Speciale Cologne
Cologne Carnival 2027: Key Dates, the Rose Monday Parade and How to Plan Your Trip
Which carnival days are worth building a trip around, and which sessions still work if your German is shaky. The other thing to get right is how early you need to be standing in the square.
Di Bram HendriksSlow walks, Romanesque churches and the city beyond the Dom
At 11:11 on Thursday 4 February 2027, the Oberbürgermeister hands the keys of the city to the Dreigestirn on the Alter Markt. That is the start of Cologne's street carnival. The square opens at 08:30 and the stage starts at 09:30. By then almost everyone inside is in costume.
Thursday morning on Alter Markt
Weiberfastnacht auf dem Alter Markt is the ticketed square in front of the Rathaus. This is where the handover happens, and the Dreigestirn, carnival's three ruling figures, are on stage for it. Tickets start at €30. Dance troupes and carnival bands keep the stage busy until about 13:00.
Be realistic about the start. If you aren't up, costumed and at the entrance before 09:30, you probably won't get in. A free alternative the same day is the Jan un Griet play, which starts at Chlodwigplatz at 13:30 and then walks along the Severinstraße to the Schildergasse. Street carnival carries on through Rose Monday at the end of that week. The city publishes its closures and access plans shortly beforehand, so check before you set out.
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Saturday pea soup on Neumarkt
Funkenbiwak der Roten Funken fills the Neumarkt from 10:00 on Saturday 6 February. The corps camps across the square in red and white eighteenth-century uniforms, and the field kitchens serve pea soup and Kölsch. There are Funkemariechen dancers, comic speakers, the Dreigestirn, and the Stippeföttche, a dance where two men rub their backsides together.
Entry is free, but the square fills up and can become impossible to get into. A €15 Passeerscheng gets you in before 10:00 and includes a session glass with Kölsch refills. There is no shelter out there in February, so dress for standing in the cold for hours.
Zülpicher Straße, in or out
Kwartier Latäng is the student party zone along Zülpicher Straße. On the big carnival days it is fenced into a controlled area with a few staffed entrances, and those entrances close whenever the street gets too crowded. Skip it if you want a relaxed or family carnival.
Glass is banned across the whole area, and you can't bring speakers, handcarts or folding chairs. Costumes must not include realistic-looking weapons or uniforms.
A ghost parade on 30 January
Geisterzug runs on Saturday 30 January 2027, more than a week before Weiberfastnacht, so it only works if you are in Cologne early. It costs nothing, it goes after dark, and you can walk in it instead of watching from behind a barrier. Costumes here are improvised, dark and ghostly.
The 2027 route isn't fixed, so check before you go. Last time the parade gathered on Josefine-Clouth-Straße in Nippes from 18:00 and moved off at 19:00.
One big night indoors
Lachende Kölnarena is the easiest carnival session for a visitor, because the bands and the spectacle carry you even when the speeches don't. It runs at the LANXESS arena from 2 January to 7 February 2027. Most shows start at 18:30, the early-February ones at 16:00. Tickets start at €51.90.
Come in costume, as the audience does, and keep the whole evening free. A session runs about six hours, and there is no easy way out of an arena halfway through.
Sessions in Kölsch
Stunksitzung is the satirical session locals fight over. It sends up politics, the Church and carnival's own pomp. It plays at the E-Werk on Schanzenstraße in Köln-Mülheim from 9 December to 9 February. Shows start at 19:30 on weekdays and 18:00 on Saturday and Sunday evenings, and tickets start at €37. Book months ahead. It is spoken-word satire in German with no translation, so skip it unless you follow the language.
Divertissementchen 'Wat e Thiater' is a carnival operetta at the Opernhaus on Offenbachplatz. A Cologne male-voice choir plays every part, including the women's roles. It runs from 10 January to 9 February, usually at 19:30. There are afternoon shows at 16:00 on Saturdays and two performances on Sundays. Tickets are €39.50 to €105.50, and several dates have already sold out. The whole thing is in Kölsch, and so are the surtitles.
Puppensitzung im Hänneschen-Theater is the same kind of session played by rod puppets. The theatre is on the Eisenmarkt in the Altstadt. It runs from 13 January to 6 February at either 15:00 or 19:30, and tickets start at €39. Children sit through it as happily as adults, though the dialect means you will follow the puppets more than the jokes. It is a small house, so book well ahead.
Costumes before Thursday
Deiters Köln Hohenstaufenring is the nearest serious costume shop to the party quarter. It is at Hohenstaufenring 34-40, with the Zülpicher Platz tram stop right outside. It opens 10:00 to 20:00 Monday to Saturday and closes on Sundays, with longer hours in the run-up to Weiberfastnacht. You buy here; the shop doesn't hire costumes out. Go a day or two early, because the popular sizes are largely gone by Thursday morning.
Kölsch between the parades
Früh am Dom is the brewhouse opposite the cathedral, at Am Hof 12-18. It opens at 11:00 on weekdays and 10:00 at weekends, until 23:00, and midnight on Friday and Saturday. The Kölsch comes from 90-litre wooden barrels, carried round on trays in small 0.2-litre glasses. The waiters keep bringing fresh ones until you put your beer mat on top of your glass.
Brauhaus Päffgen on Friesenstraße is the more local of the two, a short walk from Friesenplatz U-Bahn station. It has brewed its own Kölsch on the premises since the 1880s, poured from a barrel on the bar. It opens daily from 12:00, and the Friesenviertel around it stays busy all carnival week.
Before you go
Book the indoor sessions and your Alter Markt tickets well ahead, as the good dates go months in advance. Deiters is closed on Sundays, so sort the costume before the weekend if you are arriving late in the week.
See the Cologne guide and the Cologne hotel search.
Prima di partire
When does Cologne Carnival 2027 actually start?
Street carnival opens on Weiberfastnacht, Thursday 4 February 2027, when the Dreigestirn take the keys of the city at 11:11 on the Alter Markt. The square opens at 08:30 and the stage starts at 09:30. Indoor sessions start much earlier, in December and early January.
Do I need a ticket for the opening on the Alter Markt?
Yes. Tickets start at €30 and the square fills, so buy for everyone in your group before you travel. Be at the entrance before 09:30, in costume, or you probably won't get in. Without a ticket, there is the Jan un Griet play at Chlodwigplatz from 13:30, which costs nothing.
Which carnival session works if I don't speak German?
Lachende Kölnarena at the LANXESS arena. It is a costume session of carnival bands, guard corps and dance troupes, so the music and the spectacle do the work. Stunksitzung is spoken-word satire in German, and the Divertissementchen at the Opernhaus is in Kölsch, though it has surtitles.
Do I have to wear a costume?
On the street days, yes in practice. Almost everyone on the Alter Markt is dressed up, and the arena session is a Kostümsitzung. Deiters on Hohenstaufenring sells costumes, wigs and face paint from 10:00 to 20:00 Monday to Saturday, but the popular sizes are largely gone by Weiberfastnacht morning.
Is Zülpicher Straße worth going to?
Only if loud street drinking is what you came for. On the big days the quarter becomes a fenced zone with a handful of staffed entrances that close once it fills, and large groups get split up or turned back. Glass, speakers, handcarts and folding chairs are banned.
