Last weekend of winter - Kotor Winter Carnival

With few interruptions, this carnival has been held for 500 years every spring before Lent. Carnival festivities are one week long with all kinds of events on city squares and nearby villages: costume balls for children and adults, concerts, 'papalada' – local custom of serving free food and drinks, theater plays… Culmination is a big carnival procession on the main road in front of Old Town and the burning of the current year Carnival symbol. Most of the group masks are designed as a parody of actual events and at the end of the procession is a mask that represents a person who is guilty for everything that was wrong in the past year and it is burned for its crimes. This carnival has an international character and every year gathers a large number of carnival groups and tourists from abroad.