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| You are here: Home : Destination Guide : Festivals : Calendar |
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JANUARY
Nashville of the Antipodes: Boot-scootin' at the
Tamworth
Country Music Festival
Spiritual Street Dancing at the Ati
Atihan Mardi Gras festival
Holy Ganges cleansing at the Sagar
Island Pilgrim Bathing Festival
Celebrate the glorious Christian Epiphany festival of Timkat
in Lalibelia
Desert arts to haute couture: the Dubai
Shopping Festival
FEBRUARY
Lady Marmalade: glorious food fights at the
Ivrea
Orange Festival
Penance, piercing and pageantry at the Hindu
Kavadi
Festival
MARDI GRAS
The legendary Samba
carnival in Rio De Janeiro, carnival capital of the
world
The ultimate pre-lent party with a French Creole twist at the New
Orleans Mardi Gras
The Mother of all Carnivals in Trinidad
Mystery and intrigue of the masked Venice
Carnival
The wild and colourful Gay
& Lesbian Mardi Gras in Sydney, Australia
Group singing, wild dancing and playing of homemade instruments
makes for a crazy time at the Rara
Peasant Carnival
MARCH
Celebrating the beginning of Spring with a mini-winter Olympics
at the Festival
of the North
The Golden
Shears Festival is where all the sheep, and those whose
lives revolve around them, get together for a competition and a
knees-up
Touch the phallus at the Hounen
Matsuri fertility festival
Blood letting and flagellation at the
Ashura festival of penanance
Ritual beating with flagellation whips at the Moharram
Holy Week of Mourning
Burning of papier-mache icons at Las
Fallas
Party Cuban-style at Miami's Calle
Oche Festival
Colorful costumes and tribal dances every March at
Micronesia's Yap
Day festival
EASTER
Reggae, socca & calypso grooves at
Easter Carnival
The Passion plays and floral pageant of
Holy Week in Antigua, Guatemala
On Easter
Day, Christians of all ethnicity gather in Jerusalem's
Old City to follow in the footsteps of Christ
Semana Santa
in Seville, a holy commemoration of the events of the
Passion
Body of Christ: Ritual Good Friday Crucifixions in San
Fernando
APRIL
Battle of the Moors
& the Christians - The annual re-enactment fiesta
in Alcoy
Cleaning and Water Fights at the Songkran
Festival
A tribute to the green green grass, Get Happy at the
Mardi Grass
Festival
Fetes
Des Masques in Mali, a celebration for the dead and
good harvest
Dancing, Shaolin Daredevils, and a belching procession at the Mazu
Goddess of the Sea Festival
MAY
Risque, Racy and downright daring: The
Bay to Breakers Foot Race
Anastenaria,
the ancient fire walking festival of St Helen, Greece
Each May superstars, directors and wannabes descend to France for
the Cannes
Film Festival
Fetes
Des Masques in Mali, a celebration for the dead and
good harvest
Ancient rituals at Ghana's Aboakyer
deer hunting festival
Celebrate the song
festivals and traditions of Estonia
JUNE
The Marriage of Man and Sun: The Inca festival of Inti
Raymi
Dirty wrestling in olive oil at the world famous
Kirkpinar Wrestling Festival
A century of cutting-edge contemporary art at the Biennale
Internatial Art Fair
Party at Glastonbury
Festival - the world's largest outdoor music and performing
arts festival
Medieval-style shin kicking at the Cotswold
Olympick Games
JULY
Wrestling, archery, horse racing at the
Nadaam Festival tribal gathering, Mongolia
Spurring horseracing at the S'Ardia
festival,Sedilo, in honour of St Constantine
Running with the bulls
in Pamplona, a test of skill and bravado
Cracking coconuts and traditional Polynesian costumes at the Heiva
festival
Hold your nose! It's the Gilroy
Garlic Festival
Parading the Tooth Relic: The Buddhist festival of
Kandy
Esala Perahera
Meet Madame et Monsieur Gayant at the Giants
of Douai Festival
Run for your wife! (or someone else's) at the Wife
Carrying Championships
Get loved up at the Love
Parade - Europe's biggest dance party
Join a grand, medieval parade with jugglers and jousting at the
Flemish Ommegang
Yell a big 'Yahoo!!' and doff your cowboy hat at the
Calgary
Stampede
Real life bumper cars at Monroe
County Demolition Derby
Polish your armour, climb aboard your steed, and canter down to
Berkeley Castle to join the Joust
festival
AUGUST
A pilgrimage to the mecca of motorcycling for the Sturgis
Bike Rally
A tribute to the King:
Elvis Week in Memphis
A Hindu pilgrimage to Mathura
to celebrate the 3,500th birthday of Krishna
Parading the Tooth Relic: The Buddhist festival of Kandy
Esala Perahera
Re-living food fight fantasies at the
Tomatina tomato throwing festival
The Chateauneuf
des Papes celebrates all things wine
Awa Odori,
dance the dance of the Fools in the tiny Japanese islands of Tokushima.
A cultural extravaganza of dance, theatre, art and music at the
Edinburgh
Festival
The medieval town of Siena is transformed into a makeshift racetrack
for the Palio
Horse Race
An experiment in temporary community at the new age
desert Burning
Man Festival
Take a pilgrimage to the Black
Madonna
Float Your Boat at the
Amsterdam Gay Pride Festival
Be illuminated by the 10,000 magic lanterns of Japan's Kanto
Matsuri Festival
See the colourful floats of the warrior parade at Japan's Nebuta
Festival
Experience everyday life in a 17th century French trading post
at the Grand
Portage Re-enactment
SEPTEMBER
Celebrating the firebreathing Patron saint - the Bolivian fiesta
of San Miguel
S & M and other things rubbery at the Folsom
Street Fair
Authentic traditional Korean culture of masks and dance
in Hahoe
Village
A cultural extravaganza of dance, theatre, art and
music at the
Edinburgh Festival
Celebrating the many tribes of PNG at the colourful Goroka
Show
Oktoberfest
- The world biggest and best Beer Festival for boozing,
bawdy and plenty of oom-pah
Bucking bulls and bareback riding at the celebration of settler
heritage, the Pendleton
Round-Up
A feast of hearty lumberjack action at the Hoquiam
Loggers Play Day
Dancing pigs at the farming fiesta of Virginia
State Fair
Human chess, jousting and Medieval celebrations at the Giostra
della Rocca festival
Parade and races of gondolas in celebration of Venice's seafaring
traditions at Regata
Storica
Chariot races commemorate the arrival of the Queen of Cyprus
at the Palio
Asolo
OCTOBER
The brilliant blue desert sky above the city becomes
kaleidoscopically pregnant at the Albuquerque
Balloon Fiesta
Lumberjack sports for real men at the Paul
Bunyan Show
A celebration of BASE jumping extreme sport at the Bridge
Day Festival,
West Virginia
Learn traditional dances and how to speak Creole at Festival
Kreol, the Seychelles
NOVEMBER
Celebrate the extraordinary strength of the beast at the Surin
Elephant Round Up
The Festival
of the Sahara, a spectacular celebration of arts and
traditions of the desert people
Go tar barrel rolling on Guy
Fawkes Night at Ottery St Mary
DECEMBER
Crazy antics chasing Santa Claus with whips and bells at the Klausjagen
Festival
A Catholic Pilgrimage to the Virgin
of the Valley, Argentina
Worshipping Mexico's very own patron saint:
Our Lady of Guadelupe
The colourful Ncwala First
Fruits Festival of Swaziland
Spirit catching the prayers of the Valley and serious partying at
the Kalash
Choimus Festival
LUNAR AND STELLAR
CALENDAR
Pilgrim bathing and processions at the Kumbh
Mela Festival
Take to the street and repel evil at the Tet
festival in Ho Chi Minh City
Ritual sheep sacrifice at the Muslim
Aid El Kabir Festival
One of the five 'pillars' of Islam: fasting for Ramadan
SEASONAL
Tossing the caber and other great traditions at
Scotland's Highland
Games
Collision of cultures and corn spirits at the Tarahumara
Indian Feast
Any cause for epic celebration and feasting:a Syrian
lamb sacrifice
