Düsseldorf Carnival 2027: dates and parade route

Düsseldorf is, together with Cologne and Mainz, one of the three great carnival cities on the Rhine – and its Rose Monday parade is known for the sharpest political floats in Germany. The short answer for 2027: the street carnival starts on Altweiber, Thursday 4 February, the Rose Monday parade runs on 8 February, and carnival ends on Ash Wednesday, 10 February. The motto of the 2026/27 session is "Karneval, grenzenlos vereint" – "carnival, united without borders".

Düsseldorf Carnival 2027: all key dates

The carnival days follow Easter, which falls on 28 March in 2027; Ash Wednesday is always 46 days before Easter. The motto and the route come from the Comitee Düsseldorfer Carneval (CC), which organises the parade (see sources).

The Hoppeditz is Düsseldorf's carnival figure: he "awakens" on 11 November at 11:11 and opens the session, and on Ash Wednesday he is ceremonially buried. The Prince and Venetia of the 2026/27 session are Jens II and Valerie.

Altweiber: the start of the street carnival

On the Thursday before Rose Monday, Düsseldorf's old town fills up from the morning. Traditionally the women storm the town hall on the Marktplatz, and ties are cut off all over the city. The pubs on Bolkerstraße and around the Marktplatz are full from late morning; when the old town gets too crowded, access can be restricted for safety reasons, so come early.

Rose Monday 2027: the parade route

The Rose Monday parade lines up in Herzogstraße and runs through the city centre and the old town. According to the official route for 2027 published by the CC, the order is:

1. Corneliusstraße (west side) – Hüttenstraße – Graf-Adolf-Straße
2. Königsallee (east side) – Theodor-Körner-Straße – Königsallee at Kaufhof – Corneliusplatz
3. Ludwig-Zimmermann-Straße – Heinrich-Heine-Allee – Grabbeplatz – Mühlenstraße
4. Burgplatz – Marktplatz – Marktstraße – Berger Straße – Carlsplatz
5. Bilker Straße – Haroldstraße – Hohe Straße – Benrather Straße
6. Königsallee (bank side) – Carl-Theodor-Straße – Kasernenstraße – Elisabethstraße

The parade breaks up at Elisabethstraße/Bilker Allee. The CC estimates that the first section passes Corneliusstraße between about 12:24 and 12:33 and stresses that all times are estimates and can shift. The parade takes several hours to pass, so you will still see it in the afternoon further along the route.

Good places to watch:

• Königsallee: wide, with room on both sides – the parade passes it twice.
• Burgplatz and Marktplatz: the heart of the old town, with the Rhine behind you – lively, but the most crowded.
• Carlsplatz and Bilker Straße: a little calmer and close to the end of the route.

Bring a bag for the sweets thrown from the floats, and stay in one place – crossing the route is hard once the parade is on.

Weather in early February

Averages 2015–2024 from the ERA5 reanalysis (via Open-Meteo), rounded.

Carnival in Düsseldorf is cool and often wet. A warm layer under the costume, waterproof shoes and something against the rain matter more than the perfect outfit. YesTrip shows you the forecast for your actual travel days and suggests matching clothes in the packing list.

Getting there

From London, Düsseldorf is about an hour and a quarter by plane; from the airport, S-Bahn and regional trains run to the main station in around a quarter of an hour. From Cologne, trains take about half an hour – many visitors combine both carnivals. Connections are easy to compare at train tickets to Düsseldorf^* (Omio).

If you arrive on Rose Monday and leave the same day, there is luggage storage in Düsseldorf^* (Radical Storage), so you do not carry your bag into the crowd. From outside the EU, a travel eSIM for Germany^* (Airalo) is usually cheaper than roaming; our eSIM price index compares the prices per gigabyte.

Where to stay

• Altstadt and Carlstadt: in the middle of the celebrations, loud until late and booked out first.
• Around the Königsallee: central, on the parade route, a little more upmarket.
• Around the main station or in Pempelfort: practical for arrivals by train, a short walk or tram ride from the old town.

Hotels are much in demand over the carnival weekend, and Düsseldorf also hosts trade fairs in the season – book early.

More than carnival

Between the parties, Düsseldorf has the Rhine promenade, the MedienHafen with its modern architecture, the art collections of the K20 and K21 and the old-town breweries with their Altbier. If you want to compare: the Cologne Carnival 2027 runs on the same days, and the Basel Carnival 2027 starts a week later, on the Monday after Ash Wednesday.

In YesTrip, "What's on" lists festivals, events and holidays on the days of your trip, and you can add them to the day plan with one tap.

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