Manitou Springs will celebrate its 31st annual Carnivale parade this weekend.

Set to kick off Saturday afternoon, the Carnivale parade will march down Manitou Avenue, from Memorial Park to Soda Springs Park. This year’s parade was rescheduled from Feb. 10 to March 2 because of weather. The theme: “ARTopia.”

“We’re a Creative District here in Manitou Springs, a full-fledged artists community, if you will. So ‘ARTopia’ is kind of an homage to all of our local creatives,” said Jenna Gallas, the special events coordinator for the Manitou Springs Chamber of Commerce. “Be as fun and artsy and crazy and weird as you want to be — it’s Manitou.”

The tradition of Manitou’s Carnivale started just over three decades ago, when Jim and Arlene Wood returned from a trip to Italy where they were introduced to Holy Week celebrations.

“They kind of felt like ‘Hey, this is something our locals in Manitou would love’ — march down the street, parade, have a good time, dress up and kind of enjoy the Mardi Gras festivities,” she said. “Unfortunately, we lost Jim last year, right after Carnivale, but he was able to be grand marshals with his wife, Arlene, and kind of lead the parade for us in our 30th year, it was really special.”

In 2022, Manitou Springs created the “Mani-Krewe” to help operations. Made up of a local team of volunteers, the “krewe” hopes to bring the celebration closer to the community, Gallas said.

“It was always intended to be a community-led effort, and when those folks from 30 years ago were kind of ready to pass the torch, there was really no one to pass it to but me, here at the chamber. So it’s my goal to get that back into the hands of the community,” she said.

A unique part of Manitou Springs’ parade is the large-scale puppets — several of which are from decades ago.

“We’ve got artists creating a new puppet now every year,” she said. “We’ve got amazing community volunteers that are willing to put their time and energy into keeping something like this going. It’s just steeped in so much tradition. I think that’s what makes it the most special.”

Everyone is welcome to join, and for those hoping to go for the first time, Gallas says plan to spend the day, and enjoy your time.

“Manitou is for everyone, and we want our parade to continually express that. I think that’s what really sets us apart: the creativeness and the openness,” Gallas said.