Belgium's carnival: Binche

The most famous, and not the only one, carnival in Belgium is the Binche's carnival.
Much shorter than the other carnival described before, this one takes place only during three days, from the sunday before lent to the Shrove tuesday.
It's actually on UNESCO heritage list, so centuries of story are over this event!
It is said that the first carnival comes back to the Middle ages, maybe 1549, Mary of Hungary celebrating the conquest of Peru by Charles V 's conquistadores.
The little medieval city of Binche became really famous when its specific fancy costumes, music, and characters were established.
The Gilles are the emblem of this original carnival, and also of the town itself. There are quite strange, with costume in both red, white, black and golden colours. Everybody seems to be very big with it! About 900 Gilles are presents nowadays. And only men can be Gilles!!!
Traditionnal tunes are played by violas, drums, clarinets. Much work is needed during the whole year to prepare everyone to both playing music and dancing.
A little decription of the 3-days carnival:
Sunday: A parade allows everybody to discover the costumes which can be from many different inspirations, like animals or stereotype's people. There is music and everyone walk through the city.
Monday: Also named the kid's days, three differents groups of music go from a coffee to another one, playing Barrel organ and finally, they are invited by the town to take a drink. At 7PM, a firework is launched.
Tuesday: The most important day. It begins at 4AM. Every Gilles goes to see others Gilles and drink champagne. For their breakfast, they eat oyster and champagne... why not! Their wax mask symbolises, like in Venice, egality between everyone. They have a parade during the afternoon and everything ends at the night.