When was the Carnival of Viareggio born and how did it evolve?
Maria Lina Marcucci: “The Carnival of Viareggio was born in 1873 as a pure expression of student spirit. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Carnival in the cities was a celebration of the people, but also of palaces and nobles.
The first parade in Viareggio was not of floats but of carriages decorated with flowers, which this year, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Carnival we will recall in a historic parade.
The buildings have evolved over the decades: from simple decorated carriages we have moved on to large wagons.
At the beginning of the twentieth century the wagons were modeled in plaster, on wooden frames, made in the hangars of the shipyards, by the shipwrights and caulkers, highly skilled naval carpenters of the Darsena, together with local painters, decorators and sculptors.
We had to wait until 1925 to see the floats as we know them today, made of tracing paper, or better known as papier-mâché, a material that allows you to build mammoth but at the same time very light works, with mechanisms in the belly, first manual movements, then automatic.
Viareggio is also famous for its masks: the symbol of our Carnival is Burlamacco, with his black cape and red and white diamond patterned dress, born in 1930 from pencil of the futurist artist and painter Uberto Bonetti, who puts together the elements of the masks of the Commedia dell'arte, takes something from Balanzone, something from Arlecchino, and gives life to a new mask, considered the last of the Commedia dell'arte.
Burlamacco is accompanied by a charming young woman, Ondina, the holiday maker who came to Viareggio to spend the summer months, wearing 1920s-style sailor clothing. From the 1960s to the 1980s, the Carnival of Viareggio became the maximum expression of political satire, and subsequently with globalization the floats began to tell the issues that afflict the world.
Today the Carnival is the result of a strong innovation, both in terms of expression and construction, and at the same time keeps its centuries-old tradition alive".