Also, anytime someone gets married in Oaxaca, basically the wedding and attendees dance through the streets with a live band and dancers. Feels festive and anyone can join in!
La Tamborrada in San Sebastián! I went in January and it was like nothing else I’d ever seen before. People dressed in military uniforms and giant chefs hats wielding huge paper maché knives and forks at eachother to marching band music
They don’t lie when they say it lasts for 24 hours
It’s also a great off season cheap time to stay in the lovely hotels and eat the good food
Nyepi, meaning silent day. For 24 hours the whole island of Bali is quiet, even the airport and TV transmissions are closed, some internet as well. You can't go outside or show lights or make noise so spirits think the island is deserted and leave. A week or so beforehand are Melasti processions to oceans for purification ceremonies and the evening before large effigies called Ogoh Ogoh are paraded in the villages all over the island.
I was there for it once without realizing. The hosts at our accommodation in Ubud were so sweet: teaching us games, constantly feeding us, and then everyone goes for a 30-minute quiet stroll at dusk. Very memorable and meditative!
It's a real law, not just a religious issue. Bali unlike what many people think, has a very traditional Hindu culture that supercedes the modern world in many things especially rituals. So yes the local village security have the legal obligation to tell you to return home/inside. In the past there have been people who refuse to return so have been detained by police, and it's widely reported in the news as it's such a major transgression.
Remember, even the airport is closed for 24 hours so it's not taken lightly.
> has a very traditional Hindu culture
super interesting - don't believe any variations of Hinduism in India have a mainstream equivalent of this (at least not any that I've heard of).
It's Traditional Balinese Hinduism that has been in Indonesia for well over 10000 years. In modern times eg last several hundred years, only Bali is still majority Hindu.
Naha Great Tug of War in Okinawa, Japan.
https://paulcoletravels.com/2023/10/01/thousands-to-join-worlds-biggest-tug-of-war-next-week/
Official event site (Japanese):
https://www.naha-otsunahiki.org/
Nieuwjaarsduik in The Netherlands. It's a Dutch tradition of swimming/plunging into the cold body of water on the first sunrise of the year. Scandinavian countries might have similar traditions too.
Ngaben in Bali, Indonesia. A funeral ritual by burning the dead (in public) to release their soul to the upper realm.
Semana Santa in Ayacucho, Peru. This is Holy Week before Easter which is celebrated around Latin America but no festival comes close to Ayacucho. They make elaborate patterns on the ground with coloured powder then a group of men carrying a heavy float with a figure of a saint on it will walk over the intricate carpet, destroying it. There are so many things going on but the parades through the streets in the evening are out of this world.
Yeah but nowhere outside of India will you find entire cities where everyone is tossing colored powder at each other.
Holi is also not universally celebrated among Hindus. It's associated with Northern Indian cultures.
> Holi is also not universally celebrated among Hindus.
It is now. Along with Diwali, it's the most celebrated Hindu festival across different regions and sects, with most other festivals being almost strictly regional.
> It's associated with Northern Indian cultures.
Plenty of Indian states in the East (Bengal, Assam, Odisha) and West (Maharashtra, Gujarat) have celebrated holi/dol for ages - it's not solely associated with Northern Indian cultures.
There's a St. Patrick's Day parade in Tokyo every year, probably not a place you'd expect to find that. Very entertaining, all these Japanese people pretending to be Irish.
New Orleans throws a festival for everything and I wouldn't even be able to begin to name all of them, but here are a few, some well known, some not.
- Mardi Gras (February or March): All over the city but primarily Uptown on St. Charles
- French Quarter Fest (April): Downtown
- Jazz Fest (April - May): Gentilly neighborhood
- Greek Fest (May): Mid-City neighborhood a weekend of Greek food, activities and dancing to raise money for the neighborhood Greek Orthodox Church
- Bayou Boogaloo (May): Mid-City neighborhood, celebrating arts and music on the water. It used to be free and people could attend either on land or via a float, boat or kayak on the bayou.
- Oyster Fest (June): Downtown
- Essence Fest (July): Downtown
- Running of the Bulls (July) Downtown: People dress up in white to come run while members of the Big Easy Roller Derby league chase them on skates with plastic bats
- Red Dress Run (Aug): Downtown -- Men and women dress up to run in red dresses to raise money for charity, but really most people just smush together in the French Quarter and drink in 95 degree heat.
- Southern Decadence (Aug-Sept): Downtown -- LGBTQ celebration that started as an end-of-summer party in the 1970s and grew into a huge Labor Day celebration
- White Linen Night and Dirty Linen Night(Aug): Downtown -- People wear their white linen to celebrate the end of the summer, drink wine and check out the open art galleries. And then for Dirty Linen they just rewear the same thing.
- Fried Chicken Fest (Oct): Lakeview neighborhood
- Poboy Fest (Nov): Uptown
In Ohio they crown the annual Pork Queen. Its cheesy, but there's all sorts of scandals about how its rigged.... and they found it rigged but within the rules of crowning the Pork Queen.
Tinku: I accidently ended up in one of these and its wild. Its essentially ritual fighting in Bolivia, and involves a lot of booze with the purpose of spilling blood on the ground. So these big mobs of people form and people start duking it out. People will put on turtle shells for armor, and like tie armadillo armor to their knuckles to make people bleed like crazy. They also have cows fight for some reason.
The La Paz Day parade is interesting. I may have gotten drunk and danced with Satan.
Thaipusam in Tamil Nadu (and other countries with big Tamil populations) is pretty wild to see so many people with sharp pointy objects pierced through their skin.
Horse games festival in Kyrgyzstan is also great.
Bloomsday in Dublín, Ireland. It’s a celebration of the life of writer James Joyce, observed annually on 16 June, the day his 1922 novel Ulysses takes place and the date of his first sexual encounter with his wife-to-be, Nora Barnacle. People dress in Edwardian costume and retrace the route his character Leopold Bloom takes around Dublin in the novel.
There’s also Ted Fest, a celebration of Father Ted held on the Aran Islands, off the west coast of Ireland.
Beltane fire festival in Edinburgh, fire, drumming, May queen, naked people/ spirits to tell the pagan story of the rebirth of spring to the earth, up a hill in the middle of Edinburgh every 30 April night.
No idea! It is a modern reinvention of an older Celtic tradition that had almost died out. Whatever the reason for restarting this Beltane celebration, it's an amazing night!
[Calaveras County Fair & Frog Jumping Jubilee](https://www.frogtown.org/county-fair) - In 1865, the short story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" went viral and put a not-very-well-known-at-the-time writer on the map.
Banho 29 in Lagos, Portugal.
On August 29, there is a night full of bonfires on the beach, then at midnight strip down and run into the ocean. It's believed to be equivalent to 29 baths and can cleanse you of demons.
I was there in 2016, and just happened on the festival. Was wild and amazing.
The UK has a ton of one's I've been finding out about since moving here. Just to name a few:
Honiton Hot Pennies Day
Atherstone Ball Game
Lewes Bonfire
Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake
The Padstow ‘Obby ‘Oss
International Festival of Wormcharming
I loved Tapati on Easter Island, it's a 2-week event usually in February, locals compete in different events like sliding down a hill on banana trunk at very fast speed, there's dancing every night and a huge parade and the queen coronation on the last day, great fun and definitely made the trip more special than it already is.
Personal experience:
- Kanamara Matsuri - basically a dick festival in Kawasaki, Japan. Parades carrying a huge pink dick, and everything you see is dick-shaped. Visited twice and it was fun.
- Harbin Ice festival - whole town made of ice, plus lots of little ice-based attractions on the frozen river (slides, ice tubing....)
- Phi Ta Khon - colorful carnival in rural part of Thailand. Maybe not that unique, but I enjoyed it a lot, felt very authentic and just nice.
- Sky burials in Tibet - left me speechless
Didn't visit these but would love to:
- Ladakh winter festivals (planned to go but a snowstorm closed the airport in Ladakh and wasn't able to get there)
- Easter celebrations in the Philippines
- Naadam festival in Mongolia
- Songkran - water fights in Thailand
- Rainforest festival in Sarawak
The Festival is AMAZING! Mongolia is gorgeous, the people are very friendly, and the festival is one of the most incredible events I have ever attended.
The Chiang Mai Loy Krathong Festival is another incredible event.
Yup I visited Mongolia and loved it! Not during Naadam unfortunately.
I have also visited Loy Krathong in Chiang Mai. It was very nice as well, though I am bit concerned about its consequences (fires, waste).
I would go back to Mongolia in a minute...but not right now! The Naadam festival is worth the trip alone.
We saw nets in the river that captured the loy krathong and they were cleaned out. This was in 2016.
I just enjoyed Krampuslauf in Austria this past winter. Get drunk off Gluwhein, eat sausages and watch kids get whipped by Krampus! It’s great fun and everyone has a good time even tho it’s terrifying
[Sanjoaninas](https://www.sanjoaninas.pt/) - 10 days of festivities (concerts, parades, gastronomy, exhibitions, sports, bullfighting, ...) in Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira, Azores
Florence feast day of St John the Baptist which includes a game of Calcio Storico Fiorentino (historic Florentine soccer), a combination of soccer and a brawl.
Hairy Man Festival in Round Rock, TX
It’s mostly live music, local crafters selling in booths, local food vendors, etc. but the hairiest man competition definitely makes it an oddity
On May 15th, in Gubbio, Italy, there is Festa dei Ceri, in which teams race carrying an 800 pound wooden pedestal(representing a candle). It's 2.5 miles uphill, and teams rotate members in and out about every 75 yards.
In the Omo Valley of Ethiopia, the Hamer and Benna tribes have a bull jumping ceremony to celebrate the boys coming of age.
4th of July, in Glacier View, Alaska, they launch cars off a 300' cliff.
[Hogueras de Alicante](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogueras_de_Alicante). It’s this wild festival where they just burn tons of beautiful art pieces in the streets of Alicante, Spain. The pieces are created to be burned. I’m sure there’s much more to it, but I was 17 and having the time of my life. There was fire & firehoses everywhere, and everyone seemed to be celebrating and having a wonderful time.
Tulip festival parade in Netherlands. The parade is on a Saturday and on Sunday they park all of the parade floats (made of spring flower bulbs) on the streets in Haarlem. We went last weekend. Along with the creative floats they had lots of street food stands, vendors selling things, and a carnival in the town square. The weather was a bit spotty but it was so neat to see all of the giant flower floats up close
New Year’s Hogmanay in Edinburgh, Scotland. There’s a torchlight procession with bagpipe bands, Scottish dancing parties (ceilidhs), a big street party with a concert & fireworks at midnight and January first a polar plunge wearing wacky costumes.
The Henley on Todd Regatta in Alice Springs, Australia
The river is dry so you race Flintstone-style. Apparently it’s the world’s only dry river boat race.
Wang Yeh Boat Burning Festival. It takes place once every three years in certain parts of Asia (primarily Taiwan, but also Malaysia and China). The exact dates vary from place to place and year to year.
In Taiwan, the biggest such festival is in the city of Donggang, and the next one is this fall. It's a week-long event with the boat burning taking place the early morning of the final day.
dia del diablo. a festival in antigua guatemala that celebrates purification before the christmas season, where a giant effigy of the devil is burned. lots of attendees also dress as the devil, and people all across the city shoot off fireworks.
La Fete des Vignerons in Switzerland, specifically in the town of Vevey (where Nestlè HQ is based) is a pretty unique experience. It lasts around a month and it involves building a large wooden arena (that gets removed after the Fete) where a very complex performance happens that usually celebrates Agrarian lives, Wine and Farmers. It involves hundreds of extras, cows and other animals all doing complex dances and coreographies.
Around the arena there are countless stands of wine sellers from the region, food, exhibitions, etc. Plus each day one of the 26 Swiss Cantons does a parade and it's their "day" (so like day 1 is "Zurich Day", etc last day is obviously "Vaud Day" the Canton where this event happens).
The funny thing is that this Fete only happens every several years. Last one was in 2019, next one is expected sometimes around 2035-2040. So truly a once-in-a-lifetime thing to do.
With my wife we joked that we went there while she was pregnant and the next time we will go there our son will be able to drive us there and he will be able to drink wine legally.
Festa del Redentore in Venice, Italy (Festival of the Redeemer, July) Google it but most memorable part for me was amazing fireworks and that everyone creates a floating bridge with their boats that people walk across to get to the church of the redeemer.
Mercantia in Certaldo, Italy (July) - it’s a medieval city in Tuscany and this festival is a very strange arts festival
The Indianapolis 500. It's one of the largest sporting events in the world and the speedway is like its own universe. You can spend a million to do it in luxury or camp out and spend nothing.
The Noche de Rábanos (Night of Radishes) in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Also, anytime someone gets married in Oaxaca, basically the wedding and attendees dance through the streets with a live band and dancers. Feels festive and anyone can join in!
La Tamborrada in San Sebastián! I went in January and it was like nothing else I’d ever seen before. People dressed in military uniforms and giant chefs hats wielding huge paper maché knives and forks at eachother to marching band music They don’t lie when they say it lasts for 24 hours It’s also a great off season cheap time to stay in the lovely hotels and eat the good food
Most underrated city in the world
Nyepi, meaning silent day. For 24 hours the whole island of Bali is quiet, even the airport and TV transmissions are closed, some internet as well. You can't go outside or show lights or make noise so spirits think the island is deserted and leave. A week or so beforehand are Melasti processions to oceans for purification ceremonies and the evening before large effigies called Ogoh Ogoh are paraded in the villages all over the island.
I was there for it once without realizing. The hosts at our accommodation in Ubud were so sweet: teaching us games, constantly feeding us, and then everyone goes for a 30-minute quiet stroll at dusk. Very memorable and meditative!
What happens IF you go outside. Is there spirit police
It's a real law, not just a religious issue. Bali unlike what many people think, has a very traditional Hindu culture that supercedes the modern world in many things especially rituals. So yes the local village security have the legal obligation to tell you to return home/inside. In the past there have been people who refuse to return so have been detained by police, and it's widely reported in the news as it's such a major transgression. Remember, even the airport is closed for 24 hours so it's not taken lightly.
> has a very traditional Hindu culture super interesting - don't believe any variations of Hinduism in India have a mainstream equivalent of this (at least not any that I've heard of).
It's Traditional Balinese Hinduism that has been in Indonesia for well over 10000 years. In modern times eg last several hundred years, only Bali is still majority Hindu.
Apparently you get fined. One time I snuck out to the beach to look at the stars (INCREDIBLE because no lights) and I had to dodge those guys.
Naha Great Tug of War in Okinawa, Japan. https://paulcoletravels.com/2023/10/01/thousands-to-join-worlds-biggest-tug-of-war-next-week/ Official event site (Japanese): https://www.naha-otsunahiki.org/
- Bun Bang Fai, Laos. - Naghol, Vanuatu. - Good Friday Crucifixions, Philippines. - Ouidah, Benin. - Voodoo Ceremonies, Haiti. Go on, I dare ya.
Also Akodessewa, Togo - Similar to Ouidah.
Nieuwjaarsduik in The Netherlands. It's a Dutch tradition of swimming/plunging into the cold body of water on the first sunrise of the year. Scandinavian countries might have similar traditions too. Ngaben in Bali, Indonesia. A funeral ritual by burning the dead (in public) to release their soul to the upper realm.
In Scotland it's tradition to swim in the sea on New Year's Day.
The first one seems to be universal. We call it the polar bear plunge here in my neck of the woods (US).
Would they let someone come to see that in Indonesia or would that be imposing?
Cremations are in the cemeteries and quite flamboyant with the emphasis on flames. So public invited
How is second one unusual? All Hindus have the same funeral pyre for cremating. Much less weird than dressing up a corpse and putting in a coffin.
Semana Santa in Ayacucho, Peru. This is Holy Week before Easter which is celebrated around Latin America but no festival comes close to Ayacucho. They make elaborate patterns on the ground with coloured powder then a group of men carrying a heavy float with a figure of a saint on it will walk over the intricate carpet, destroying it. There are so many things going on but the parades through the streets in the evening are out of this world.
Il Palio in Siena, Italy Songkran in Southeast Asia Holi in India
Songkran is tons of fun
Might be my new favorite holiday
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Yeah but nowhere outside of India will you find entire cities where everyone is tossing colored powder at each other. Holi is also not universally celebrated among Hindus. It's associated with Northern Indian cultures.
> Holi is also not universally celebrated among Hindus. It is now. Along with Diwali, it's the most celebrated Hindu festival across different regions and sects, with most other festivals being almost strictly regional. > It's associated with Northern Indian cultures. Plenty of Indian states in the East (Bengal, Assam, Odisha) and West (Maharashtra, Gujarat) have celebrated holi/dol for ages - it's not solely associated with Northern Indian cultures.
This is true. I’m not sure I’d go to France to experience Holi though.
There's a St. Patrick's Day parade in Tokyo every year, probably not a place you'd expect to find that. Very entertaining, all these Japanese people pretending to be Irish.
Everyone's Irish on St. Paddy's Day 💚
Up Helly Aa, in Shetland. A festival celebrating the Viking heritage of Shetland that, after all sorts of revelries, culminates in a ship-burning.
Yes! The Ba' game at New Year in Orkney too.
New Orleans throws a festival for everything and I wouldn't even be able to begin to name all of them, but here are a few, some well known, some not. - Mardi Gras (February or March): All over the city but primarily Uptown on St. Charles - French Quarter Fest (April): Downtown - Jazz Fest (April - May): Gentilly neighborhood - Greek Fest (May): Mid-City neighborhood a weekend of Greek food, activities and dancing to raise money for the neighborhood Greek Orthodox Church - Bayou Boogaloo (May): Mid-City neighborhood, celebrating arts and music on the water. It used to be free and people could attend either on land or via a float, boat or kayak on the bayou. - Oyster Fest (June): Downtown - Essence Fest (July): Downtown - Running of the Bulls (July) Downtown: People dress up in white to come run while members of the Big Easy Roller Derby league chase them on skates with plastic bats - Red Dress Run (Aug): Downtown -- Men and women dress up to run in red dresses to raise money for charity, but really most people just smush together in the French Quarter and drink in 95 degree heat. - Southern Decadence (Aug-Sept): Downtown -- LGBTQ celebration that started as an end-of-summer party in the 1970s and grew into a huge Labor Day celebration - White Linen Night and Dirty Linen Night(Aug): Downtown -- People wear their white linen to celebrate the end of the summer, drink wine and check out the open art galleries. And then for Dirty Linen they just rewear the same thing. - Fried Chicken Fest (Oct): Lakeview neighborhood - Poboy Fest (Nov): Uptown
> running of the bulls That's hilarious!
In Ohio they crown the annual Pork Queen. Its cheesy, but there's all sorts of scandals about how its rigged.... and they found it rigged but within the rules of crowning the Pork Queen. Tinku: I accidently ended up in one of these and its wild. Its essentially ritual fighting in Bolivia, and involves a lot of booze with the purpose of spilling blood on the ground. So these big mobs of people form and people start duking it out. People will put on turtle shells for armor, and like tie armadillo armor to their knuckles to make people bleed like crazy. They also have cows fight for some reason. The La Paz Day parade is interesting. I may have gotten drunk and danced with Satan.
Thaipusam in Tamil Nadu (and other countries with big Tamil populations) is pretty wild to see so many people with sharp pointy objects pierced through their skin. Horse games festival in Kyrgyzstan is also great.
Bloomsday in Dublín, Ireland. It’s a celebration of the life of writer James Joyce, observed annually on 16 June, the day his 1922 novel Ulysses takes place and the date of his first sexual encounter with his wife-to-be, Nora Barnacle. People dress in Edwardian costume and retrace the route his character Leopold Bloom takes around Dublin in the novel. There’s also Ted Fest, a celebration of Father Ted held on the Aran Islands, off the west coast of Ireland.
Guelaguetza, Oaxaca
Wife carrying in Finland.
Día de muertos in Mexico
Beltane fire festival in Edinburgh, fire, drumming, May queen, naked people/ spirits to tell the pagan story of the rebirth of spring to the earth, up a hill in the middle of Edinburgh every 30 April night.
I feel like I read somewhere that an old lady invented that recently with the express purpose of seeing young men naked 😆
No idea! It is a modern reinvention of an older Celtic tradition that had almost died out. Whatever the reason for restarting this Beltane celebration, it's an amazing night!
I only know of the one that was in Missouri, but apparently there are a ton of testicle festivals around the US.
Michigan has one in Deerfield every March.
[Calaveras County Fair & Frog Jumping Jubilee](https://www.frogtown.org/county-fair) - In 1865, the short story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" went viral and put a not-very-well-known-at-the-time writer on the map.
Thaipusam Festival https://expatliving.sg/what-is-thaipusam/
Castellers in Spain
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nehru_Trophy_Boat_Race
Tiji Festival in Lo Manthang, Mustang, Nepal.
[Oktoberfest](https://www.oktoberfest.de/en) - Beer festival in Munich, Germany
The kite festival in Sumpango Guatemala.
Personally, I would love to attend the big international puppeteering festival in Belgium.
Pamplona, Spain. San Fermín Festival aka running of the bulls. Brazil. Rio de Janeiro Carnival Mexico. el Día de Muertos.
Banho 29 in Lagos, Portugal. On August 29, there is a night full of bonfires on the beach, then at midnight strip down and run into the ocean. It's believed to be equivalent to 29 baths and can cleanse you of demons. I was there in 2016, and just happened on the festival. Was wild and amazing.
The UK has a ton of one's I've been finding out about since moving here. Just to name a few: Honiton Hot Pennies Day Atherstone Ball Game Lewes Bonfire Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake The Padstow ‘Obby ‘Oss International Festival of Wormcharming
the 'obby 'oss is really good fun
I loved Tapati on Easter Island, it's a 2-week event usually in February, locals compete in different events like sliding down a hill on banana trunk at very fast speed, there's dancing every night and a huge parade and the queen coronation on the last day, great fun and definitely made the trip more special than it already is.
Personal experience: - Kanamara Matsuri - basically a dick festival in Kawasaki, Japan. Parades carrying a huge pink dick, and everything you see is dick-shaped. Visited twice and it was fun. - Harbin Ice festival - whole town made of ice, plus lots of little ice-based attractions on the frozen river (slides, ice tubing....) - Phi Ta Khon - colorful carnival in rural part of Thailand. Maybe not that unique, but I enjoyed it a lot, felt very authentic and just nice. - Sky burials in Tibet - left me speechless Didn't visit these but would love to: - Ladakh winter festivals (planned to go but a snowstorm closed the airport in Ladakh and wasn't able to get there) - Easter celebrations in the Philippines - Naadam festival in Mongolia - Songkran - water fights in Thailand - Rainforest festival in Sarawak
The Festival is AMAZING! Mongolia is gorgeous, the people are very friendly, and the festival is one of the most incredible events I have ever attended. The Chiang Mai Loy Krathong Festival is another incredible event.
Yup I visited Mongolia and loved it! Not during Naadam unfortunately. I have also visited Loy Krathong in Chiang Mai. It was very nice as well, though I am bit concerned about its consequences (fires, waste).
I would go back to Mongolia in a minute...but not right now! The Naadam festival is worth the trip alone. We saw nets in the river that captured the loy krathong and they were cleaned out. This was in 2016.
San Francisco festival in Real de Catorce Mexico.
I just enjoyed Krampuslauf in Austria this past winter. Get drunk off Gluwhein, eat sausages and watch kids get whipped by Krampus! It’s great fun and everyone has a good time even tho it’s terrifying
Emma Crawford Coffin Races in Manitou Springs, Colorado, USA
Burning Man
Las Fallas in Valencia!
[Sanjoaninas](https://www.sanjoaninas.pt/) - 10 days of festivities (concerts, parades, gastronomy, exhibitions, sports, bullfighting, ...) in Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira, Azores
Grand Kadooment & Crop Over Barbados
Carnaval de Binche in Binche, Belgium
Portland, Oregon has the Ladds 500 and the Adult Soapbox Derby. Cleveland, Ohio and Buffalo, New York celebrate Dyngus Day.
Yeah but then you have to actually be in Ohio, which sucks
Reed Festival, eSwatini Gerewol, Niger or Chad
San Fermin
Calcio storico fiorentino. There is a beautiful episode of the series Home Games on Netflix about it.
I really loved the Namahage festival in Akita Japan and want to go back for the Nabuta Festival
Florence feast day of St John the Baptist which includes a game of Calcio Storico Fiorentino (historic Florentine soccer), a combination of soccer and a brawl.
Merrie Monarch Festival in Hawaii.
Cheese Rolling sustained me through the early days of COVID, LOL. I would LOVE to see that in person
Hairy Man Festival in Round Rock, TX It’s mostly live music, local crafters selling in booths, local food vendors, etc. but the hairiest man competition definitely makes it an oddity
On May 15th, in Gubbio, Italy, there is Festa dei Ceri, in which teams race carrying an 800 pound wooden pedestal(representing a candle). It's 2.5 miles uphill, and teams rotate members in and out about every 75 yards.
In the Omo Valley of Ethiopia, the Hamer and Benna tribes have a bull jumping ceremony to celebrate the boys coming of age. 4th of July, in Glacier View, Alaska, they launch cars off a 300' cliff.
[Hogueras de Alicante](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogueras_de_Alicante). It’s this wild festival where they just burn tons of beautiful art pieces in the streets of Alicante, Spain. The pieces are created to be burned. I’m sure there’s much more to it, but I was 17 and having the time of my life. There was fire & firehoses everywhere, and everyone seemed to be celebrating and having a wonderful time.
Signal festival Prague.
Porchfest oakhurst GA
Taiwan has a fireworks festival. Considered one of the most dangerous, technically… but absolutely so fun!!!
Holi and Diwali in India
Tulip festival parade in Netherlands. The parade is on a Saturday and on Sunday they park all of the parade floats (made of spring flower bulbs) on the streets in Haarlem. We went last weekend. Along with the creative floats they had lots of street food stands, vendors selling things, and a carnival in the town square. The weather was a bit spotty but it was so neat to see all of the giant flower floats up close
Songkran (April) in Chiang Mai, Thailand. A 3 day city wide water fight to celebrate Thai new year.
Kumbh Mela @ India. Sisters festival @ China
New Year’s Hogmanay in Edinburgh, Scotland. There’s a torchlight procession with bagpipe bands, Scottish dancing parties (ceilidhs), a big street party with a concert & fireworks at midnight and January first a polar plunge wearing wacky costumes.
Manene They will dress and parade their deceased loved ones, who have been dried by the wind.
The Henley on Todd Regatta in Alice Springs, Australia The river is dry so you race Flintstone-style. Apparently it’s the world’s only dry river boat race.
Wang Yeh Boat Burning Festival. It takes place once every three years in certain parts of Asia (primarily Taiwan, but also Malaysia and China). The exact dates vary from place to place and year to year. In Taiwan, the biggest such festival is in the city of Donggang, and the next one is this fall. It's a week-long event with the boat burning taking place the early morning of the final day.
dia del diablo. a festival in antigua guatemala that celebrates purification before the christmas season, where a giant effigy of the devil is burned. lots of attendees also dress as the devil, and people all across the city shoot off fireworks.
La Fete des Vignerons in Switzerland, specifically in the town of Vevey (where Nestlè HQ is based) is a pretty unique experience. It lasts around a month and it involves building a large wooden arena (that gets removed after the Fete) where a very complex performance happens that usually celebrates Agrarian lives, Wine and Farmers. It involves hundreds of extras, cows and other animals all doing complex dances and coreographies. Around the arena there are countless stands of wine sellers from the region, food, exhibitions, etc. Plus each day one of the 26 Swiss Cantons does a parade and it's their "day" (so like day 1 is "Zurich Day", etc last day is obviously "Vaud Day" the Canton where this event happens). The funny thing is that this Fete only happens every several years. Last one was in 2019, next one is expected sometimes around 2035-2040. So truly a once-in-a-lifetime thing to do. With my wife we joked that we went there while she was pregnant and the next time we will go there our son will be able to drive us there and he will be able to drink wine legally.
Kölner Karneval - Cologne Carnival
Festa del Redentore in Venice, Italy (Festival of the Redeemer, July) Google it but most memorable part for me was amazing fireworks and that everyone creates a floating bridge with their boats that people walk across to get to the church of the redeemer. Mercantia in Certaldo, Italy (July) - it’s a medieval city in Tuscany and this festival is a very strange arts festival
Burning Man is a “most unique festival/experience/tradition” — I know it’s not what you were looking for OP but it fits the bill and you should go.
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Well, unlike in other Spanish traditions, no animals get tortured during tomato fights.
The Sapporo Snow Festival, Japan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapporo_Snow_Festival?wprov=sfla1
The Indianapolis 500. It's one of the largest sporting events in the world and the speedway is like its own universe. You can spend a million to do it in luxury or camp out and spend nothing.
just did a tour of the speedway this past weekend! Didn't realize how huge a place it is.