Quargnento Carnival

The Quargnento Carnival

The Quargnento Carnival is the festival that, every year on Shrove Tuesday, closes the carnival season in this small village in the province of Alessandria, in the heart of the Piedmont plains. It is a family-oriented, grassroots village festival organized by the Municipality of Quargnento in collaboration with the local community, attracting children and their families in particular.

Masked Party and Bonfire

The heart of the day is the masked party held in the afternoon at the Oratorio ANSPI Don Bosco, a traditional meeting space for village activities. Amidst confetti, colorful costumes, music, and typical carnival sweets, children and adults bring an afternoon of fun and conviviality to life.

The most anticipated moment arrives at dusk: at 7 PM, the bonfire is lit, a symbolic gesture of ancient rural tradition with which the community bids farewell to the Carnival and marks the transition toward Lent. The fire, around which people gather, has always represented a rite of closure and renewal, deeply rooted in Piedmontese folk culture.

A Village of History and Art

Quargnento is a town of just over a thousand inhabitants whose origins date back to the Roman era, when the site was known as Quadrangularis. The village is famous above all for being the birthplace of Carlo Carrà, one of the leading figures of Futurism and 20th-century Italian painting. Experiencing the Carnival here means discovering the identity of an agricultural village in the Monferrato area of Alessandria, where local traditions maintain an authentic rhythm and an intimate scale.

A Festival for the Whole Community

Unlike the large historical carnivals of Piedmont, the Quargnento event maintains the intimate and participatory dimension of a village festival. It is an opportunity to gather, to let children in costume have fun, and to share a moment of community in the spirit of folk traditions. A simple yet heartfelt event, capable of renewing the bond between the inhabitants and their territory every year.