Quick answer
The Kitzingen-district Faschingsdienstag parade takes place Tuesday, February 9, 2027. It is not fixed in Kitzingen town — three district carnival clubs (KiKaG/Kitzingen, DeKaGe/Dettelbach, and KVO/Ober-Volkach) rotate hosting duties, and the 2027 host town has not been announced. Confirm the location directly with the organizing club closest to your travel dates before planning a trip.
- Best for
- Travelers already touring the Fränkisches Weinland (Franconian wine country) during carnival season who want an authentic, small-scale Fasching custom rather than a curated tourist spectacle — families, regional-culture enthusiasts, and anyone building a broader winter itinerary around Kitzingen's German Carnival Museum. Not a fit for visitors expecting Cologne- or Munich-scale carnival theater, or anyone traveling specifically to see a Kitzingen-hosted edition without confirming the host town first.
- Booking urgency
- Free to attend, no tickets required — but the 2027 host town is not yet confirmed. Check with KiKaG, DeKaGe, or KVO close to the date before booking lodging or building an itinerary around Kitzingen specifically, since the parade has moved between three towns in recent years and past editions have been cancelled or scaled back on short notice.
Rotating district carnival parade on Faschingsdienstag, hosted in turn by Kitzingen, Dettelbach, and Ober-Volkach — confirm the 2027 host town before you go.
This Landkreis-wide parade rotates each Faschingsdienstag among three carnival clubs and their home towns — KiKaG in Kitzingen, DeKaGe in Dettelbach, and KVO in Ober-Volkach — bringing costumed clubs and decorated floats into whichever town is hosting that year. Kitzingen hosted in 2025 and Dettelbach in 2026; the 2027 host town has not been announced, so confirm the location with the organizing clubs before planning a visit. The parade caps weeks of Fasching balls and cellar-theater shows staged by KiKaG in its home city.
The full story
Faschingsdienstag — Shrove Tuesday, the last day before Lent — falls on February 9, 2027, and in the Kitzingen district of Lower Franconia it means a street parade with costumed clubs, decorated floats, and marching groups. What makes this event unusual is that it isn't fixed to one town: three local carnival clubs — the Kitzinger Karnevalsgesellschaft (KiKaG) in Kitzingen, the Dettelbacher Karnevalsgesellschaft (DeKaGe) in Dettelbach, and the Karnevalsvereinigung Obervolkach (KVO) in Ober-Volkach — take turns hosting the procession through their own old town. Recent hosting years have run Kitzingen (2019), Ober-Volkach (2020), a three-year pandemic-and-cost-driven cancellation (2021–2023), Dettelbach (2024), Kitzingen (2025), and Dettelbach again (2026). The 2027 host has not been announced, so travelers should confirm the location with one of the three clubs before making plans.
Kitzingen's own carnival credentials run deeper than the parade itself. KiKaG was founded in 1952 by Hans-Joachim Schumacher, a Cologne transplant who brought Rhineland carnival customs to Franconia, and the club's activity eventually grew into the Deutsches Fastnachtmuseum — the official museum of Germany's national carnival association, the Bund Deutscher Karneval, now housed on Luitpoldstraße. KiKaG runs a full winter season around this identity: an 11:11 season opening on November 11 at the historic Falterturm tower, a Fasching church service, a long-running Kellerspiel cellar-theater show, and a Rose Monday gala where the club presents its own Schlappmaulorden honor — all building toward the district parade that closes the season.
For visitors, this is best treated as a modest, free half-day add-on rather than a destination in its own right — a recent well-documented edition (Ober-Volkach, 2020) drew roughly 1,000 participants and 47 floats, a useful benchmark for scale rather than a promise of any given year's size. There's no dedicated festival food program; expect street-vendor Krapfen and mulled wine, or a stop at the host town's own cafés and Gasthäuser. The strongest itinerary pairing is Kitzingen's surrounding Fränkisches Weinland wine country, easily combined with a look at the old town's Alte Mainbrücke, Kreuzkapelle, and Falterturm regardless of which town ends up hosting the parade that year. Given the rotation's history of last-minute changes and cancellations, the single most useful piece of advice for any traveler is to confirm the current year's host town directly with KiKaG, DeKaGe, or KVO before building a trip around it. See more Lower Franconia Fasching events, Würzburg's carnival parade, or browse all Lower Franconia events.
Eat & Drink Nearby
- Local specialty
- A regional Fasching parade — expect street-vendor Krapfen and mulled wine rather than a dedicated food festival.
- Pair it with
- Kitzingen's own cafés and Gasthäuser before or after the procession.
- Itinerary fit
- A single-day regional event capping weeks of Fasching balls and cellar-theater shows — best combined with a Kitzingen wine-country stop before or after.
Frequently asked questions
- Is the district carnival parade always held in Kitzingen?
- No. It rotates among three towns — Kitzingen, Dettelbach, and Ober-Volkach — with a different club hosting each year. "The Kitzingen parade" is only accurate in years Kitzingen is the host.
- Which town hosts the parade in 2027?
- Not yet confirmed. Kitzingen hosted in 2025 and Dettelbach in 2026; the 2027 host has not been announced. Confirm with the organizing clubs before traveling.
- When is Faschingsdienstag 2027?
- Tuesday, February 9, 2027.
- Is there an admission fee?
- No — it's a free, street-side parade with no ticketing.
- What food and drink is available at the parade?
- There's no dedicated festival food program tied to the march itself — expect ordinary street-vendor Krapfen (carnival doughnuts) and mulled wine, plus whatever the host town's own cafés and Gasthäuser are serving.
- What else is there to do in Kitzingen around carnival season?
- Kitzingen is home to the Deutsches Fastnachtmuseum (German Carnival Museum), the official museum of Germany's national carnival association, along with the old town's Alte Mainbrücke, Kreuzkapelle, and Falterturm tower — worth pairing with a Fränkisches Weinland wine-country stop regardless of which town hosts that year's parade.
- Free entry