Six eras · 28 moments · with sources
Every year, every float, every king, with sources.
Chapter 1 · Antiquity
Local tradition traces the carnival spirit to ancient Amathus: the Aphrodisia (the «Karposis»), the masked rites of Dionysus and the myth of Ariadne, re-enacted each year with disguises according to Plutarch. It is tradition rather than documented continuity, but the city keeps it with pride.
Chapter 2 · Lusignan & Venetian rule
Artistic impression (AI) — not an archive photograph
The German traveller Christoph Fürer von Haimendorf, on his way to the Holy Land, records the carnival feasts of the Cypriot nobility under Venetian rule: games, dances, hunting and rich meals. It is the oldest description of carnival in Cyprus.
Also in this era
Lusignan & Venetian rule
The other moments of the era, in order.
The first written witness: Saint Neophytos the Recluse scolds Cypriots for adopting a foreign festival before Lent. Carnival had already reached the island.
Under the Lusignans (12th–14th c.) the nobles' carnival included jousting, dances and lavish banquets. The Franks and later the Venetians brought the customs of the European carnival to Cyprus.
Chapter 3 · Ottoman period
Without an official carnival, Limassolians keep the Triodion at home: Tsiknopempti with sausages on the coals, masks of charcoal, scarves and sheepskin, men dressed as women and the game of «guess who I am». This is the birth of the «pellomaska», the improvised crazy disguise the poet Vasilis Michaelides wrote about and the city still keeps.
Chapter 4 · British rule
Artistic impression (AI) — not an archive photograph
The first jury, the «Komitato», is formed with a prize of 20 gold francs for the best costume. The newspaper Alithia (18/02/1898) reports that Yiangos Lanitis won it as Diogenes with his lantern. The Komitato would run the carnival until 1974.
Also in this era
British rule
The other moments of the era, in order.
Under British rule Limassol becomes the trading port of wine and carob. Mayors Christodoulos Sozos, Araouzos, Chr. Hadjipavlou and Alekos Zenon, together with citizens, journalists and the Greek schools, turn the spontaneous revelry into an urban institution.
The Athenaion society holds one of the city's first carnival balls, lasting until dawn. Society balls with European costumes, mandolin ensembles and masquerades become the heart of the urban carnival.
Around 1920 the masqueraders take to the streets in an organised way, on foot, on donkeys, bicycles and carriages, and the first parades grow into long processions. Many sources give 1921 as the start of the organised Limassol Carnival.
Source: Reporter · ink.com ↗ Artistic impression (AI) — not an archive photograph
The balls move into the Rialto and Yiordamli cinemas, where all social classes mix: the dances of the guilds, of Aris and of GSO. The tavernas fill with serenaders.
The float of King Carnival appears for the first time, designed by the artists Giorgos Fasouliotis and Viktor Ioannides. The Paratiritis newspaper reports 700+ visitors from other towns spending £1,500. The float would be the King until 2007.
Source: Reporter, 26/02/2023 ↗ Artistic impression (AI) — not an archive photograph
Giorgos Giorgallettos opens his barbershop at sixteen; it becomes a school of mandolin and guitar. The city's great serenader companies (the Kasii, the Giorgallettoi) are born in the barbershops.
Ionian and Athenian serenades, with mandolins and guitars, move from the tavernas into the alleys, where women listen from the balconies. Every Tsiknopempti journalist Georgios Templar opens his house on Agiou Andreou; the pellomaskes start their tour from there.
Source: Δήμος Λεμεσού · Διάλογος ↗ Artistic impression (AI) — not an archive photograph
At Platres Templar interviews King Farouk of Egypt, who gives him his red fez. The fez becomes the symbol of King Carnival.
Giorgallettos' company officially takes the name «Giorgallettou Serenaders». It still exists and sings every year outside Perama in memory of its founder.
In the Municipal Garden 200 children parade with King Carnival leading on horseback. The Children's Parade settles on the first Sunday of carnival and is today the island's biggest children's celebration.
Chapter 5 · From the Komitato to the Municipality
Artistic impression (AI) — not an archive photograph
The Fanaris serenaders are the first to wear the cape as a uniform. In the 1960s the floats satirise the news («Caliphate», 1961), nightclubs hold masked balls with violins and saxophones, and in 1967 the Municipality of Patras donates a float to Limassol.
Also in this era
From the Komitato to the Municipality
The other moments of the era, in order.
With Yiangos Louizides chairing the organising committee, prizes are established for the best floats and costumes. Majorettes appear for the first time in the Children's Parade; in 1973 they join the Grand Parade and by 1980 they are an inseparable part of it.
The year of the invasion closes the Komitato era (1898–1974). The organisation passes to the Municipality of Limassol and its Cultural Services. The carnival never stopped, but for years it was celebrated in a lower key.
Source: Σημερινή, 12/02/2026 ↗ Artistic impression (AI) — not an archive photograph
From the mid-1990s the Grand Parade takes its present shape on Makarios Avenue: hundreds of groups, floats with sound systems, choreographies. Elena Papadopoulou's «Magic of the Deep» wins first prize; twenty years later she would be Queen.
Chapter 6 · The modern carnival
Artistic impression (AI) — not an archive photograph
On 26 May 2024 the Museum of the Limassol Carnival opens on three floors of the «Panos Solomonides» Municipal Cultural Centre: costumes, floats, photographs and posters from a century, «an ark of popular memory» in the words of Mayor Nikos Nikolaides.
Also in this era
The modern carnival
The other moments of the era, in order.
The pellomaskes and the «madmen» get their own float in the parade, with the «King of Laughter and Madness», who wears a cooking pot instead of a crown.
Until 2007 King Carnival was a themed float. By decision of the Municipal Council, from 2008 the role is embodied every year by an active carnival figure of the city, chosen by the Mayor and the Cultural Services: a king, a queen, even a royal couple.
In May Limassol hosts the 34th convention of the Federation of European Carnival Cities (FECC). The same year CNN writes about «the most colourful event in Cyprus» and «Memorandum the Great» hands out money to his subjects.
The Limassol Carnival is inscribed in the National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Cyprus (Cyprus National Commission for UNESCO) for its oral traditions, social practices and traditional craftsmanship.
The parade of 1 March 2020 takes place days before the first lockdown. In 2021 there are no parades and «King Lemesios» stays two years on the throne, the only one in history. In 2022 the carnival returns indoors, with Safe Pass and online streaming.
127 groups and 35,000 carnival-goers in the Grand Parade. The King and Queen of the Rio Carnival send a message and visit Limassol in March. Marija Savina writes «Life is a Carnival».
«Limassol Madness»: 115 groups, projection mapping on the District Administration building, the first robot in the parade and a finale of 700 drones over the Old Port. The carnival also travels to Seville with an exhibition from the Pattichion Historical Archive.
Source: Cyprus Mail, 21/02/2026 ↗ Artistic impression (AI) — not an archive photograph
The editions
A page for every carnival since 2008, when the King became a person. Tap a year.
| Year | Tsiknopempti | Grand Parade | On the throne | groups | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2032 | Thu 4 Mar | Sun 14 Mar | — | — | Upcoming |
| 2031 | Thu 13 Feb | Sun 23 Feb | — | — | Upcoming |
| 2030 | Thu 28 Feb | Sun 10 Mar | — | — | Upcoming |
| 2029 | Thu 8 Feb | Sun 18 Feb | — | — | Upcoming |
| 2028 | Thu 17 Feb | Sun 27 Feb | — | — | Upcoming |
| 2027 | Thu 4 Mar | Sun 14 Mar | Σπύρος Ματσούκας | — | Upcoming |
| 2026 | Thu 12 Feb | Sun 22 Feb | Αμαρυλλίς Κυριάκου | 115 | Held |
| 2025 | Thu 20 Feb | Sun 2 Mar | Βασίλης Παπαβασιλείου | 127 | Held |
| 2024 | Thu 7 Mar | Sun 17 Mar | Χριστιάνα Χαραλάμπους | — | Held |
| 2023 | Thu 16 Feb | Sun 26 Feb | Δημήτρης Γιαννακού | 100 | Held |
| 2022 | Thu 24 Feb | Sun 6 Mar | Βέρα Ευθυμίου Παρλαλίδου | — | Indoors |
| 2021 | Thu 4 Mar | Sun 14 Mar | Γιώργος Νικολάου | — | Cancelled |
| 2020 | Thu 20 Feb | Sun 1 Mar | Γιώργος Νικολάου | — | Held |
| 2019 | Thu 28 Feb | Sun 10 Mar | Μόνικα Πιερίδου & Μαρία Νικολαΐδη Αφάμη | 103 | Held |
| 2018 | Thu 8 Feb | Sun 18 Feb | Χριστάκης & Ζήνα Μαχαλεκκίδη | — | Held |
| 2017 | Thu 16 Feb | Sun 26 Feb | Μαρία Πιερή Συκοπετρίτου | — | Held |
| 2016 | Thu 3 Mar | Sun 13 Mar | Έλενα Παπαδοπούλου | — | Held |
| 2015 | Thu 12 Feb | Sun 22 Feb | Ανδρέας Βρυωνίδης | — | Held |
| 2014 | Thu 20 Feb | Sun 2 Mar | Ντίμης Μαυρόπουλος | — | Held |
| 2013 | Thu 7 Mar | Sun 17 Mar | Έρμα Στυλιανίδη | — | Held |
| 2012 | Thu 16 Feb | Sun 26 Feb | Δώρος Ιερόπουλος | — | Held |
| 2011 | Thu 24 Feb | Sun 6 Mar | Μίλτος Παπαδόπουλος | — | Held |
| 2010 | Thu 4 Feb | Sun 14 Feb | — | — | Held |
| 2009 | Thu 19 Feb | Sun 1 Mar | Άκης Ταϊτός | — | Held |
| 2008 | Thu 28 Feb | Sun 9 Mar | — | — | Held |
