Government sets Carnival dates and rules

The Gov­ern­ment has de­clared the of­fi­cial start of Car­ni­val 2026 and pub­lished reg­u­la­tions cov­er­ing be­hav­iour, bands, or­ches­tras and ve­hi­cles dur­ing the sea­son.

Un­der the Spe­cial Event Or­der, 2026, Car­ni­val has been de­clared a spe­cial event from 7.00 p.m. on Sun­day 1 Feb­ru­ary, 2026, to mid­night on Tues­day 17 Feb­ru­ary, 2026, un­der the Liquor Li­cences Act.

A sep­a­rate or­der un­der the Pub­lic Hol­i­days and Fes­ti­vals Act de­clares that Car­ni­val 2026 will of­fi­cial­ly be­gin at 4.00 a.m. on Mon­day 16 Feb­ru­ary, 2026, and end at mid­night on Tues­day 17 Feb­ru­ary, 2026.

The Car­ni­val Reg­u­la­tions, 2026 set out re­stric­tions dur­ing the pe­ri­od. Peo­ple are barred from wear­ing po­lice or mil­i­tary-style uni­forms or sim­i­lar cos­tumes, por­tray­ing deities of liv­ing re­li­gions, throw­ing harm­ful sub­stances, car­ry­ing weapons, ex­plo­sives or im­i­ta­tion firearms, us­ing ex­posed flames, or en­gag­ing in lewd or of­fen­sive be­hav­iour. Mo­torists and pas­sen­gers may not be masked or dis­guised un­less the ve­hi­cle is li­censed, and ve­hi­cles dis­guised as mil­i­tary equip­ment are pro­hib­it­ed.

Bands with more than 50 peo­ple and all or­ches­tras must reg­is­ter with the po­lice by 28 Jan­u­ary, 2026, dis­play reg­is­tra­tion ban­ners and pro­duce cer­tifi­cates when re­quest­ed. Ve­hi­cles used to trans­port masked or dis­guised peo­ple must al­so be li­censed.

Any­one who breach­es the reg­u­la­tions faces a $1,000 fine and up to six months’ im­pris­on­ment.