Carnival in Limburg

The season opens on the eleventh of November at eleven minutes past eleven, when each town announces its prince for the year, and then nothing much happens until the weekend before Ash Wednesday. At that point the south simply stops. Councils hand over symbolic keys, towns answer to carnival names for the week, and the streets fill with costume that is made rather than bought. The soundtrack is the zaate hermenie, a brass band playing deliberately loose, and songs in local dialect that everyone around you knows by heart. Parades of satirical floats, built in sheds over months, roll through on the Sunday or Monday. On Tuesday at midnight it ends.

What you actually see

• The parade - satirical floats built through the winter by neighbourhood clubs.
• The zaate hermenie - brass bands playing wandering, intentionally ragged marches.
• Dialect singing - the whole square word-perfect in a language you will not follow.
• The alternative names - towns and their councils operating under carnival titles for the week.

When to go

The dates move with Easter and land in February or early March. Sunday and Monday carry the parades; Tuesday evening is the close and the most emotional part. Book a room months out, and if you want to watch rather than take part, choose a smaller town over Maastricht, where the squares are solid by midday.

Honest expectations

Shops, museums and many kitchens close for two or three days, so nothing else in the region is happening. Hotel prices roughly double and the last trains out are full and loud. It is a drinking festival above all. Without the dialect or a local to stand with, you are watching a private party from the outside, in February weather.

Nearby

Maastricht's old centre, the Sint-Pietersberg tunnels and the hills of south Limburg.