Here we go for two months of festivities.
Like every start of winter for more than two hundred years, the Limoux carnival (Aude) and its 600 carnival-goers will liven up the weekends of this town of 10,000 inhabitants.
A carnival which prides itself on being “the longest in the world”, because, starting on January 7, it will not end until… March 17.
For more than two months, 31 bands will parade on Saturday and Sunday with lots of music and escorted by the goudils, characters wearing masks, each more impressive than the last.
“Among the highlights of the carnival, Mardi Gras of course
(February 13)
, but also the folk week from February 26 to March 3, with the children's carnival on Wednesday afternoon.
This carnival, in the heart of winter, helps strengthen social ties between residents.
It’s also an economic event for the region because it attracts people,” explains Pierre Ferrand, who chairs the organizing committee with Josian Bourrel.
This Sunday, it is his band – the Arcadians – who will parade all day under the arcades of the city center.
The 2024 edition of the carnival will end on Blanquette night, led this year by an exclusively female band, Las Femnas.
“It will then be time to burn the float and its mannequin exposed since the start of the carnival,” continues Pierre Ferrand.
A whole tradition deeply rooted in the Limoux region, therefore, and which the organizing committee would also like to see included in UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage.
A recognition that the president of the committee hopes for at the earliest for the 2025 edition of the carnival.