Carnaval de Nice: What to Expect at the Nice Carnival Parade of Lights

As one of the biggest carnival events in the world, Carnaval de Nice is the reason why many people flock to the South of France in February. In 2024, my husband, Colin, and I were two of those people!

We spent 10 days in the South of France and got to attend the opening night Carnival Parade of Lights on Feb 17, 2024. And while our trip included Roman ruins, food tours and palaces, I don’t think anything could top Nice Carnival!

If you’re thinking of attending Carnaval and wondering what to expect, I’ve got you covered.

Before booking our tickets, I was trying to get a bit more info on the parade experience and tips on where to sit or when to arrive, but couldn’t find much online. So I hope this posts answers questions for other readers like me!

Below I’ll share my firsthand experience at the Carnaval de Nice parade in 2024, as well as tips for what to do before the show begins. I’ll also include my recommendations for where to sit and, of course, lots of fun photos and videos from the parade!

Happy Carnaval!

A quick history of the Carnaval de Nice

The Nice Carnival has been held since 1294, making it the original carnival celebration, even before Brazil, Venice or New Orleans!

But it wasn’t until 1873 that the Carnaval de Nice transformed into the parade and masquerade that we know it as today.

The current carnival event lasts for two weeks every February/March and sees over one million visitors pour into the city of Nice. Each year’s carnival has a theme – 2024’s theme was King of Pop Culture – and the highlights are the Carnival Parade of Lights and Flower Parade.

How do you decide which Nice carnival event to attend?

There are a number of different carnival events you can attend, such as the day time parades, night time parades and flower parades. We decided to attend the Carnival Parade of Lights (aka the night time parade) for a few reasons.

First, the floats for the day time parade and night time parade are the same, so there’s no need to see both. To me, the atmosphere of the night parade seemed a lot more fun, so that was an easy choice.

While I would have loved to see the flower parade too, unfortunately the dates didn’t work out for our schedule. The floats for the flower parade are also smaller, so potentially less impressive (but beautiful, I’m sure, thanks to the flowers).

Still, if I could only pick one parade to attend, I think it would be the night time Parade of Lights. To me, that’s the most epic parade that Nice Carnival is known for.

Should you book a seat or standing room for the Carnival Parade of Lights?

I would recommend booking a seat as it’s a long night. They tell you to arrive two hours in advance (more on that below), which would mean arriving at 6:30pm ahead of the 8:30pm start time.

We left the parade around 10:45pm – leaving a bit early, due to an early morning flight the next day – and there was still another float and a few dance troupes to go. We also wanted to beat the crowds all trying to leave the parade grounds at the same time.

So if you arrive early and stay for the whole thing, you’re looking at 5+ hours of standing which, in my opinion, is much too long!

I think the additional cost of booking a seat is worth it. For the 2024 Carnival Parade of Lights, standing adult tickets cost €7-14 ($7-15 USD) and seated adult tickets cost €23-31 ($25-34 USD).

What are the best seats for Nice Carnival’s Parade of Lights?

From what I could tell attending the 2024 parade, there are no bad seats! That being said, I can definitely recommend the seats we had.

We sat in the grandstands at Place Masséna, Zone A, in the Max Gallo section. We were in the very last row, row W, seats 17 and 18, which are on the right side (closer to the fountain) if you’re facing the parade.

At first, I was worried that being in the back row would mean a worse view. But honestly? I think it was the best view!

The stands are tiered in such a way that even being in the back, no one in front of you blocks your line of sight. And being in the very last row meant we could lean back and if we did want to stand, we weren’t ruining anyone else’s view.

The only downside to sitting in the Max Gallo or Jean Jaures sections is that you only get to see one side of a float. This really doesn’t take away from the overall experience and would be similar almost everywhere along the parade route as you’re almost always on one side or the other.

It did help that we were on the far right side of Max Gallo, as that meant we could also see the floats head on before they were right in front of us. If you wanted to really see them head on, the Massena and Felix Faure sections might be best.

I also liked sitting in Zone A, and particularly in the Max Gallo/Jean Jaures sections, as this was the beginning of the parade route. That meant we got to see everything first.

As the parade is pretty slow moving, I’d suspect we saw things a good 30 minutes before people in Zone B.

4 things to do before Nice Carnival

1. Book your Carnaval de Nice tickets in advance

As one of the biggest carnival events in the world, tickets to the parades and events of the Nice Carnival do sell out in advance. Especially if you want a seat, and not just standing room, you’ll want to book your tickets well in advance.

We booked our tickets on December 26, 2023 for the opening night parade on February 17, 2024. Even that far ahead, seats were pretty limited.

Though I also remember checking for tickets back in November and they weren’t available yet. So it might be a case of just checking the website often in Nov/Dec of the year before you want to attend.

You can check out ticket prices and book here.

2. Make sure you’re using the correct entrance

On your ticket (and in every email you’ll get from the Carnaval people), they’ll remind you that you need to enter through the specific entrance assigned to your section.

Note: This might not be the entrance closest to your section on the map!

Don’t overlook this, as I’m assuming you would get turned away if you went to the wrong entrance. And the entrances are pretty far apart, so you may have to walk a bit to get to the right one.

3. Arrive early (but maybe not two hours early)

Carnaval will tell you to show up two hours before the parade begins in order to get through all of the lines and security measures. But do you really need to? Maybe not.

We arrived at 6:45pm ahead of the 8:30pm start of the Carnival Parade of Lights on Feb 17, 2024. So already, we were “late” for the recommended arrival time of 6:30pm (two hours early).

And yet, when we arrived, the doors hadn’t opened. We just joined the mob outside the doors and stood around until past 7:00pm.

Now on Carnaval’s website, they say that the doors open two hours early. So they should have been open at 6:30pm. I don’t know if there was some kind of delay on the day we went or if this is the norm, but our doors didn’t open until after 7:00pm.

And when they did open, it was really fast! It took us maybe five minutes to walk through all the barricades, show our tickets and go through the security scanner.

Again, this was our experience going through the E2 entrance on the opening night of the 2024 Carnaval de Nice. I don’t know if other entrances were busier or opened sooner.

I would also imagine the entrances get busier closer to show time, meaning the lines and security clearances probably take longer.

We also had tickets for seats in the stands, so entering earlier didn’t mean that much for us. If you have a standing room ticket, it would probably be best to get in as soon as possible so you can secure a place up front.

4. Dress up in costume for Carnaval!

Lots of people show up to Carnaval in costume. In fact, if you’re in costume, you can even get in for free (standing room alone, subject to ticket availability and other rules). But even those who had bought tickets were dressed up.

It really adds to the fun of the night and seeing so many people excited and in costumes got Colin and I more excited too. And, of course, we wanted in on the fun. So despite not dressing up ahead of time, we bought masks at the parade.

The masks were pretty reasonably priced (we paid €10 ($11 USD) each) and immediately made us feel part of the celebration.

Plus, they now sit on our fireplace mantel as a fun souvenir!

What to expect during the Carnaval de Nice Parade of Lights

They really want you to download the app

I’m not sure if 2024 was the first year the Nice Carnival asked attendees to use an app but boy were they excited about it!

We were told about the app in an email sent out the day before, on screens around the grounds, and personally when we went to find our seats – not to mention the dozen or so times the MC brought it up!

Basically, the app is a big freaking deal to them. To me? Not so much.

The app, which uses your phone to flash different coloured lights depending on where you’re seated, was cool enough in theory. And I understand why they’d want everyone to use it or else it doesn’t quite have the same effect.

But I don’t know if it was worth the squeeze. For all the times they mentioned it and showed the QR code, lots of people still didn’t use it (understandable, some of the crowd was older). And the carnival itself didn’t seem to make the best use of the app.

We were told to use it twice, both times during the pre-show. I was kind of expecting to be using it often throughout the parade, in coordination with the songs and floats. But nope!

There are limited food options and bathrooms

There was only one food option at the Nice Carnival parade – a confectionary stand that specialized in churros and waffles. That’s it!

I was really expecting there to be more options as this seems like the perfect opportunity for a dozen food trucks to pull up.

Luckily, you are able to bring in your own food (but not alcohol). So if you think you’ll need something more substantial than a churro, pack ahead.

Also keep in mind that the confectionary stand is only accessible for ticket holders in Zone A (sorry Zone B!).

As for bathrooms, I was also expecting these to be more readily available. But I guess the event organizers figure if they don’t feed you they don’t have to help you…empty that food.

As we were leaving, I did notice a few individual portable toilets located by the stands. But I expected an event this large to have more bathroom access.

The pre-show is a ton of fun

Around 8:15pm, a pre-show for the parade started when a huge troupe of dancers came out and lined the parade route between the stands. I’m not sure if this extended to Zone B; if not, that’s reason enough to upgrade to Zone A!

For almost an hour the dancers, alongside an MC who pretty much talked non-stop the entire time, entertained us and got us super pumped up for the parade.

Not only did they dance (duh) but they also encouraged us to dance along, cheer, do the wave and use the app (the only two times we did all night). Most of the songs were in English and super popular, so we had a blast!

Especially when they played this number and us Canadians had to do our country justice 😉

Cotton Eyed Joe – Nice Carnaval

PS: The MC who was non-stop chattering was doing so in French, as to be expected. But if vous ne parlez pas francais, don’t worry. Any major announcements are made over the speakers in both French and English.

And you’ll likely be able to understand from his enthusiasm alone (or by watching your fellow attendees) when the MC wants you to do something, like cheer or stand up.

The parade is awesome, but it’s slow

The actual parade got started around 9:15pm – and that was for us in Zone A, so I imagine it was a while later for Zone B. Right away we were super entertained and blown away!

The detail on the floats was so impressive. It was awesome to notice all the little pop culture references, admire the artistry and see any special tricks – like fire shooting out of a dragon!

Dragon acrobats – Carnaval de Nice

In between floats were troupes of dancers, acrobats and performers. The dancers were all so incredibly talented.

Not only were they nailing their choreography, but the stamina to keep it up for the entire parade route? I’d be on the floor!

Plus all of the costumes were so intricate and beautiful, the music was fun to sing along to (again, almost all popular English songs), and there were lots of fun surprises, like circus tricks or confetti canons.

All that being said, the parade does move slowly.

As someone who grew up attending the Santa Claus Parade in Toronto, I’m used to floats moving at a steady pace. At Nice Carnival, it’s more of a stop and start situation. There were often pauses and I was shocked when it felt like a float hadn’t moved in minutes.

To get specific, we saw the first float at 9:15pm and the 13th float at 10:41pm. That’s 13 floats in about 90 minutes, so a new float every 6.5-7 minutes.

Which I guess isn’t all that bad! And it wasn’t boring in between floats with all the dancers, marching bands, circus performers, etc.

But all to say, if you had to leave to buy a snack or use the bathroom, you probably wouldn’t miss a float! Even with a new one every 6-7 minutes, the previous one or two were still visible.

ETA: Friends of our attended the parade a few nights after us and reported that things moved a lot quicker. So perhaps the parade was just a little slow out of the gate on night one!

Final thoughts on the Carnaval de Nice

What can you expect from the Carnaval de Nice Parade of Lights? A freaking good time!

We had such an awesome time attending this event. Despite some of the hiccups, like arriving earlier than we needed to and not getting to stay to the end thanks to a 7am flight the next morning, I am so glad we went to the parade.

It’s such a bucket list item to celebrate carnival in Nice and I’m so glad it lived up to the hype. We had the best time singing and dancing along to the music and admiring the floats.

I would highly recommend buying tickets and attending Nice Carnival if you get the chance. We also attended the Fete du Citron in Menton and the Carnaval de Nice was a much better experience (though the lemons were pretty!).

So if you’re only going to one festival in the South of France, make it Carnaval in Nice!

Have I convinced you to add Nice’s carnival to your France itinerary?