Kurentovanje, the Ptuj carnival that chases winter away

Kurentovanje 2027 programme, day by day

The opening is the most atmospheric moment. At midnight between Tuesday 2 and Wednesday 3 February, beside a fire, the Kurents put on their bells for the first time. On Wednesday at 18:00 hundreds of Kurents and Korants pack Mestni trg for their own day, which includes the handover of power.

On Thursday and Friday at 18:00 there are displays of traditional characters on Mestni trg, and on Friday at 20:00 a night spectacle with fire and Krampuses. Saturday 6 brings the Kurent market on Novi trg, the carnival corso at 11:00 and a children’s party at 15:00. The highlight is Sunday 7 at 12:00, the grand international ethnographic and carnival parade, with thousands of figures. On Tuesday 9, carnival is buried at 13:00.

What Ptuj’s carnival is

It’s the carnival of Ptuj, billed by its organisers as the country’s largest international carnival festival. For a week the town becomes, in their words, the biggest open-air ethnographic museum of intangible heritage. Lonely Planet named it one of the ten most interesting carnivals in the world, alongside Venice, Rio de Janeiro and New Orleans. The 67th edition takes place from 3 to 9 February 2027.

Its roots run deep. The festival’s website explains that carnival comes from pre-Christian celebrations welcoming spring and seeing off winter, and that pust, the Slovenian word for carnival, comes from «mesopust», giving up meat.

The Kurent, the figure who sees off winter

The Kurent, or Korant, is Slovenia’s most numerous and best-known carnival character, rooted in the Ptuj and Drava plains, Haloze and the Slovenske Gorice. In folk belief it chases away everything bad and brings good luck, and it has been documented since at least 1880. Some Kurents wear horns, others feathers, and Visit Ptuj says the association that brings them together has 25 societies and more than 1,100 members.

Their door-to-door rounds joined Slovenia’s intangible heritage register in 2012, were declared of national importance by the government in 2015 and were inscribed by UNESCO in 2017. They were the second Slovenian intangible element to reach the list, after the Škofja Loka Passion Play.

To sleep close to everything, search places to stay in Ptuj on Expedia and filter by area before price.

How I’d plan carnival week

I’d turn up on Friday for the evening displays and the night show, dress up on Saturday for the corso and watch Sunday’s parade from a stretch of the route rather than the main square. Ptuj Castle holds a collection of traditional carnival masks that helps make sense of what you see on the street, and the Kurent House, near Slovenski trg, explains it all year round with interactive displays.

Where to stay in Ptuj at carnival time

Ptuj is small and full during carnival, so lock in your room the moment the dates suit you. The handiest beds are inside the old town, with the spa resort across the Drava as the alternative; I compare them in my guide to hotels in Ptuj. Visiting in a different season? The carnival features in the events in Slovenia calendar, and Ptuj is worth a visit regardless, with its castle, its wine cellar and its lake.

If you are short on time, see the best tours in Ptuj and pick one that fits your day.

To sleep close to everything, search places to stay in Ptuj on Booking.com and filter by area before price.