The fifth edition of the event, conceived and directed by Paola Mencarelli under the patronage of the Municipality of Venice, in collaboration with Venezia Unica and with the support of Vela, will take place in the finest Hotel Bars and Cocktail Bars of the Serenissima from Wednesday, October 21 to Sunday, October 25, 2026, to promote a culture of Conscious and Responsible Drinking and to enhance the quality of mixology in the City of Venice.
“Venice Cocktail Week confirms itself as a central event for showcasing the excellence of the lagoon,” says Paola Mencarelli. “As in previous years, the 2026 edition aims to grow the city’s mixology scene, placing conscious and quality drinking culture at its heart. VCW is an independent project, conceived as a meeting point and forum for discussion on current and future trends in the world of mixology, aimed at newcomers, enthusiasts and industry professionals alike. An event that reimagines the bar in a contemporary way, returning to Venice with ever more exciting new features, also thanks to the invaluable support of the Municipality of Venice and Vela”.
“For Aman Venice, hosting the Venice Cocktail Week means continuing a dialogue that places emphasis on the culture of conscious drinking, understood as an experience of sharing, research and innovation” adds Licinio Garavaglia, Director of Aman Venice. “It is an event that celebrates fine drinking through a deep sense of hospitality and a constant attention to the quality of the experience, a vision that reflects our commitment to creating authentic and refined moments”.
“The fifth edition of Venice Cocktail Week is an important and significant milestone for an event that, year after year, has grown, established itself and gained an increasingly recognised international standing among operators and industry insiders” states the Mayor of Venice, Simone Venturini. “This is not merely the consolidation of a flagship event in the city’s calendar, but the result of a journey that has progressively strengthened the bond between the city, quality hospitality, excellence in mixology and the local territory. Venice is committed to initiatives capable of generating value and engaging a qualified, aware and respectful audience. We look to quality, expertise, relationships and the ability to transform events into opportunities for knowledge, networking and the revitalisation of the urban and social fabric. Venice Cocktail Week fully embodies this vision because it does not ‘consume’ Venice, but tells its story through credibility and care. I therefore wish to thank Paola Mencarelli and her entire team: continuing to invest in Venice means believing in its talents and its future”.
“Venice Cocktail Week represents a virtuous example of how Venice can attract initiatives capable of generating value for the hospitality supply chain and the urban fabric,” declares Fabrizio D’Oria, General Manager of Vela spa.”Over five editions, the event has built a solid professional ecosystem, connecting expertise, high-level venues and an engaged audience. For Vela spa it is important to support events that bring organisational quality, audience awareness and the ability to work in partnership with local realities. An event that is now firmly established in the city’s calendar and that demonstrates how it is possible to build a credible project, capable of growing without placing a burden on the city”.
Venice Cocktail Week 2026 follows the same format as previous years and its sister events, Florence Cocktail Week, Amalfi Coast Cocktail Week and Cortina Cocktail Weekend.
A five-day event with strong symbolic value, featuring a VCW26 cocktail list and events at selected cocktail bars, involving an ever-growing number of venues and professionals, making a concrete contribution to the promotion of quality cocktail culture in Italy.
FIVE DAYS OF EVENTS AND AN EXCLUSIVE DRINK LIST
Venice Cocktail Week 2026 confirms the condensed format introduced in 2025, reducing the number of event days from seven to five. A strategic choice that concentrates the programme and makes the festival less scattered, not only for participants and partner companies, but also for the wider public travelling to the Lagoon to enjoy the full experience.
Five days to discover Venice’s finest cocktail bars, divided into Hotel Bars and Cocktail Bars, with drink lists created specifically for VCW26 by resident bartenders who have given free rein to their creativity, showcasing talent and inventiveness.
The soul of Venice Cocktail Week is to experience the city through an itinerary across the Selected Bars, discovering the cocktails crafted exclusively for the event. Throughout the five Venetian days, the participating Cocktail Bars and other lagoon venues — Event Partners — will also be the protagonists of a rich Events Calendar with content designed for enthusiasts, professionals and newcomers alike: dedicated Cocktail Lists, Guest Shifts, Masterclasses, Midday Aperitivos, Pop-Up Bars, cultural initiatives and experiences spread across cocktail bars, hotel bars and partner venues.
Each of the Selected Cocktail Bars will offer a VCW26 Drink List comprising three exclusive cocktails:
- 1 Signature Cocktail VCW26, of free creation
- 1 Aperitivo di Mezzogiorno (Midday Aperitif), a Low ABV or Alcohol-Free drink. A fresh and light low or no-ABV drink, ideal for the Midday Aperitivo, a great Venetian tradition, and suitable for any time of day (ideally accompanied by a cicchetto)
- 1 Classic Cocktail VCW26
A liquid narrative that interprets the evolution of contemporary drinking, with particular attention to quality, sustainability and responsible consumption.
BARTENDERS TAKE CENTRE STAGE AND POP-UP BARS
Venice will also give ample space to resident bartenders through the Barkeeper initiative: the true protagonists of their respective venues, through dedicated moments that will allow the public to discover their stories, visions and VCW26 Cocktail Lists directly from behind the bar.
Pop-Up Bars from all the Italian Cocktail Week events — Florence Cocktail Week, Tuscany Cocktail Week, Cortina Cocktail Weekend and Amalfi Coast Cocktail Week — will also arrive in the Serenissima, creating a continuous dialogue between territories, experiences and styles of contemporary mixology.
The spotlight on Venetian resident bartenders also extends to communications, with the customary portrait series by portrait photographer Veronica Gaido. Striking, expressive images from one of the most acclaimed contemporary artists at national level and beyond the world of photography.
In the same spirit, as in previous years, great attention is given to the Signature Cocktails of the individual VCW26 cocktail bars, with atmospheric drink photography by Michele Tamasco, renowned Food & Drink photographer and filmmaker.
“DINING WITH THE SPIRITS”, “PASTRY WITH THE SPIRITS”
Also confirmed for Venice Cocktail Week 2026 are the initiatives uniting mixology and gastronomy: Dining with the Spirits and Pastry with the Spirits, bringing together Venetian chefs and pastry chefs who will use spirits as ingredients in their creations, featured on menus or as the centrepiece of dedicated evenings.
FIVE YEARS OF VENICE COCKTAIL WEEK: DESIGN AND THE BOND WITH VENICE
Particular attention has been given to design from the very creation of the VCW logo.
The Venice Cocktail Week logo was created by Piero Lissoni with Lissoni & Partners, who wished to give the event his own personal and modern interpretation through a minimalist, clean and elegant logo that connects the world of cocktails to Venice, beginning with the drawing of a Martini glass that transforms into a gondola, crafted by Marino Lucchetti, Bar Manager of LPV Bar, Londra Palace Venezia.
To mark the fifth anniversary, Venice Cocktail Week renews its visual identity. Celebrating five years of research, elegance and mixology culture, the event’s historic and authoritative colour palette evolves with a contemporary graphic language, introducing two new shades that celebrate the most authentic and hidden Venice: Antique Oak and Champagne Gold.
Brocade Red remains as a link to Tradition, a connecting thread binding the 2026 edition to those that came before. An immediately recognisable chromatic signature rooted in Venetian textile history.
Antique Oak as the Silent Foundation. A tribute to the “wooden anniversary,” evoking the oak, alder and larch piles that for centuries have silently supported the palaces of the Grand Canal from the depths below. The invisible beauty without which nothing would stand.
Champagne Gold for Whispered Luxury. Far from ostentatious splendour, this is the warm, matte, time-worn gold of coffered ceilings, Byzantine icons and frames faded by the years, a colour that carries the patina of time and suggests excellence without needing to declare it.
SELECTED BARS
HOTEL BARS
- Alchemia Bar, Ca’ di Dio
- Arts Bar, The St.Regis Venice
- Bar Biblioteca, Nolinski Venezia
- Blue Bar, Excelsior Hotel Resort Lido di Venezia
- Boutique Lounge, Santa Croce Boutique Hotel
- Experimental Cocktail Club, Il Palazzo Experimental
- *Herbarium, NH Collection Venezia Grand Hotel Palazzo dei Dogi
- *Heureka Chic Bar, Hotel Heureka
- Il Caravellino, Hotel Saturnia & International
- Il Piccolo Bar, Violino d’Oro
- *K Lounge Bar / Terrazza Gabrielli, Hotel Gabrielli Venezia – Starhotels Collezione
- Lord Byron, Palazzo Keller
- Orientalbar & Bistrot, Hotel Metropole Venezia
- *Palladio Venice, Airelles Palladio Venice
- Skyline Rooftop Bar, Hilton Molino Stucky Venice
- The Bar at Aman Venice, Aman Venice
- The “G” Lounge & Garden Bar, Hotel Nani Mocenigo Palace
- Venice Collection: Il Porto Lounge Bar, Palazzo Veneziano / *The Mask Lounge & Garden, Carnival Palace
- Venixino Lounge & Garden, Donà Palace
- *Wagon Bar, Orient Express Venezia
COCKTAIL BARS
- Blue Drop Venice
- Caffè Florian
- Grancaffé Quadri
- Il Mercante
- Marciano
- Rétro
- Rivoire
- Santa Cocktail Club – Venezia
- Tarnowska’s American Bar
- Time Social Bar
EVENT PARTNERS (more to come)
- All’Angelo Art Cafè
- *Bacaro Picenin
- Hard Rock Cafe Venice
- *Manuzio Lounge, The Venice Times – Vignette Collection
* New entries 2026
PAOLA MENCARELLI, ITALIAN COCKTAIL WEEKS FOUNDER & CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Born and raised in Tuscany, in the Crete Senesi, Paola grew up immersed in the food and wine culture of her region. With a degree in French literature and a master’s in journalism, communication and gastronomic criticism, she combined her passion with professional writing, becoming a published journalist and contributing to the Gambero Rosso food guides. Her training and experience in food event organisation, combined with a growing passion for the world of hospitality and mixology, led her to found the first Italian cocktail week: since 2016 she has been the founder and artistic director of Florence Cocktail Week, followed in 2019 by Tuscany Cocktail Week. Invited to Venice, in 2021 she crowned the success of her format by creating Venice Cocktail Week, followed in 2022 by Cortina Cocktail Weekend, with the first edition of the “Mixology’s Cup” on the slopes. Invited to the Amalfi Coast, in 2024 she launched Amalfi Coast Cocktail Week, an original cocktail week project dedicated to the finest cocktail bars of the Coast and of Campania.
With a view to contributing to the growth of the mixology sector in Italy, at the end of 2023 she decided to bring all the cocktail weeks she organises under the umbrella of “Italian Cocktail Weeks by Paola Mencarelli”.
In 2021, in partnership with Giunti Editore, she published the book “I Signature Cocktail di Florence Cocktail Week, 5 anni in 143 drink”, a volume edited by Paola Mencarelli that serves as a true historical archive of the evolution of Florentine mixology, documenting the growth of an event that has transformed the Tuscan capital into an international capital of fine drinking.
A judge for some of the most prestigious Italian and international rankings, in 2022 she was awarded the Order of Merit as Consul of Italian Hospitality.
In 2026 came the new editorial project “Cocktails in Florence”, a volume dedicated to the finest cocktail bars in Florence, edited by Paola Mencarelli in collaboration with Florentine publisher Gruppo Editoriale. Born to celebrate and promote the excellence of Florentine mixology through a contemporary and international perspective, it marks ten years since the founding of FCW with a journey of discovery through the city’s best cocktail bars. 59 venues selected by Paola Mencarelli herself, each portrayed through their iconic cocktails, offering an authentic and up-to-date portrait of the city’s scene.
Venice Cocktail Week is an event held under the patronage of the Municipality of Venice, in collaboration with Venezia Unica and with the support of Vela.
Thanks to
MAIN SPONSORS
- Altamura Distilleries
- Frantoio di Sant’Agata d’Oneglia
- Bonollo 1908 (Ballor, Bonollo, OF)
- Polot 1882 (Opificium, Polot 1882)
- Quattro Gatti Gin
- Velier (Los Siete Misterios, Michter’s, Monin&Paragon, Neit, Portofino Botanical Spirit, Roots, Silent Pool)
SPONSORS
- Arbikie Distillery
- Baldoria Vermouth
- Craft “N” Co. (Berolà Distillati, Bes Gin, Classy Cocktails, Sospiri Botaniche Veneziane, Spiriti Occulti)
- Ferro Beverage & co (Arigaté, Lindores, Nazionale, Prince Explorer Gin)
- Molinari (Bitter Fusetti, Dalmore, Madre, Molinari)
- Nonino
- Oppure
- Presobene London Dry Gin
- Santoni L’Aperitivo Firenze
- Yerbito
- Yurt Vodka
EVENT SPONSORS
- No.3 London Dry Gin