Carnival Time 2026

The theme of this year's "Carnival Season" event is Pasograd, or the issue of pets, places to walk, the lack of beaches for pets, but also the attitude of citizens towards the environment, littering everywhere and carelessness about the general appearance of the city. As befits Carnival, a humorous format is used to address serious topics.

The program opens on Friday, February 13th at 11 AM with the traditional handover of the keys to the City, which the official Mayor Šime Erlić will hand over to the new, temporary, masked Mayor Ivo Petrić, better known as the singer of the Zadar band Sexymotherf…s, the grandmasters of Dalmatian "hop cup rhythm", who will open the concert of the Istrian hop cup champion Gustafi on the stage at the People's Square that same evening at 7:30 PM. The same evening, the three best masks in the individual competition and in pairs will also be chosen.

Unfortunately, the announced parade of masked pets and their owners on People's Square on Saturday, February 14th, has been canceled due to poor weather forecasts and rain.

However, before that, pet owners are invited to participate in a panel discussion entitled "Barking, Meowing and Regulations - A Serious Story in Carnival Costume" that will be held in Duke's Palace at 10 am that morning, organized under the baton of the new county body under the abbreviated name KOORA or the "Coordination Working Group for Animal Protection of Zadar County", which was established at the end of last year with the aim of improving the animal protection system and better coordination of all relevant stakeholders.

On Sunday, February 15th at 11 am, the Children's Carnival will be on the program, and from 1 pm, the masked groups will gather in the parking lot on Branimir. At 2 pm, the central group procession will start across the Bridge and Forum to the People's Square, where we will be treated to a concert by the great Zadar band Vista, during which the three best group masks will be chosen and selected.

The Zadar Tourist Board, together with its partners, has secured spectacular prizes for this special occasion, so the declared winners will receive, among other things, the best prosciutto in the area and beyond, from the Lukin butcher shop, then award-winning wine from the Degarra winery, then several pairs of tickets for the Parni valjak and Željko Bebek concerts at the Arsenal club, two nights at the Hilton Hotel in Preko with breakfast, even a return flight ticket with Ryanair to Bari and another return ticket with free transportation of a pet on the Zadar-Zagreb route with Croatia Airlines.

Registration for the masked parade of pets and their owners on Saturday, February 14 at 11:30 a.m. at the People's Square (in Croatian only)

Registration of group masks for the central Sunday procession, February 15 at 3 p.m. (in Croatian only)