--- title: "Carnival in Brazil: Dates 2027 to 2032" description: "Every Carnival date in Brazil from 2027 to 2032, why it is not a public holiday, what it does to prices nationwide, and whether to plan around it." url: https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/blog/brazil-carnival-planning/ language: en --- ![Aerial view of Rio de Janeiro with Sugarloaf Mountain and Guanabara Bay](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/images/destinations/rio-de-janeiro-hero.webp) 1. [Home](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/) 3. [Travel Journal](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/blog/) 5. Carnival in Brazil: Every Date to 2032, and Whether to Plan Around It # Carnival in Brazil: Every Date to 2032, and Whether to Plan Around It Carnival 2027 in Rio runs 5 to 13 February. It is not legally a public holiday, the date moves every year, and the price surge reaches destinations with no parade in them. The planning decision, not the party. ![Robin Himmrich](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/team/rob.webp) [Robin Himmrich](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/about/#robin) Founder · lives in Florianópolis, Brazil August 18, 2026 Updated: August 31, 2026 On this page 1. [When is Carnival in Brazil, and why does the date move?](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/blog/brazil-carnival-planning/#when-is-carnival-in-brazil-and-why-does-the-date-move) 2. [Why "not a public holiday" matters more than it sounds](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/blog/brazil-carnival-planning/#why-not-a-public-holiday-matters-more-than-it-sounds) 3. [What Carnival does to prices and availability](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/blog/brazil-carnival-planning/#what-carnival-does-to-prices-and-availability) 4. [The part people miss: the surge does not stay in Rio](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/blog/brazil-carnival-planning/#the-part-people-miss-the-surge-does-not-stay-in-rio) 5. [Should you travel during Carnival, or around it?](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/blog/brazil-carnival-planning/#should-you-travel-during-carnival-or-around-it) 6. [If Carnival is the point, what to know before you commit](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/blog/brazil-carnival-planning/#if-carnival-is-the-point-what-to-know-before-you-commit) 7. [When to go instead](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/blog/brazil-carnival-planning/#when-to-go-instead) 8. [Summary FAQ](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/blog/brazil-carnival-planning/#summary-faq) Here is something almost nobody planning a Brazil trip knows. Carnival is not a public holiday in Brazil. The federal calendar puts Carnival Monday and Tuesday down as a ponto facultativo, a discretionary closure, and Ash Wednesday as discretionary until two in the afternoon. Legally, the whole thing is optional. Look at the country during Carnival week and you will struggle to find anybody exercising the option. **Quick answer:** Carnival moves every year because it is tied to Easter, and it usually falls in February, sometimes early March, ending on Ash Wednesday. It is the single biggest price and demand surge in the Brazilian calendar, and the surge is nationwide rather than confined to Rio and Salvador. If Carnival is the reason you are coming, book far further ahead than you think and accept the price. If it is not, give the whole window room: the weeks after it are calmer and often good value. The one thing you should not do is travel through it by accident. ## When is Carnival in Brazil, and why does the date move? Carnival moves because it is tied to Easter, which moves, and it ends on Ash Wednesday at the start of Lent. In practice that puts it in February most years, and occasionally into early March. **In 2027, Carnival in Rio de Janeiro runs from Friday 5 February to Saturday 13 February.** That is the Rio window end to end, and it is nine days long rather than two. Inside it, Carnival Monday falls on 8 February, Carnival Tuesday on 9 February, and Ash Wednesday on 10 February. Hold those two spans next to each other, because the gap between them is the whole planning problem: nine days of Carnival in Rio, and two and a half days of official closure inside them. Here are the dates through 2032, so you do not have to go looking: - **2027**: Carnival Saturday 6 February, Monday 8, Tuesday 9, Ash Wednesday 10 February - **2028**: Carnival Saturday 26 February, Monday 28, Tuesday 29, Ash Wednesday 1 March - **2029**: Carnival Saturday 10 February, Monday 12, Tuesday 13, Ash Wednesday 14 February - **2030**: Carnival Saturday 2 March, Monday 4, Tuesday 5, Ash Wednesday 6 March - **2031**: Carnival Saturday 22 February, Monday 24, Tuesday 25, Ash Wednesday 26 February - **2032**: Carnival Saturday 7 February, Monday 9, Tuesday 10, Ash Wednesday 11 February The rule behind them, if you would rather work it out yourself: Carnival Tuesday always falls 47 days before Easter Sunday, and Ash Wednesday 46. Note 2028, when Carnival Tuesday lands on 29 February. The Rio parade window runs wider than these dates in both directions, typically from the Friday before to the champions' parade the following Saturday. For the legal status of those days, the Brazilian federal government publishes the calendar of national holidays and discretionary days through the Ministério da Gestão, which is the source we check rather than another travel company's page. When you tell us your year, we confirm the exact dates before anything gets booked, because a trip planned one week out from the real Carnival window is a trip planned at the wrong price. ## Why "not a public holiday" matters more than it sounds Because discretionary means variable. A national holiday closes the country in a predictable way. A ponto facultativo means each employer, each state and each city decides for itself, so what is actually shut in Carnival week depends on where you are standing. In 2027 that discretionary stretch is Monday 8 and Tuesday 9 February plus the morning of Wednesday 10 February, which is two and a half days sitting inside a nine day event. The practical version: banks and public offices largely stop, a great many businesses stop, and plenty of restaurants and small operators close for the week or run reduced hours. Others carry on entirely as normal. Domestic flights run, but they run full. This is the week when the answer to "will it be open?" is genuinely "it depends", and it is why the week rewards having somebody on the ground who can find out rather than assume. ## What Carnival does to prices and availability It is the single biggest price and demand surge of the Brazilian year, and it behaves the same way every time. Hotels sell out. Minimum-night rules tighten, so the three nights you wanted becomes five or seven whether you want them or not. Rates spike. The effect is hardest in Rio de Janeiro and [Salvador](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/blog/salvador-bahia-culture-guide/), the two cities where Carnival is biggest. Our [Rio month-by-month guide](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/blog/best-time-to-visit-rio-de-janeiro/) covers what that does to a Rio stay specifically, and [our piece on what Brazil costs](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/blog/ist-brasilien-teuer/) sets the Carnival surge next to the other two, New Year and the July school holidays. The short version for planning purposes: this is the most expensive week of the year to be in Brazil, and it is the week with the least flexibility in it. ## The part people miss: the surge does not stay in Rio This is the argument we make most often and the one that changes the most trips. The price and availability surge reaches any travel inside the Carnival window, not only the cities with the parades. Book a Pantanal safari or an Amazon lodge for Carnival week and you are still competing with a country that is on the move, at premium pricing, in the middle of the domestic travel peak. And February is not a neutral month elsewhere. In the [Pantanal](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/blog/best-time-to-visit-the-pantanal/) it is the wet season: flooded, hot, wildlife dispersed, and the low season for exactly the jaguar sightings people go there for. In the Amazon it is high water. On the northeastern coast it is genuinely excellent beach weather, which is the one place the timing works in your favour. A jaguar does not know it is Carnival. It does know it is February, which in the Pantanal means the water is high and it has a great many places to be other than in front of you. ## Should you travel during Carnival, or around it? There are only two good answers and the bad one is in the middle. **If Carnival is the point of the trip, come for Carnival and commit.** Decide early, accept the minimum stays, accept the price, and build the rest of the trip around that fixed block rather than trying to squeeze it in. It is one of the genuinely great things this country does and there is no diluted version of it that is worth having. **If Carnival is not the point, give it real room.** Not a day either side, a proper margin, because the surge starts before the parades and takes a few days to drain out afterwards. The weeks after Carnival are among the calmer, better-value stretches of the Brazilian year, and Rio in particular is noticeably easier once it has passed. The answer that costs people money is the middle one: travelling in the Carnival window without meaning to, paying the surge, meeting the minimum stays, and getting none of the reason the surge exists. That happens more often than you would think, because the dates move and people plan against last year's calendar. ## If Carnival is the point, what to know before you commit Book much further ahead than you would for anything else in Brazil. Expect minimum-stay rules rather than the nights you wanted. Expect premium pricing on rooms, and expect it to hold rather than soften as the date approaches. And here is the sentence that costs us something. If what you want is a cheap Carnival package, we are the wrong company. We only plan private, tailor-made trips, and Carnival week is the most expensive way there is to see Rio. We will happily build it, and we will tell you plainly what it costs before you decide, but we are not going to pretend we can make that week cheap. ## When to go instead If the trip is about Brazil rather than about Carnival, the value months are May, June and August: outside the Brazilian school holidays, clear of both Carnival and New Year, and in much of the country the better weather anyway. Our [guide to the best time to visit Brazil](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/blog/best-time-to-visit-brazil/) works through it region by region. One caveat worth carrying: March is usually the calm, good-value month after the surge, but a late Carnival spills into early March. In 2027 that caveat does not bite, because Carnival is finished by 10 February and the whole of March is clear. In other years, check the dates before you count on it. It sits inside our [sixteen-day highlights journey](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/journeys/highlights-of-brazil/) if you want the whole route at once. ## Summary FAQ **When is Carnival in Brazil in 2028 and after?** In 2028 Carnival Tuesday falls on 29 February, with Ash Wednesday on 1 March. Then 13 February 2029, 5 March 2030, 25 February 2031 and 10 February 2032. The date follows Easter: Carnival Tuesday is always 47 days before Easter Sunday. **When is Carnival in Brazil?** In 2027, Carnival in Rio de Janeiro runs from Friday 5 February to Saturday 13 February, with Carnival Monday on 8 February, Carnival Tuesday on 9 February and Ash Wednesday on 10 February. The date moves every year because it is tied to Easter, usually landing in February and occasionally in early March. **Is Carnival a public holiday in Brazil?** No. The federal calendar lists Carnival Monday and Tuesday as a ponto facultativo, a discretionary closure, and Ash Wednesday as discretionary until two in the afternoon. In 2027 that is 8 and 9 February plus the morning of 10 February, two and a half days inside a nine day event. Because it is discretionary rather than statutory, what actually closes varies by state, city and business. **How much more expensive is Brazil during Carnival?** It is the biggest price and demand surge of the year. Hotels sell out, minimum-night rules tighten and rates spike, hardest in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador. Book far ahead for any travel inside the window and expect premium pricing. **Should I avoid Brazil during Carnival?** Only if Carnival is not the point of your trip. If it is, come and commit early. If it is not, leave a proper margin either side of the window rather than a day, because the surge builds before the parades and takes days to clear afterwards. **Does Carnival affect the Amazon and the Pantanal too?** Yes, on price and availability, because the whole country travels that week. February is also the Pantanal wet season, when wildlife disperses and jaguar sightings are at their low, and high water in the Amazon. Paying the Carnival surge for the Pantanal is the least rewarding version of that trip. **When is the cheapest time to visit Brazil?** May, June and August, outside the Brazilian school holidays and clear of both Carnival and New Year on 31 December. Tell us your travel year and whether Carnival is the reason for the trip or the thing to plan around, and we will confirm the real dates for that year and build the route accordingly. You will have a personal, [non-binding proposal within 24 hours](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/contact/#plan). [Back to top](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/blog/brazil-carnival-planning/#main) ## Official sources The rules and figures in this article come from the official bodies below. They change, so check them for your own dates. - [Official calendar of national holidays and discretionary days](https://www.gov.br/mre/pt-br/eresp/feriados-e-pontos-facultativos) · Ministério das Relações Exteriores / Ministério da Gestão - [Lei 662/1949, the law that declares Brazil’s national holidays](https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/l0662.htm) · Presidência da República, Casa Civil - [Brazilian Ministry of Tourism](https://www.gov.br/turismo/pt-br) · Governo Federal do Brasil - Carnival - Planning - Seasons ## Turn it into your own Brazil trip Tell Robin your dates and what caught your eye, or pick the destinations and experiences you love and send us your own route to plan. [Ask Robin about my dates](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/blog/brazil-carnival-planning/#plan) [Design my journey](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/my-journey/) Non-binding, a personal reply within 24 hours, in English or German. ## Destinations in this story Ready to see these places yourself? Every journey is private and tailor-made. ### [Rio de Janeiro](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/destinations/rio-de-janeiro/) The Marvellous City, Privately Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Overview Sugarloaf at golden hour, hidden Santa Teresa ateliers and a beach day with no schedule. Rio de Janeiro with a private host who knows the city beyond the postcards. View journey ### [Salvador da Bahia](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/destinations/salvador/) The Heart of Afro-Brazil Bahia, Brazil Overview Brazil's first capital and the beating heart of Afro-Brazilian culture. Two to three privately guided days: the UNESCO Pelourinho and its museums, a Bahian food tour, an authentic capoeira taster, day trips into the Recôncavo and to Itaparica, and a beach finish at Praia do Forte. View journey [Plan My Trip](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/contact/#plan) A little Brazilian sunshine ## Your Brazil starts here. A few ideas are all we need to start planning something personal. - 24h response - Completely non-binding - Personal consultation Rather compose it yourself, stop by stop? [Design your own journey](https://www.authenticbraziltravel.com/my-journey/)