What’s happening in Venice this week

Where to go in Venice: events, concerts and shows worth your night

Venice has one of the most famous opera houses in the world, two of Europe’s most important art events and a Carnival that fills the city each February, all in a place with no cars and a night that ends when the last vaporetto goes. Below is where to go in Venice for a night out, with addresses, and what tends to be on when.

Opera and concerts in Venice: La Fenice

The Teatro La Fenice (Campo San Fantin 1965, San Marco, teatrolafenice.it), rebuilt twice after fires, is the opera house, with a season of opera, ballet and concerts from October to July and a famous New Year’s concert; guided visits fill the daytime. The Teatro Malibran, La Fenice’s second stage, and the Teatro Goldoni do concerts and drama, and the Scuola Grande di San Rocco and the churches host Vivaldi and baroque concerts nightly for visitors.

Venice nightlife: Cannaregio, Campo Santa Margherita and the Lido

Venice is not a club city; it is a city of bacari, the small wine bars where the evening is spent standing with a glass and cicchetti. Fondamenta della Misericordia in Cannaregio and Campo Santa Margherita in Dorsoduro are where Venetians and students gather until about 2 am; the few clubs are on the Lido and in Mestre on the mainland. The vaporetto runs through the night on the main line, at longer intervals.

Art in Venice: the Biennale, the Guggenheim and Punta della Dogana

The Venice Biennale (labiennale.org) alternates art and architecture each year from spring to November in the Giardini and the Arsenale, and fills the palazzi with collateral shows. Year-round, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (Dorsoduro 701) holds the modern masters in her palazzo on the Grand Canal, and the Punta della Dogana and Palazzo Grassi show the Pinault collection. Most museums close by 6 or 7 pm; the Biennale sites at 6.

Venice festivals and events by season

• Winter: Carnival, the ten days before Lent in February, with masked balls in the palazzi and the water parade on the Grand Canal; and the La Fenice New Year’s concert.
• Spring: the Biennale opening in April or May, and the Festa della Sensa in May, when the city marries the sea.
• Summer: the Redentore fireworks over the Giudecca canal on the third Saturday of July, the Venice Film Festival on the Lido at the end of August, and open-air concerts in the campi.
• Autumn: the Regata Storica on the Grand Canal on the first Sunday of September, the last months of the Biennale, and the opera season opening in October.

Things to do in Venice tonight and this weekend

The listings above are the live version of all this: every concert, show, club night and exhibition on in Venice tonight, tomorrow and this weekend, with times, prices and tickets, updated every hour.