Provincetown Carnival 2026

Provincetown Carnival is the largest single event in the Provincetown gay calendar — a week of themed parties, gallery openings, costume events, and street festivities culminating in a costumed parade along Commercial Street that draws 60,000 people to a town of 3,000. Carnival is held during the third week of August and has been running since 1978. Each year's event has a theme — past themes have included Hollywood, Superheroes, Royalty, and Under the Sea — and the parade contestants, costumes, and floats are elaborate expressions of that theme, ranging from the ingenious to the spectacular. The parade itself proceeds along Commercial Street from the East End to the West End, a distance of about two miles, with spectators lining the street three and four deep. The Carnival week programming includes official tea dances at the Boatslip, themed nights at the A-House and Crown & Anchor, and the general multiplication of energy that comes from 60,000 visitors arriving in a town built for 3,000. Carnival week requires accommodation booked eight months in advance; room rates are at their annual peak. The event is the single best expression of what Provincetown does that no other place in America replicates.