Carnival in Mindelo is one of the largest events in Cabo Verde. The 2023 edition will be on and around Tuesday the 21st of Febuary.
Today is Sunday the 26th of February. The day of Mindelo's final carnival event. A large crowd of thousands gathers in the last parade of the 2023 edition. We call it the ' funeral of carnival'. Read more here:
Monday, 20th of February: Samba Tropical parade at night
Tuesday 21th of February: Mindelo carnival parade
Wednesday 22nd of February: Announcement of the winner
Plus, many other public and private events during the day.
Here's what I wrote back in november of 2021:
In recent years it started to attract more and more foreign visitors, thanks to it's vibrant colours, beautiful parades and fantastic allround atmosphere.
Carnival 2020 was another unforgetabble event in the history of Mindelo and Cabo Verde. Little did we know it was taking place just weeks before the entire world would shut down.
The Covid-19 crisis made it impossible for Carnival 2021 to happen. Of course this was no surprise to anyone. Although there was no lockdown in Cabo Verde at the time, it was abvious that having thousands of people coming together was not a good idea.
It's for this this reason that we also did not see a Baia das Gatas festival a few months back. Instead, the organisation held a (closed) event at the Pont d'Agua hotel in Mindelo, which had live transmission through Facebook so that people everywhere could enjoy the music.
In the last couple of months Cabo Verde has focused on vaccination, with now more than 75% of the adult population vaccinated. This is very important for the tourism sector, since both travelers and governments will be looking at these stats. Opening up for visitors is much needed, because the pandemic has left thousands of people on the islands of Sal and Boa Vista without a job.
Cabo Verde is ready to pick up where it left off, and present it's visitors with unforgetabble experiences again.
Carnival 2023
In Mindelo, the host of the largest carnival of the country, city hall has not shared official carnival schedule for the 2022 edition. After tourism slowly opened back up in 2021, city hall and others involved in the organisation of Cabo Verde's biggest event decided the risks for a 2022 edition were to high.
The good news is that the Baia das Gatas Music Festival made a very successful comeback in August of 2022. This means that going forward we'll be looking forward to finally welcoming carnival back in Mindelo. The 2022 edition was called off by City Hall after first confirming that it would be taking place. At the moment, there is no reason to expect this to happen again.
Mindelo is ready for another huge carnival edition on and around the 21st of February 2023!
This post will be updated soon with as much practical information as possible. This will hopefully include the offical schedule of the Mindelo Carnival 2023 edition. I'm also planning on adding more information that can help visitors make the most out of their stay during the event. We'll also work on adding a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page on the site about Carnival in Mindelo.