Venice Entertainment

Venice is not a city big on entertainment in a traditional sense and visitors from abroad  don’t generally tend to come here with expectations of wild nights. The entertainment scene is generally reserved and reflects the city’s dedication to culture, history and heritage. If enjoying fine food and wine as well as the pleasures of live classical music are your thing, then this is the city for you.

Nightlife

Venetians are not renowned for being big party-goers and as such, the city’s nightlife may well be too sedate for some holidaymakers. Discos and nightclubs are few and far between and have limited opening times, often only on Wednesdays and Saturdays. An evening out for the locals usually consists of a good meal in one of the city’s fine restaurants followed by a few beers or glasses of wine in a bar or outdoor café. Visitors should be warned that compared to many big European cities, Venice’s drinking establishments have fairly early closing times and you’ll generally find that bars wind up business at midnight. Campo Santa Margherita is one of the best places to head for a lively bar scene and later drinking hours, while for evening dining, the city is full of venues and visitors can find quality establishments throughout.

Theatre and music

Venice’s classical music scene is a thriving one and one with a long and rich tradition which sees city venues regularly hosting concerts of fine music. Churches are often used for these purposes and concerts playing the music of composers such as Vivaldi and his contemporaries are favourites among both locals and visitors. For traditional theatre, the city has a number of venues including Teatro Goldoni, Teatro Toniolo, Teatro Villa dei Leoni, Teatro Excelsior and Teatro della Murata. Opera as well as regular theatrical productions are hosted by these venues and the former can be attended by non-Italian speaking visitors and still thoroughly appreciated.

Festivals

There are a number of annual summer festivals that are unique to the city, with highlights including:

• Carnevale is probably Venice’s most significant annual event and it sees the locals dress up in spectacular masks and costumes and take to the streets for a week of partying in the run up to Ash Wednesday (February).
• Festa di San Marco is the feast day of Venice’s patron saint and is the day on which it’s traditional for men to give a bunch of roses to their loved ones. The gondoliers' regatta takes place on the waterways. The Lion of St Mark's golf championship also coincides with this festival (April).
• Festa della Sensa is also known as the Feast of Ascension and sees various regattas taking place on the Lido (May).
• Festa del Redentore is also known as the Feast of Redeemer and is celebrated with a large regatta on the Grand Canal during the day plus a large firework display in the evening (July).
• During the Festa della Madonna della Salute there’s a procession over a bridge of boats across the Grand Canal to the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute in order to give thanks to the Madonna for delivering the city from the great plague in 1631