The fifth season arrives on Korzo: the exhibition “People Who Make the Carnival” opens the Rijeka Carnival 2026.
Rijeka has once again entered a period that is measured here not by the calendar, but by the city’s mood. Ahead of the peak of the masked festivities, a photo exhibition titled “People Who Make the Carnival” has been set up on Rijeka’s Korzo, and its message is simple: the Rijeka Carnival is not only parades, music and costumes, but above all the people who carry it year after year.
The exhibition is arranged on pedestals along Korzo and can be visited from 08 to 16 January 2026. At the center are carnival participants and members of groups who, in Rijeka and the surrounding area, are known for not “coming to the carnival”, but living it all year long. While passers-by usually stop for a photograph, here they linger for the story behind it: who are the people under the masks, how long does their journey to a single carnival day take, and why do many of them put on a mask for the first time as children, and later—with the same passion—make costumes and pass the customs on to their own children and grandchildren.
If you’re planning to come to the city in the coming weeks, it’s useful to check in advance
accommodation offers in Rijeka, because the carnival season traditionally boosts visitor interest, especially around the biggest parades on Korzo.
An exhibition that brings the focus back to people, not spectacle
The photographs on Korzo do not try to “capture” only the color and noise, but what is otherwise seen only from the inside: preparations that last for months, family routines repeated every winter, workshops where things are cut, glued, painted and repaired, and a special kind of togetherness the carnival creates among people who might never meet if there were no masks.
The motif of “ordinary” people is deliberately emphasized. In the Rijeka Carnival it is often said that it is a way of life, and this exhibition turns that slogan into concrete faces and concrete biographies. Some have been in the carnival story for decades, some have only just taken over the responsibilities of older members, but what they share is that they experience the carnival as a space of freedom, creativity and social commentary, without the need for big explanations.
The personalized campaign “People Who Make the Carnival”: four faces, four stories
The exhibition on Korzo is also an introduction to the personalized communication campaign “People Who Make the Carnival”, which this season puts in the foreground carnival participants who live the carnival 365 days a year. The faces of the campaign come from different carnival communities and groups, and what they share is that they represent the energy that keeps the carnival alive beyond the “big dates”.
The campaign highlights Dora Pilepić from the carnival group Siti i pijani, Sandra Picco from Draške maškare, Leo Rudan from Lumber klub Opatija, and Dino Dolušić from Zametski zvončari. Each of them, through their own perspective, describes why the carnival is not reduced to one outing or one performance, but to perseverance, work and emotion.
Sandra Picco describes the carnival as a constant state, not a season: “For me, the carnival never ends. It’s emotion, togetherness and pride that are lived all year,” she says, emphasizing that the true value of the carnival is felt only when the shared effort comes alive on Korzo and when the audience recognizes everything that preceded that moment.
Dora Pilepić, who also has experience in the role of Queen of the Rijeka Carnival, sees the carnival as a time when the city becomes a stage for laughter and joy, but also a space where creativity and tradition “speak” through the mask. Her message is clear and direct: the carnival is not watched from the sidelines—it is experienced, you take part in it, you enter its rhythm and logic.
Leo Rudan from Lumber klub Opatija focuses on the audience and on the meaning of the carnival gesture: “Being a carnival participant means making others happy. The audience’s laughter is the biggest reward because it shows we’ve conveyed the message,” he says, stressing that the carnival at the same time connects tradition, fun and togetherness, without needing one to cancel out the other.
Dino Dolušić from Zametski zvončari approaches the carnival through responsibility toward the community. “Being a bell ringer means carrying tradition, but also responsibility toward the community. It’s not just a custom – it’s togetherness, humanity and the message that together we can bring good,” he emphasizes, reminding that many traditional masks in the Rijeka area did not arise as decoration, but as a social ritual that gathers and connects.
Rijeka Carnival 2026: key dates and what follows after the exhibition
The exhibition “People Who Make the Carnival” is only the first, visible sign that the season has started. According to the Rijeka Carnival 2026 program, Korzo and Rijeka’s neighborhoods in January and February bring a series of events—from traditional customs to urban carnival formats—and the culmination arrives in mid-February.
- 08–16 January 2026 – Exhibition “People Who Make the Carnival” on Korzo
- 17 January 2026 – Handover of the City Key on Korzo (noon)
- 23 January 2026 – Election of the Queen of the Rijeka Carnival
- 31 January 2026 – Children’s carnival parade on Korzo
- 15 February 2026 – International Carnival Parade on Korzo (start at 12:00)
- 19 February – 05 March 2026 – Exhibition “Smiling Faces of the Carnival” on Korzo
It is especially important that the International Carnival Parade has a confirmed date on Sunday, 15 February 2026, starting at 12:00. In practice, this means that Rijeka’s city center will function as a huge stage that day, with thousands of participants and a crowd of spectators coming from the city, the surrounding area and abroad.
If you’re planning to come specifically for that weekend, it’s worth checking earlier
accommodation near the event location, because Korzo is the central point of the carnival crowd, and staying in the city then usually also means logistics: arriving earlier, getting around on foot, and counting on temporary traffic adjustments.
Why the “fifth season” is more than an event
In the Rijeka area, the carnival is described as the “fifth season” for a reason. It is not an add-on to the winter program, but a strong part of local identity, with a decades-long tradition of a modern, organized carnival and with even older masking customs in the Littoral. The Rijeka City Tourist Board emphasizes on its official pages that the carnival brings together thousands of participants and visitors, and that during this period the city becomes a space of freedom of expression, creativity and joy, with the recognizable slogan “Be what you want”.
At the same time, the Rijeka carnival environment is inseparable from the traditional bell ringers’ processions in the wider Rijeka and Kastav area. UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity records the annual carnival bell ringers’ pageant from the Kastav area as a tradition that takes place during the winter carnival period and includes groups that go from place to place, wear sheepskins and bells, and preserve the distinctive ritual form of a collective procession. In Rijeka’s carnival mosaic, this traditional layer often meets urban carnival expression: alongside satire and commentary on current social topics, there is also a strong link to customs that have survived generations in these parts.
Korzo as the city’s stage and mirror
Korzo in the carnival season is more than a promenade. In January it becomes an open-air gallery, in February a large grandstand, and on parade days a place where the difference between “performers” and “audience” often fades. That is exactly why the exhibition “People Who Make the Carnival” works as a precise introduction: before the sounds, confetti and floats arrive, Rijeka publicly shows who the people behind all of it are.
A sense of continuity is important in this story as well. Carnival groups are generally not ad-hoc gatherings, but associations and communities that operate all year, have their own workshops, structure and “young members”. The exhibition makes that visible, and the campaign “People Who Make the Carnival” further emphasizes the personal dimension: behind the mask there is someone who tomorrow goes back to work, someone who spends weekends working on props, someone who for years takes part in charity actions connected to the carnival, someone who remembers their first masking and wants new generations to have the same experience.
For visitors coming from outside Rijeka, it is practical to already look at
accommodation offers for visitors, especially if the plan is to attend multiple events over several weeks. The carnival season is not “one day”, but a series of dates with its own dynamics: from Antonja and symbolic handovers, through the children’s parade, to the international parade that is the biggest stage of the city’s carnival identity.
The exhibition runs until 16 January: a chance for a “quieter” carnival experience
While the city prepares for the next carnival points on the calendar, the exhibition on Korzo remains an opportunity to experience the carnival without crowds, at a calmer pace, through photographs and faces that we otherwise recognize only when they pass in the parade.
Anyone who these days, 09 January 2026, walks along Korzo can begin the carnival right here: from story to story, from pedestal to pedestal. And when the time for the big parades comes, it will be clearer what is often forgotten in the spectacle: that the carnival is not created on a stage, but in the community.
Sources:- Rijeka City Tourist Board (Visit Rijeka) – event page “Exhibition ‘People Who Make the Carnival’” with dates and location ( link )- Rijeka City Tourist Board (Visit Rijeka) – campaign “People Who Make the Carnival” and the featured campaign faces ( link )- Rijeka City Tourist Board (Visit Rijeka) – Rijeka Carnival 2026 program with key dates ( link )- Rijeka City Tourist Board (Visit Rijeka) – “International Carnival Parade” page with the confirmed date 15 February 2026 and start at 12:00 ( link )- UNESCO – “Annual carnival bell ringers’ pageant from the Kastav area” (intangible cultural heritage) ( link )
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