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Venice (AP) - The Venice Carnival has put on a digital mask: While cities like Rio de Janeiro and Nice canceled their festivals due to the corona pandemic, Venice started a streaming event.

On Saturday, a program with two moderators in medieval-looking costumes ran for an hour and a half.

Something similar was planned for Sunday.

The carnival chamber play, interrupted by films about tradition and actors of the festival, was broadcast from the historic Palazzo Vendramin-Calergi.

The second phase of the internet carnival will follow from February 11th (until February 16th).

The gray weather in the lagoon city actually made no desire for costume spectacles.

But the organizers had already announced that it was not about actually being there, but about worldwide watching.

However, there were no translations from Italian for the hoped-for international audience in the broadcast via Facebook, for example.

While those involved emphasized "We are technological, we are innovative", many things seemed more like an appeal: "Hello, we're still here!"

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The writer Petra Reski (“When I once fell into the Grand Canal” / March 2021), who lives in Venice, described that the hype is not very popular anyway.

"The city is flooded by day tourists who are basically just on the hunt for photo motifs - there is one costumed and a thousand non-costumed people who take photos."

Very few would earn money from the spectacle.

Usually hundreds of thousands come to the northern Italian port city for the world-famous festival.

With masked balls, gondola parades and fireworks, it is one of the most important events in the city.

In the previous year the carnival had started.

But on February 23, the regional president of Veneto, Luca Zaia, had to stop everything: A few days earlier, the first major corona outbreaks in northern Italy had become known.

The country went into shock, and it was impossible to continue partying.

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At that time, carnival tourists were still visiting the city.

Later, the travel business in Italy almost completely collapsed at times.

Since then, the Mediterranean country has officially counted more than 90,000 corona deaths.

Everywhere in Italy there is currently a night curfew from 10 p.m.

In many places, including Venice, bars and restaurants are allowed to serve guests at tables during the day.

But that's over from 6 p.m.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210207-99-335509 / 2

Venice Carnival on Twitter

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Venice Carnival on the Internet;

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Current corona numbers in Italy

Page Petra Reski

Carnival streaming via Facebook

Venice Mayor Brugnaro on Facebook