The dance of the Pierrot is graceful and slow. A masked figure, dressed in baggy clothes and satin tights, he marches through the cold streets of Limoux, bantering with spectators and scattering confetti, a band of musicians in his wake.
This unusual festival, thought to date back to the Middle Ages, takes places over a two-month period beginning in January, with the marching bands and costumed characters taking over the town each weekend. On the final evening a straw dummy, known as the “King of the Carnival,” is burned on a pyre in the main square.