The Italian Carnival of Viareggio is taking over social media thanks to its giant, ornate parade floats depicting popular figures and fairytales that even feature moving parts.
The Carnival of Viareggio is held every February in the Tuscan city of Viareggio, Italy. It’s one of the largest and most famous festivals in all of Europe, and it’s not hard to see why.
The biggest draw of this carnival are its parades, which feature massive allegorical floats with moving parts. Usually made out of paper mache, these floats often depict figures and moments from popular culture, and have been a staple of the festival since 1873.
The floats primarily serve as social commentary, and have been used in ironic ways to remark on issues of the times since the carnival’s first inception in the Victorian Age. While it initially celebrated the beginning of Lent over a single weekend, it now spans over a whole month, featuring a parade every Sunday and one on Shrove Tuesday.
The floats have gotten more elaborate over time, and this year’s carnival caught eyes online due to just how wild they were.
Red Riding Hood float at Tuscany carnival stuns social media
One float, in particular, drew hundreds of thousands of views on X, showing Little Red Riding Hood interacting with a snarling Wolf who leapt out from a paper mache ‘forest’ amid flashes of bright light.
Both the Wolf and Red moved with articulated parts; Red nervously looked around the area before turning toward the Wolf and petting its snout, despite the apparent danger.
Of course, several other floats depicted political figures from around the world as commentary on the current state of affairs.
While Red Riding Hood and the Wolf stole the show this year, there’s still three weekends left in the month for other artists to outdo this float. The impressive structure is up there with another contender from last year, which depicted the Witch King of Angmar from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films.
The Witch King stole the show at last year’s Carnival of Viareggio.
This is the latest parade to go viral after footage from processions at PokePark, Kanto showed off Pokemon parades at the highly-anticipated theme park, which is set to open in Japan on February 5, 2026.
