Casalvelinese Carnival - Cilento Float Festival

The Casalvelinese Carnival, the masquerade party of the Cilento coast

In the municipality of Casal Velino, in the province of Salerno, Campania, Carnival is not celebrated indoors but along the sea. It is in Marina di Casal Velino, the coastal district overlooking the Gulf of Velia, that the Casalvelinese Carnival takes place every year: a Sunday afternoon of parades, costumes, and confetti that brings together families, children, and curious visitors from across the Cilento area. The event was created to restore a shared popular festival to the town, and in just a few years, it has become one of the most anticipated winter events on this stretch of coastline, during a time of year when Cilento is usually quiet and far from the summer tourism season.

The Cilento Float Festival

The distinctive feature of the event is the Cilento Float Festival format, which reached its third edition in 2026. The idea is both simple and ambitious: instead of limiting itself to floats built in town, the Casalvelinese Carnival invites groups from other Cilento municipalities to bring their most representative allegorical floats to Marina. Thus, the parade becomes a collective showcase of local carnival craftsmanship, made of papier-mâché, iron, glue, colors, and months of volunteer work in town workshops.

In recent editions, the municipalities of Ascea, Orria, Felitto, and Castelnuovo Cilento have accepted the invitation, joining the Casalvelinese masked groups. The result is a longer and more varied procession, where each float tells the story of its community's imagination and irony. At the end of the day, the floats are awarded prizes: in the 2025 edition, the evaluation was entrusted to two distinct juries, one "social" and one "institutional," a formula that directly involved the public and the online community.

The route: from Piazza Marconi to Lungomare Speranza

The parade starts in the early afternoon from Piazza Marconi and crosses Lungomare Speranza, the promenade that runs along the beach of Marina di Casal Velino, ending in Piazza Grandi Eventi. It is a flat, short, and comfortable route to follow even with strollers, allowing you to walk alongside the floats and follow them to the finish line. The sea in the background, the balconies overlooking the promenade, and the stalls make the atmosphere different from the inland town carnivals: here, the party is literally on the seafront.

Music, dance, and entertainment in Piazza Grandi Eventi

Once the procession arrives in Piazza Grandi Eventi, it gives way to the spectacular part of the day. The stage hosts performances by local dance schools, while entertainment for children, with mascots and games, accompanies the entire afternoon. The day concludes with a DJ set, which transforms the square into an open-air dance floor until evening. It is a program designed to be cross-generational: children in costume find their space, teenagers enjoy the music, and adults enjoy the stroll and the chance to meet fellow locals.

An event built by local associations

The Casalvelinese Carnival is not run by a professional machine: it is the result of collaboration between the municipality's associations, which combine their efforts, resources, and volunteers every year. The organizations behind the event include:

• Pro Loco Marina di Casal Velino, the lead organizer;
• A_mare Casal Velino;
• I Love Acquavella, from the hamlet of Acquavella;
• Viviamo Casalicchio;
• Oratorio S. Giuseppe and the Carullo group.

This network also explains the rapid growth of the event: by involving the hamlets and then the neighboring municipalities, the Carnival has become a project for promoting the entire territory rather than just a local village festival.

What to see nearby

Those arriving from outside can easily combine the Carnival with a day in Cilento. A few kilometers away is the Velia Archaeological Park, the ancient Elea of the Eleatic school of Parmenides and Zeno, and the coast of Ascea Marina; the hinterland offers the villages of Castelnuovo Cilento, Salento, and Orria, within the perimeter of the Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site. In mid-winter, the beaches are deserted and the open restaurants offer Cilento cuisine, from homemade pasta to the 'alici di menaica' (anchovies), a Slow Food Presidium in nearby Marina di Pisciotta.