Food festivals in Venice worth planning a trip around, by month.
Food festivals in Venice worth planning a trip around, by month.
Carnevale di Venezia is the city's centuries-old masked carnival, with the food side anchored on frittelle (cream-and-pinenut doughnuts) and galani at every patisserie.
Focus: Frittelle and galani pastries
Tip: 2026 dates: 31 January to 17 February. Events run across the historic centre, anchored at Piazza San Marco. Frittelle appear at Tonolo and Rosa Salva from mid-January. Hotel rooms book up a year ahead.
Festa del Redentore is Venice's most-loved celebration, marking the end of the 1576 plague with a votive bridge to Giudecca and a Saturday-night fireworks display.
Focus: Sarde in saor, bigoli in salsa eaten on boats
Tip: 2026 dates: Saturday 18 to Sunday 19 July. The votive bridge runs across the Giudecca Canal to the Redentore church. Boats fill St Mark's Basin by 19:00; fireworks at 23:30.
Vogalonga is the city's 30km non-competitive rowing regatta around the lagoon, founded 1975 to protest motorboat wave damage, with finish-line lunches at the bacari.
Focus: Post-row lunches at the bacari, Soave and Prosecco
Tip: 2026 date: Sunday 24 May. The 50th edition. Start 09:00 with a cannon shot from St Mark's Basin; the Cannaregio canal finish hits around 13:00.
Regata Storica is Venice's historic regatta on the first Sunday of September, with a 16th-century costumed boat procession and seven rowing races down the Grand Canal.
Focus: Long lunches by the Grand Canal
Tip: 2026 date: Sunday 6 September. The historic parade starts at 15:30; the races run through the afternoon to a finish at Ca' Foscari.
Festa della Sensa commemorates Doge Pietro Orseolo II's 1000 AD victory and the historic marriage-of-the-sea ceremony, held on the Sunday after Ascension at the Lido.
Focus: Lagoon-fish lunches, the Doge's marriage to the sea
Tip: 2026 date: Sunday 17 May. The marriage-of-the-sea takes place at San Nicolò del Lido; vaporetto from San Zaccaria.
The Festival delle Castraure on Sant'Erasmo celebrates the lagoon's prized purple artichoke heart, harvested late April through mid-May with farm-stand sales and a Sunday market.
Focus: Castraure artichokes from Sant'Erasmo
Tip: 2026 date: 10 May (second Sunday). Take vaporetto 13 from Fondamente Nove to Sant'Erasmo Capannone. Castraure season runs late April through mid-May.
Peak food season in Venice is year-round.
Local dining hours: lunch around 12:30, dinner from 19:30.
service is typically included; small extra is welcome but not expected.
Ask the next local you meet what they would order. Venice rewards trust.