Barcolana opens beyond Trieste with a stand-up paddle event through the waters of the Grado lagoon. Participants begin at Spiaggia Imperiale, with amateur and competitive courses following the island before finishing at the historic Mandracchio. It is a smaller Barcolana event, but one that places the lagoon landscape itself at the center of the experience.

The main Barcolana regatta begins at 10:30 AM in the Gulf of Trieste, with the starting line positioned between Barcola and Miramare. Thousands of boats gather for a race whose scale has made it one of Trieste's defining annual spectacles. For visitors on land, the waterfront and city center provide the public vantage points, while the dense field of sails turns the gulf itself into the day's principal image. It is the culminating event of Barcolana 58.