 2027, which were 2025's days.

Who announces the dates, and how early

The Department of Tourism announces the Goa Carnival, usually through the Director of Tourism, with the Tourism Minister and GTDC (the Goa Tourism Development Corporation) beside him. In the last three years the town-by-town dates were public 20 to 35 days ahead. In 2024 the Gomantak Times printed the towns and dates on 20 January, after a meeting of the minister and the then Director, Suneel Anchipaka: a Porvorim curtain-raiser planned for 9 February, and parades from 10 to 13 February. In 2025 the Director, Kedar Naik, announced the dates at a press conference on 24 January, for a curtain-raiser on 28 February. In 2026 The Goan reported on 10 January that King Momo, the festival's mock king who leads each parade, had been chosen and the Carnival would run from 14 to 17 February. The full five-day, six-town schedule was in the Marathi daily Pudhari and on India TV on 14 January.

January is when the dates have appeared lately, not a promise: earlier years came later, and a schedule can change after it's announced.

Which towns hold a Goa Carnival parade, and on which day?

Six towns held the Goa Carnival in 2026, one or two a day: Porvorim opened it on Friday 13 February, then Panaji on the Saturday, Margao on the Sunday, Vasco on the Monday, and Mapusa and Morjim together on Tuesday 17 February. These are the department's own dates, venues and routes, from the route sheet it put on its website in January 2026.

Porvorim, Panaji, Mapusa and Morjim are in North Goa district; Margao and Vasco are in South Goa district. Counted from the Porvorim opener, 2026 was a five-day Carnival; counted from the Saturday, it was four, which is why you'll see both numbers. The Porvorim opener was smaller than the parades that followed: King Momo arrived on a bullock cart, with about 20 floats and no motor vehicles or loud sound systems, Pudhari reported, and the route it described wasn't the one the department had planned. Morjim's committee, for its part, announced its 2026 festival "at Ashvem-Mandrem", with a music night and DJ on the evening of 16 February before the procession on the 17th.

Which parade to see depends mostly on where you're staying. Mapusa is about 8 to 9 km by road from Calangute and about 10 to 11 km from Candolim, and Mapusa to Panaji is about 13 to 14 km, on OpenStreetMap's routes. Margao suits a stay on the Salcete side, and Vasco one near Dabolim airport. We'd seen the Carnival schedule online while planning the trip, with Mapusa's parade on the last day, so we kept Mapusa for after Fort Aguada, Sinquerim and Candolim, which belong to our North Goa day; once in Goa, we also asked at Calangute Residency which way to go for the parade.

Our evening at the Mapusa parade

We watched the Mapusa parade on the evening of 17 February 2026, the last day of that year's Carnival, standing close to the floats as they came through. The floats had huge faces and masks, in blue, pink, yellow and gold, with feathers and a lot of decoration. Because we were near the floats, we could see the performers and their costumes properly. People were standing along both sides of the road at the barricades, watching the parade go by.

We'd ridden over from Candolim on our rented scooter, me driving and Vandana on the back, and parked near the market. Before the parade we sat down at Navtara Veg Restaurant in Mapusa and shared idli, vada, a mushroom and chilli uttapam and a Mysore masala dosa, with a fresh lime soda each; we're both vegetarian, so we ordered different things and shared them. Vandana liked the dosa and the lime soda most, and after a whole day on the move, sitting down to eat was a good break, she says. Then we walked on to the route.

We stood at the edge of the route, by the barricade on the Milagres Church side: a good spot to watch and to take photos, and I took some of the parade and some of Vandana. There, as Vandana remembers it, locals, families and tourists were all enjoying the music and the parade.

Vandana liked seeing the costumes in detail: the big masks, the feathers and the gold decoration looked even better as they came close. There was something to see in every direction. As she puts it: "I'd look one way, and by then another performer would come up on the other side." (In Hindi; our translation.) Rather than only taking photos, she says, we stayed where we were and enjoyed the parade.

I liked the brass band part. The musicians came past right in front of us, playing as they walked, and Vandana raised her hands and, as she remembers it, enjoyed the music with them. I was taking her photos, and then we took selfies together, with the big mask floats in the background.

We danced a little, too. I took Vandana's hand and twirled her, and she was laughing, looking back at me. Those moments are in the photos, and when we look through the album now, we remember our own fun along with the floats. The dancing photos and the ones taken up close are the ones Vandana loves. "In photos like these, we're both in our own mood," she says. (In Hindi; our translation.)

Swipe sideways for all seven photos

Vandana remembers that second evening of ours in Goa for the Carnival's colours.

We spent a good while there, among the parade, the costumes and the band. Walking through the crowd near the parade was slow, it was a bit of a walk back to the scooter, and there was traffic on the way out. Vandana says the tiredness of the long day had faded a little once we reached the Carnival, but on the way back all she wanted was the hotel and some rest. We rode the same scooter back to Calangute Residency, ate dinner at the hotel's restaurant (dal, jeera rice and roti) and went up to the room to rest. The Mapusa parade was the only Carnival event we went to on that trip.

We'd both go again. If we're in Goa in Carnival season again, I'd want to see it, with less sightseeing that day so there's time to watch the parade at ease. If you like parades, floats and music, it's well worth an evening; if crowds and noise tire you out quickly, plan your time around your own comfort. That's advice from both of us.

The Mapusa parade, and how its route changes

In every year we found a dated Mapusa report for, Mapusa's parade closed the Carnival on Shrove Tuesday, but its route is set again each year. In 2026 the department's route ran from the Comunidade building behind Milagres Church to the Comunidade ground near Dev Bodgeshwar Temple. Don't plan on last year's route; wait for the year's sheet on the department's website.

What time does the Goa Carnival parade start?

The Goa Carnival parades have no published start time: the Department of Tourism's 2025 and 2026 schedules have a column for the timings of the float parades, and it's blank. The only clock time in the 2026 entry form is for the floats, which had to report to the starting point by 11 am to be checked. Starts printed by the papers for Mapusa have moved from year to year: the 2019 parade set off at 5 pm, and the starts given for 2020, 2022 and 2025 were 4.30 pm, 3 pm and 4 pm.

Parades don't always run to time, either. At Panaji on Saturday 14 February 2026, after the Chief Minister flagged it off, spectators waited nearly an hour between the lead float and the ones behind it, and officials gave no reason, The Goan reported. A group of float makers later alleged that participants were told to report at 11.30 am and that the Panaji parade began only at 5.30 pm and ran late into the night. We found no reply from the department.

We went in the evening. With no published start, we'd keep the afternoon free and stay near the route.

Is the Goa Carnival free to watch?

The Goa Carnival's street parades are on public roads, and no ticket, stand or paid seat for any parade appears in any of the Department of Tourism's Carnival documents we read for 2025 and 2026. Two guides we read, Resort Rio's and Aasaan Holidays', call the street parades free, and say the paid tickets are for special events and dances. So we found no published entry fee or ticket price for watching a parade from the road, and we paid nothing to watch the Mapusa parade in February 2026; the only things we paid for that evening were parking and food (below).

Things to do in Goa in Carnival week

Carnival week is one parade a day in a different town, a few side events in the evenings, and the rest of Goa as usual, in its dry season. The parades run from the afternoon into the evening, so the mornings are free, and on the day you see a parade we'd keep the afternoon free too. What there is to do, from what we did and what we checked:

• See more than one parade. In 2026 Panaji had the Saturday, Margao the Sunday, Vasco the Monday, and Mapusa and Morjim the Tuesday. By our reading of the pattern, 2027's would fall on 6 to 9 February. From a base in Calangute, Mapusa is about 8 to 9 km by road and central Panaji about 15 km, on OpenStreetMap's routes, so two parades on two days need no change of hotel.
• The Mapusa Masquerade. A paid evening beside Mapusa's parade: in 2024 it ran from 10 to 13 February near the Bodgeshwar temple, at Rs 100 a day from 5 pm, with food stalls, live bands and a kids' zone with face painting and a bouncy castle, the Gomantak Times reported; it was Rs 100 again in 2025. A 2026 edition was listed for 14 to 17 February on its Instagram, which we saw only in search results, with no price or programme; we didn't go ourselves.
• The Red and Black Dance, Panaji. Clube Nacional's dance at Samba Square on the last night of the Carnival, with everyone in red and black. It's ticketed, and in 2024 it was expected to go on to 2 or 3 in the morning, the Gomantak Times reported. Its price and its 2026 edition we couldn't confirm.
• A North Goa day before the parade, as ours was. We spent 17 February at Fort Aguada, Sinquerim and Candolim, with parasailing and a jet ski at Candolim, and rode to Mapusa for the evening. Vandana would keep that day lighter next time.
• A sunset on the Mandovi. Panaji's river cruises cost about Rs 449 to 1,500 a person when we checked; we took one on 19 February 2026, and it's on our North Goa things-to-do list with the water sports.
• The light. The sun sets in Panaji at about 6.35 pm in the first week of February, so an afternoon parade runs into dusk, and the way back is in the dark.
• Stay on for Shigmo. The department's 2026-27 sheet also lists Shiv Jayanti on 19 February 2027, and Shigmo, the spring festival with its own float parades, in March 2027.

Planning a Goa Carnival trip before the dates are announced

For the Goa Carnival 2027, plan around 5 to 9 February, book only what you can cancel until the department publishes its schedule, and choose your parade by where you'll stay. If the schedule follows the last three years, it should appear in January, in the Goa papers and on the department's website (its events calendar page is where the 2026-27 calendar sits). Other pages tell you to book early because rooms "fill fast". When we priced Calangute on 15 October 2026, the booking sites charged the same for 6 and 9 February 2027 as for 20 and 23 February, so there was no Carnival premium to beat yet; we found no published figures for what rooms did once the dates were announced in 2025 or 2026, and we'll price the week again when 2027's are. A room you can cancel for free costs nothing to hold. Our pages on North Goa and South Goa cover the bases we know, Calangute near Mapusa and Palolem in the far south, and if you haven't settled which side of Goa to stay on, that comes first.

Getting to a parade and back: the Chief Minister said in June 2025 that app cabs such as Uber and Ola weren't coming to Goa, and we found no change when we checked in October 2026, so it's a taxi agreed in advance, a state bus or a rented scooter. We found no late or extra bus laid on for a parade, so plan the way back. If you ride, read the rules for renting a scooter in Goa first; two-wheelers were still barred from the Porvorim flyover between Panaji and Mapusa on 4 October 2026, as our guide to getting around North Goa explains. At Panaji in 2025 the traffic police closed the Ribandar causeway to general traffic from 10 pm the night before the parade, and kept heavy vehicles out of the city from 7 am to 9 pm on the day. We found no traffic notice for Mapusa in 2025 or 2026. Next time I'll save the scooter's parking spot on my phone.

What we'd carry, from that evening: I had my phone, a little cash and helmets for both of us for the scooter, and next time I'll add a power bank, because taking photos and videos used up a lot of the battery. Vandana wore flat sandals, and her outfit was comfortable; if there's that much walking again, she'd wear walking shoes, and carry a water bottle and a hair tie.

The Carnival with children, with parents, with friends or on your own

A parade is free, outdoors and in the evening, and you'll be on your feet for it: plan the spot, the water and the way back around the youngest and oldest in your group.

With children or older people. I'd get there early and look at the spot first: stand where you can see the parade and can also get out easily if you need to, and agree a meeting point for everyone. Nothing particularly unsafe happened to Vandana that evening, but standing for a long time in the crowd and the loud music is tiring, she says; her advice is water and a break to sit down for children and older people, and no pressure on anyone to watch the whole parade: stay as long as they're enjoying it. In the department's documents and the Goa papers we read for 2025 and 2026 we found no seating, stand, toilets or first-aid post listed along any route, so plan a toilet stop before you take your place; a meal at a restaurant before the parade, as we had, is one way.

At Margao on 2 March 2025, a tourist told the Gomantak Times he couldn't find water or an open bar along the route, so carry your own. In 2024 the department set up a wheelchair-accessible viewing pandal, the Gomantak Times reported, without naming the town; we found none announced for 2025 or 2026. The South Goa and Kushavati administrations' order of 10 February 2026 told officials to arrange medical help, ambulances, fire and emergency teams at the main sites of that year's festivals, which in South Goa district means Margao and Vasco for the Carnival, by our reading; we found no report of what was in place on the day. The Masquerade's kids' zone (above) is the one children's corner we found, in 2024. For the way back, a taxi spares a parent the scooter in the dark.

With friends. The Red and Black Dance in Panaji is the late night, and the Masquerade the early one. The float rules ban liquor on the floats, not in the crowd, but a Director of Tourism notification reported in August 2026 lists drinking where it's banned and breaking bottles at tourist places among the offences, with fines from Rs 5,000 up to Rs 1 lakh (Rs 100,000). A taxi between 11 pm and 5 am costs 35 per cent more on the state's card, so split one.

As a couple. Ours was a couple's trip. We'd keep the day light, stand close to the floats if you want photos, as we did, and leave room for a little dance. The Mandovi cruise at sunset, which we took on 19 February, is another evening for two.

On your own, or a woman on your own. We found no dated report of a theft, assault or crowd scare at a 2025 or 2026 parade, which is what our searches returned, not a promise; The Goan saw heavy police deployment at Vasco in 2026. Vandana's advice for any night out in Goa: decide before you go how you'll get back, and leave anywhere you don't feel comfortable. Goa Tourism's helpline is 1364, in English, Hindi, Marathi and Konkani, and 112 is the national emergency number.

Vegetarian or Jain. We're both vegetarian and ate well that evening: idli, vada, uttapam and dosa at Navtara Veg Restaurant in Mapusa, puri bhaji and tea at Cafe Sai Sadanand in the market, and dal, jeera rice and roti back at Calangute Residency. In October 2026 the restaurant listings disagreed on whether Navtara is still open, so check before you go. Pure-veg restaurants aren't the same as Jain kitchens, so ask for food without onion, garlic or root vegetables.

What a Goa Carnival trip costs: solo, with a partner or with family

For four nights in February 2027, in what is likely to be Carnival week, plan for about Rs 6,000 to 11,500 on your own on a budget, Rs 14,000 to 24,000 for two on a budget or Rs 33,000 to 44,000 for two at a mid-range hotel like ours, and Rs 27,000 to 48,000 for a family of four on a budget. That's about $65 to 120, about $145 to 250, about $350 to 460 and about $280 to 500. The base is Calangute (a hostel bed in Anjuna for the solo trip). These are planning ranges built from the cheaper end of what's on offer, not a typical bill, and none of them includes flights or trains to Goa. As a ceiling, the same trips priced every night at the 31 December 2026 rates we read, the top of the season, come to about Rs 11,000 to 17,500, Rs 83,000 to 91,000 and Rs 43,000 to 78,000.

Each total adds up the dated ranges below, the same ones the calculator uses, for four nights and three days out, with three vegetarian meals a day and two tickets, Fort Aguada's upper fort and the Aguad jail complex. Children are counted at the adult price for food and tickets, and the hotel we used includes breakfast, so a real figure may be a little lower. The parades themselves cost nothing. Two people from abroad pay about Rs 34,000 to 45,000 for the same trip, the difference being the foreigners' tickets.

Our Carnival evening cost Rs 1,259 for the two of us, by the payments Vandana made on 17 February 2026. That was Rs 490 at Navtara before the parade for our food and two fresh lime sodas (Rs 50 each), Rs 204 at Cafe Sai Sadanand in the Mapusa Municipal Market for two plates of puri, two of batata bhaji and two special teas (Rs 76, Rs 76 and Rs 52), Rs 15 to park the scooter in a lane inside the market, and Rs 550 for dinner afterwards at Calangute Residency's restaurant. It doesn't count the scooter's hire and petrol, which are on our North Goa page.

Swipe sideways for both photos

Work out your own Carnival trip

Change who's going, the nights, the season, the stay and the tickets, and tick the things to do you want; the total moves with you. Without JavaScript the table above carries the same figures.

What is the Goa Carnival, and what's in a parade?

The Goa Carnival is a pre-Lent festival of float parades: decorated floats with costumed groups, bands and dancers, each parade led by King Momo, whom the department chooses from applicants. In 2025 it invited applications by email and set the selection for 14 February, and it chose from four applicants, PTI-Bhasha reported; for 2026 it chose Cedric da Costa, announced in January. The department's own entry form for 2026 was headed Viva Carnaval. The Goan's report of the Vasco parade on 16 February 2026 counted 49 floats: 16 from clubs and institutions, 7 traditional, 14 clowns and jokers, 7 fun and junk cars and 5 families. It also saw live bands and Kunbi dancers, heavy police deployment, and some spectators stepping onto the road to take photos and videos with the performers.

Where the Carnival comes from

The Carnival goes back to Portuguese times; the Ministry of Tourism dates it to the 18th century, as a feast before Lent.

The Carnival and Shigmo

The Carnival comes just before Lent; Shigmo, a separate spring festival with its own float parades, follows in March. In 2026 Shigmo ran from 5 to 18 March across 14 dates, and the 2027 calendar says only "March 2027", tentative. Shigmo has its own page, and for the season as a whole, month by month, see the best time to visit Goa. We were in Goa from 16 to 21 February 2026, and the Carnival was the second evening of our six days in Goa.

Goa Carnival: FAQ

Nav & Vandana Sharma

I'm Nav, and with my wife Vandana I run WCTO from Greater Noida. I've been travelling across India since 2015 and do the routes, costs and logistics; Vandana joined the road in 2020 and writes the stays, food, comfort and safety.

This page draws on one evening of our February 2026 Goa trip: the Mapusa Carnival parade on 17 February. Neither of our Goa stays was discounted. The dates, routes and rules are from our research in October 2026, attributed in the text and listed under Sources.

Corrections: [email protected]. Tell us the page and what is wrong, and we'll fix it and date the change in the log below.