page_title: Fête du Citron
section_title: The Lemon Festival
hierarchical_section_title: Fête du Citron / History / The Lemon Festival
caption_attribution_description: English: Menton Lemon Festival
context_page_description: The Fête du Citron is a carnival event organized by the tourist office of the city of Menton, France, and held every year at the end of winter. It is also sometimes called Carnaval de Menton.
  The festival celebrates the annual production of specialty lemons and other citrus fruit in Menton. All the floats and sculptures present at the carnival are created from lemons and oranges.
  The celebration takes place every year in mid-February. It has been recognized by the Ministry of Culture of France and entered in the inventory of intangible cultural heritage in 2019.
context_section_description: In 1928, Menton was the main producer of lemons on the European continent. A hotelier had the idea of organizing a private exhibition of flowers and citrus fruits in the gardens of the Riviera Hotel. The event's success was such that the following year, the municipality took up the idea on its own. The name "Fête du Citron" was born in 1934. The Lemon Festival combines traditional carnival events with a celebration of Menton's reputation as Europe's lemon capital. Today, Menton is not known for the quantity of lemons 4K it produces but rather their quality, as they are of a specialty kind sought after by chefs from across the region.
  The celebration features elaborate themed floats whose structures are covered in citrus fruit, primarily lemons and oranges, a large portion of which is imported from Spain every year. At the end of the event, the fruits are sold at low prices. Each year, a different theme is chosen for the festival.
  The Fête du Citron is the second largest public winter event on the French Riviera after the Nice Carnival.
  The celebration did not take place during the war years between 1940 and 1946, nor in 1991, due to the war in Iraq.
caption: Whale float at the 81st Fête du Citron, 2014
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