In this paper, carnivals and fiestas -- as currently the most popular cultural-entertaining festivities in the Montenegrin public -- are analyzed for their role in the construction of the image of the state. Fiestas are taken as a social and communication phenomena par excellence, stressing their integrative function. The paper shows that the state has established institutional control over them and, therefore, investigates the strategy of the state "strategy" with respect to the creation of carnival. I argue that this is part of the official effort to present Montenegro as a Mediterranean country to the domestic as well as international audience; fiestas are associated with the culture of the Mediterranean, which is the cultural ideal of the elites of the new Montenegro.