Venice Biennale: dates, tickets, the cycle

The 61st International Art Exhibition, In Minor Keys, curated by Koyo Kouoh, runs from May 9 to November 22, 2026 at the Giardini, the Arsenale and Forte Marghera, at €30 full price and €16 for under 26s.

Six and a half months, three venues

The 2026 exhibition opens on May 9 and closes on November 22, which makes it the longest-running ticketed event in Italy and the reason a Venice trip almost anywhere in the calendar can include it. The Giardini and the Arsenale hold the main body of the show, and Forte Marghera at Mestre carries part of it across the lagoon to the mainland.

Tickets are €30 full and €16 for visitors under 26. Both main venues sit outside the daily route through San Marco, which is worth knowing in a city where walking distance decides everything.

Even years art, odd years architecture

The cycle is a strict alternation: art in even years, architecture in odd ones. 2026 is an art year and 2027 will be an architecture year, in the same buildings and on a similar calendar.

That single rule answers most planning questions in advance. A traveler who wants the architecture exhibition cannot see it in an art year, whatever else is on in the city.

One festival in 1895, six by 1999

The Biennale began in 1895³ with the first International Art Exhibition, and everything else was added later: music in 1930, cinema in 1932, theatre in 1934, architecture in 1980, dance in 1999. The film festival, the best known abroad, is 37 years younger than the institution that hosts it.

So the word Biennale on a poster in Venice is ambiguous by design. It can mean the art or architecture exhibition on its two-year cycle, or one of the annual festivals run by the same body, and the dates never coincide.

Planning around it

Book a Biennale day rather than an hour: one ticket covers both main venues, and neither of them is a quick walk from the other in a city where nothing is quick. The nearest thing to a quiet slot is the first hour after opening on a weekday.

Venice practicalities that change year to year, including the access fee that is not currently in force, are in the Venice access fee page. Other fixed-date events are listed on the events theme page.

↑ Contents