La Biennale di Venezia announces its 2026 calendar featuring art, cinema, theater, dance, music, and podcasts
The complete 2026 calendar of La Biennale di Venezia runs from February to October, beginning with the Children’s Carnival, in connection with the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics. Great anticipation for Biennale Arte, with sixty participating countries and an exciting program, which connects to all the festivals of Theater with Willem Dafoe, Dance with Wayne McGregor, and Contemporary Music with Caterina Barbieri, culminating in September with the Film Festival at the Lido. All narrated live through the new project: La Biennale on Air, the monthly podcast featuring exclusive contributions from artistic directors, artists, filmmakers, and performers, recounting exhibitions, festivals, special projects, and collections from the Biennale’s Historical Archive.
La Biennale di Venezia announces the six events of 2026:
- 17th edition of the International Children’s Carnival
Ca’ Giustinian, San Marco 1364/A
February 7–15
Admission: free with mandatory reservation
Nine days of workshops for children, young people, families, and schools at Ca’ Giustinian, during the Venice Carnival Olympus. At the origins of play. The 2026 edition is linked to the XXV Winter Olympic Games Milano-Cortina 2026 and the Biennale headquarters transforms into The house of creativity.
For the first time in Venice, the Olympic Museum of Lausanne (official museum of the International Olympic Committee) brings three Olympic and Paralympic athletes who are also artists to conduct workshops where young people will discover the values of sport through creativity.
The Arzanà Association presents Carnival by boat, workshops where young people can see and touch original models of historic Venetian vessels. The Port System Authority will offer Port Educational, a creative journey through the stories of Venetian explorers Marco Polo, Pietro Querini, and Giovanni Caboto. For scientific research, IBSA Foundation will dedicate Happiness 2.0 to older youth, a workshop to understand how social media and artificial intelligence influence emotions and well-being.
Participants include Fondazione Štěpán Zavřel, University of Milan, UNESCO Chair, ISTAT with Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Associazione San Donà with workshops on the language of cinema. The program also includes the Silver Lion competition for creativity aimed at Italian schools, school-to-work pathways, and Cinema for schools from February 24 at the Giorgione cinema and the Dante in Mestre.
- 61st International Art Exhibition “In Minor Keys”
Giardini and Arsenale
May 9–November 22 (preview May 6, 7, 8)
Admission: ticketed
Artistic practices that inhabit fragility, pause, dissonance with works that construct a different time, made of listening, proximity, details that resist simplification. In Minor Keys is the curatorial vision of Koyo Kouoh for Biennale Arte 2026, which will be realized entirely according to her project developed down to the smallest detail, before her sudden passing in May of this year.
The exhibition at the Giardini and Arsenale will maintain the radical and poetic project that invites slowing down, tuning into slowness and listening as acts of resistance in an era dominated by acceleration.
- 54th International Theater Festival
Arsenale (Teatro Piccolo Arsenale, Teatro alle Tese, Sale d’Armi)
June 7–21
Admission: ticketed
Willem Dafoe directs the Festival for the second year, building a program featuring physical performances, international productions, and theater that goes beyond text. The American actor, who worked with Robert Wilson, Richard Foreman, and Romeo Castellucci before becoming a face of cinema, opened in 2025 with Theatre is Body – Body is Poetry, a tribute to the 1975 Biennale Teatro that hosted Peter Brook, Jerzy Grotowski, and Robert Wilson. In 2026, the winners of Biennale College Teatro under 30 will debut: Alberto Colombo with his directorial work, Bruna Bonanno and Davide Pascarella with their dramaturgies in staged readings.
- 20th International Contemporary Dance Festival
Arsenale (Sale d’Armi, Teatro alle Tese, Teatro Piccolo Arsenale)
July 17–August 1
Admission: ticketed
World premieres, immersive installations, and the body as technology: dance blends movement, digital art, and visual experimentation with British choreographer Wayne McGregor who for 2026 invests in young talent through Biennale College Danza. Sixteen dancers from around the world will debut with new creations, workshops at the Sale d’Armi open contemporary techniques to professionals and amateurs.
- 83rd International Film Festival
Lido di Venezia (Palazzo del Cinema, Palazzo del Casinò)
September 2–12
Admission: ticketed
A shower of international stars at the Lido under the spotlights of a red carpet that inspires dreams, world premieres that then launch the race to the Oscars: eleven days of screenings with #Venice83 of films in Competition, in Orizzonti for experimental cinema, in Venice Immersive for virtual reality, and in Venezia Classici with restored masterpieces. Venezia da Vivere will follow the entire Festival as every year with reportage, social media live coverage, and our Caffè featuring curiosities and day-by-day programming.
- 70th International Contemporary Music Festival
Arsenale (Teatro Piccolo Arsenale, Teatro alle Tese, Sale d’Armi)
October 11–24
Admission: ticketed
Electronic music and experimental techno are experienced standing: Caterina Barbieri, a composer from Bologna among the most influential voices on the international electronic scene, directs for the second consecutive year a program featuring beats, synthesizers, and radical sounds. The program blends concerts, performances, and young talents selected by Biennale College Musica who debut with their compositions.
A spoiler for 2027
Historic record for Biennale Architettura 2025: Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective by Carlo Ratti surpasses 298,000 visitors and beats the 2021 edition by Hashim Sarkis.
With this result, eyes are already on 2027 with Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu directing the 20th International Architecture Exhibition from May 8 to November 21 with a preview on May 6 and 7. The two architects, founders of Amateur Architecture Studio and winners of the 2012 Pritzker Prize, will bring to Venice their research on salvaged materials from demolished buildings and traditional Chinese artisanal techniques.
Article by Lucia Pecoraro.
Photos: Portrait of Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu © La Biennale di Venezia – ASAC photo – by Matteo Losurdo. The International Children’s Carnival by Luca Chiandoni. Biennale Arte 2026, scene from No Title and Biennale College WANG LE COEXISTENCE by Andrea Avezzù © La Biennale di Venezia. Photo of the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival 2025 by Rossana Viola.
