Festivals in Europe
European Festivals
74 Europe Festival Articles 52 Europe Festival Snippets 295 Europe Festival Photo Galleries 96 Europe Festival Videos 864 Europe Festival Websites
Europe Festivals » 74 Articles
Article Title: Venice Carnevale
Festival Name: Venice Carnevale
Festival Country: Italy
Festival Type(s): Carnival, Street Parade, Party
I went to Venice for two nights during Carnevale and stayed a week. The only reason I left was because it ended. I felt like a character in Ernest Hemmingway's "The Sun Also Rises", unable to decipher day from day or hour from hour.
Article Title: Carnevale Di Venezia: Baby It's Cold Outside
Festival Name: Carnival of Venice
Festival Country: Italy
Festival Type(s): Carnival, Street Parade, Party
My Venetian friends had invited me to come to Venice for Carnevale, saying I could use a studio apartment kept for family and friends. This was an offer I couldn't refuse, so I arranged my schedule to be in Venice the last week of Carnevale.
Article Title: Festival of San Fermin
Festival Name: San Fermin
Festival Country: Spain
Festival Type(s): Bizarre, Traditional, Party
The Festival of San Fermin, first made famous outside of Spain by Ernest Hemingway in his novel 'The Sun Also Rises' (also known as 'Fiesta')
Article Title: Three and a Half Ton of Bull
Festival Name: San Fermin - Running of the Bulls
Festival Country: Spain
Festival Type(s): Bizarre, Party, Sport - Bizarre
My stomach was churning, my palms sticky, my heart smashing at the inside of my ribcage. I put on a brave face. Strange to think that I'd paid to be here.
Article Title: Oktoberfest Doesn't Disappoint, But Show Up Early
Festival Name: Oktoberfest
Festival Country: Germany
Festival Type(s): Beer, Party
Imagine six million liters of beer, enough to fill a small lake or pour a glass for every man, woman and child in Germany. Add a few thousand traditionally-clad, voluptuous Bavarian waitresses carrying up to 22 liters of beer at a time, the equivalent of 66 12-ounce bottles.
Article Title: London's Calypso Carnival
Festival Name: Notting Hill Carnival
Festival Country: England
Festival Type(s): Carnival, Street Parade, Party
But all that changes on the August bank holiday weekend as the Notting Hill Carnival - Europe's largest street party and second only in the world to Rio's Carnaval - swings and sways its way into W11.
Article Title: Love Parade
Festival Name: Love Parade
Festival Country: Germany
Festival Type(s): Music - Electronic, Party, Dance
Love Parade is the largest techno gathering in the world. The tradition started 10 years ago with a few hundred ravers and has grown to a million and a half people. That's right: 1.5 million people.
Article Title: Las Fallas de Valencia
Festival Name: Las Fallas
Festival Country: Spain
Festival Type(s): Street Parade, Party, Fireworks
I awoke to the sound of firecrackers or explosives at the very least. This was merely pre-Fallas, a warm-up for the enormous celebration yet to come. The fiesta was a week away, yet very much on the minds of every Valencian.
Article Title: Spain's Tomato Battle
Festival Name: La Tomatina
Festival Country: Spain
Festival Type(s): Bizarre, Party, Food
But contrary to all this evidence, La Tomatina, an annual, city-wide, tomato riot, remains an inexact science. One would think that after 63 - or is it 64? - years, the residents of Buñol, Valencia, Spain, would have their facts straight. Some say La Tomatina uses 150,000 tomatoes. Other claim the number is over 1 million.
Article Title: La Tomatina - The World's Biggest Food Fight
Festival Name: La Tomatina
Festival Country: Spain
Festival Type(s): Bizarre, Party, Traditional
As history spells it out, what began in 1944 as a simple tomato fight between a group of friends in the town's main square - the Plaza del Pueblo - has turned into arguably the worlds largest food fight. Actually, there is very little to argue about.
Article Title: Hogmanay
Festival Name: Hogmanay
Festival Country: Scotland
Festival Type(s): New Year, Party
Hogmanay is the traditional Scottish New Year's Eve festival celebrated on December 31. It is a huge affair which often includes many celebrations and parties for which tickets are sold.
Article Title: Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts
Festival Name: Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts
Festival Country: England
Festival Type(s): Music - Varied, Performing Art, Party
Glastonbury - the best known, most written about festival since Woodstock - may seem familiar even to those who haven't been there. Everyone's seen all those images of mud-larking. But it's well worth making the effort to actually attend a 21st century Glasto.
Article Title: Getting Ready for the Glastonbury Festival
Festival Name: Glastonbury Festival
Festival Country: England
Festival Type(s): Music - Rock, Party, Music - World
I want to be buried in mud, rained on in the dance tent by human feces, surrounded by deliciously bizarre people, and maybe (hopefully) catch some of the world's best electronic music performers along the way.
Article Title: Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Festival Name: Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Festival Country: Scotland
Festival Type(s): Fringe, Performing Art, Comedy
The Fringe is an immense gathering of artists, musicians, dancers and actors coming from over 40 countries to perform in over 250 venues. Search for a show on the Fringe website and you will have to sift through a mere 1,909 shows. It would take five years, three months, and 25 days to see every performance in the Fringe 2005 back to back.
Article Title: Hooray For The Fringe! Your Fringe lowdown...
Festival Name: Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Festival Country: Scotland
Festival Type(s): Fringe, Comedy, Performing Art
To anyone except the actor, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is annual paradise. For five frantic weeks the elegant seaside city of Edinburgh resigns itself to theatrical hijack. From all corners of the globe dramatic and musical troupes descend on Scotland's capital to tempt, cajole, and dazzle the spectator into parting with their pounds: in exchange for laughter, tears, derision, and amusement.
Article Title: Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling
Festival Name: Cheese Rolling
Festival Country: England
Festival Type(s): Bizarre, Sport - Bizarre, Traditional
I never expected to spend my May Bank Holiday weekend as a participant in one of Europe's wackiest and most dangerous events, but there I was, perched atop a huge, steep, bumpy hill in Gloucestershire as an entrant in the third race of the day, about to throw myself down after a piece of rolling cheese.
Article Title: Cheese Rolling in Gloucestershire
Festival Name: Cheese Rolling
Festival Country: England
Festival Type(s): Sport - Bizarre, Bizarre, Harvest
Wherever it's origins it's hard to argue that cheese rolling is a sport for the outrageously courageous or at least the dangerously demented. Contestants in the Cooper's Hill event (between Gloucester, Stroud and Cheltenham in the Cotswolds) on the last Monday in May, stand precipitously at the top of a 300 yard hill, that maintains a gradient of two in one for the most part whilst a Master of Ceremonies counts them down.
Article Title: Calcio Storico
Festival Name: Calcio Storico
Festival Country: Italy
Festival Type(s): Sport - Football, Sport - Bizarre, Bizarre
Steeped in almost 500 years of tradition and described loosely as a mix between football and rugby - with a good dose of bare-knuckle boxing added to the mix - Calcio Storico is not a game for those who flinch at the site of blood.
Article Title: Irish Road Bowling
Festival Name: Irish Road Bowling
Festival Country: Ireland
Festival Type(s): Bizarre, Sport - Bizarre, Sport - Ball
They call it "bowling," yet it has nothing to do with glossy white pins, oiled wooden lanes, or shoes, colorfully designed for humiliation, that have been worn by a dozen other strangers that day. Welcome to the wacky world of Irish Road Bowling.
Article Title: Mower Racing
Festival Name: Mower Racing World Championships
Festival Country: England
Festival Type(s): Bizarre, Sport - Bizarre, Sport - Motor Sport
An English rally-car racer, frustrated by the rising costs of his sport, debuted the event in 1973: Lawn-mower racing offers an inexpensive, accessible event with no lingering misgivings about whether or not to bag your clippings.
Article Title: Wife Carrying
Festival Name: Wife Carrying World Championships
Festival Country: Finland
Festival Type(s): Bizarre, Sport - Bizarre, Party
At the Wife Carrying World Championships held annually in Sonkajärvi, Finland, it's the husband who does the schlepping - the wife holds on for dear life - across a course that's over two-and-a-half football fields in length and punctuated with sand, hurdles, water obstacles, and gravel pits
Article Title: Toe Wrestling
Festival Name: World Toe Wrestling Championships
Festival Country: England
Festival Type(s): Bizarre, Sport - Bizarre
Every year, competitors from as far as the United States, Canada, Australia, and Germany travel to the Bentley Brook Inn in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, England, for the world's least furtive and most aggressive game of footsie: The World Toe Wrestling Championship
Article Title: Orange Battle at Canrevale di Ivrea
Festival Name: Carnevale di Ivrea
Festival Country: Italy
Festival Type(s): Bizarre, Carnival, Party
Unlike La Tomatina, the ammunition at Italy's Carnevale di Ivrea's orange battle doesn't get squished before it is hurled in the streets. It may, however, become smushed after colliding with the helmets that keep faces from leaking their own natural juices.
Article Title: Rioja's Wine Battle
Festival Name: Battle of the Wine - Batalla del Vino
Festival Country: Spain
Festival Type(s): Wine, Bizarre, Food and Wine
In this juiced-up battle, the grapes have already been squished and fermented, so participants need only wineskins, plastic jugs, trashcans, water guns, or crop sprayers to spill, spritz, and splash the other 9,000 revelers at the Batalla del Vino or Wine Battle, in Haro, part of Spain's Rioja region.
Article Title: Shrovetide Football
Festival Name: Shrovetide Football
Festival Country: England
Festival Type(s): Sport - Bizarre, Bizarre, Party
Imagine an NFL football game. Now, round out that ball, lose the shoulder pads, and add a few hundred or even a thousand players to each team. Okay, now move the end zones three miles apart, and dam a river at the 50-yard line. Now you're ready for some Royal Shrovetide Football
Article Title: Extreme Coldwater Swimming Championships
Festival Name: Winter Swimming Championships
Festival Country: England
Festival Type(s): Sport - Water, Sport - Extreme, Bizarre
It's true: some do like it hot. The rest, on the other hand, drink Brass Monkeys, Blue Tits, and Chilly Willy: The only three beers served at the Winter Swimming Championships
Article Title: World Sauna Championships
Festival Name: World Sauna Championships
Festival Country: Finland
Festival Type(s): Bizarre, Sport - Bizarre
The best competitions make leisure into sport, like turning an afternoon of watching flicks into a movie marathon. In Finland, where there are 1.5 million saunas for 5 million people, organizations of World Sauna Championships did just that with the first competition in 1999.
Article Title: The Bird King
Festival Name: Bird King Festival
Festival Country: France
Festival Type(s): Medieval, Re-enactments, Historical
Walk the narrow, cobblestoned streets of the town of Le Puy-en-Velay in mid-September, and you'll swear you are in 16th-century France (if you ignore the cigarettes and cellphones). Aristocrats in fur-lined velvet cloaks stroll alongside peasants in plain tunics leading donkeys, jugglers perform, and vendors hawk meat pies.
Article Title: Burning the Clocks in Brighton
Festival Name: Burning the Clocks
Festival Country: England
Festival Type(s): Solstice, Pagan, Street Parade
About a mile down the promenade from Brighton Pier, people congregate and gaze out over the silent beach towards the calm silhouette of a wicker king. They throng in the gathering darkness of the year's longest night, kids and adults jostling and stretching to get the best view. Except for their shuffling and whispering all you can here is the wind, and the slow ominous tattoo of the single drum.
Article Title: One Love Festival
Festival Name: One Love Festival
Festival Country: England
Festival Type(s): Music - Reggae, Party
One Love Festival celebrates the anniversary of Bob Marley's infamous 1978 One Love concert and offers you four days and nights of pure reggae love
Article Title: Viana do Bolo Flour Festival
Festival Name: Flour Festival
Festival Country: Spain
Festival Type(s): Traditional, Bizarre, Community
The whole Latin world celebrates carnival during this time, and Galicia is no different. Different areas celebrate in different ways, all with their own trademark. One such trademark is the orgy of flour throwing which engulfs the town of Viana do Bolo, in Ourense, every year.
Article Title: Bilbao's Big Week
Festival Name: Aste Nagusia Bilbao
Festival Country: Spain
Festival Type(s): Music - Traditional, Dance - Latin, Party
For ten days the city centre is full to bursting with people, young and old, enjoying a mix of traditional Basque music, dance and sports (anyone for a spot of stone-lifting or log-chopping?) and more modern spectacles, fuelled by regular helpings of food and wine from the many txosnas (large tents) that line the main streets.
Article Title: The Common Ridings of the Scottish Border
Festival Name: Common Ridings - Hawick
Festival Country: Scotland
Festival Type(s): Traditional, National, Party
For centuries the Scottish border towns of Hawick, Jedburgh, Lauder and Selkirk have been keeping a watchful eye on their southern neighbours, the ever-so-meddlesome English. In years past these Common Ridings of the Scottish border were horseback patrols to ensure those southerners knew where their boundary ended and the Scottish frontier began.
Article Title: Lulworth Castle Medieval Festival
Festival Name: Lulworth Castle Medieval Festival
Festival Country: England
Festival Type(s): Medieval, Historical
Lulworth Castle is a gem though, with round towers at each corner, every child's picturebook vision, and the Festival was arranged to take full advantage of this with the Arena right in front of the main entrance. I had rented a holiday cottage in the village for the weekend, and arrived on the Friday afternoon.
Article Title: Vappu - Finland's Carnival
Festival Name: Vappu
Festival Country: Finland
Festival Type(s): Traditional, Party, National
Finland's Carnival-style celebration of Vappu is one of Europe's best kept party secrets as hundreds of thousands take to the streets of Helsinki to usher in Spring
Article Title: Papa in da House
Festival Name: Papal Audience
Festival Country: Holy See
Festival Type(s): Religious
Pope Benedict XVI may not have the same instant charisma of his rock-star-meeting, sunglass-wearing predecessor, but he can still pull a crowd and knows how to work the adoring masses into a frenzy
Article Title: The Arab Roots of the Flamenco
Festival Name: Flamenco
Festival Country: Spain
Festival Type(s): Dance - Latin, Music - Traditional, Dance - Folk
This thrilling vociferation appeared to inspire the fiery black haired women dancers as they stamped the stage floor with wild uncontrolled passion. Beautifully costumed, their tight-bodice multi-coloured dresses flaring at the hips and covering petticoats with countless ruffles matched the carnations in their hair.
Article Title: Sardine Heaven - The Feast of St. Anthony
Festival Name: Feast of St. Anthony
Festival Country: Portugal
Festival Type(s): Traditional, Religious, Cultural
The storeowner told me they were the "brides of St. Anthony," and it was part of the saint's feast day traditions. He said the city hall traditionally hosts the bridal couples for free if they are poor.
Article Title: Summer Festival of El Vendrell
Festival Name: Summer Festival of El Vendrell
Festival Country: Spain
Festival Type(s): Summer, Traditional, Cultural
There is a really special Catalan destination that combines sun and sand with a twist of magic for four days at the end of July. The Festa Major of Vendrell (Summer Festival) celebrates the day of Saint Anna on and around the 26th July in true Mediterranean style.
Article Title: Christmas Festivals in Catalonia
Festival Name: Christmas
Festival Country: Spain
Festival Type(s): Christmas, Religious
The month of December brings a flurry of parties and celebrations, leading up to the culmination of Christmas chaos or cheer, depending on your own personal viewpoint. In Spain, Christmas is celebrated not only on the 25th of December but also includes all the surrounding days from the 24th of December (Noche Vieja) until the 6th of January (Reyes).
Article Title: The Festival of Sant Jordi at Montblanc
Festival Name: The Festival of Sant Jordi at Montblanc
Festival Country: Spain
Festival Type(s): Medieval, Traditional
According to the Catalan historian, Joan Amades, the walls of Montblanc are the origin of Catalonia's most famous legend Sant Jordi, celebrated throughout Catalunya on the 23rd of April.
Article Title: The Festivals of Valls: Humans Castles and Calçots
Festival Name: The Festivals of Valls
Festival Country: Spain
Festival Type(s): Traditional, Cultural, Bizarre
One of the loveliest aspects of Catalonia, or certainly one of the most striking, is its capacity for local celebration. The Catalans are good at blowing their trumpets or more correctly stated the "gralle", an oboe like traditional Catalan instrument used in all the local festivities including Sardanas, Human Castles (Castellers) and the town parades of giants and puppets.
Article Title: The Dance of the Horned Man
Festival Name: The Dance of the Horned Man
Festival Country: Spain
Festival Type(s): Traditional, Dance - Folk, Cultural
A world away from the black garbed cross bearers of Barcelona's streets are the ruby red, horned dancers of Cornella del Terri, a small town located 113 kilometres north of Barcelona in the region of Girona.
Article Title: The Festival of The Patum
Festival Name: The Patum
Festival Country: Spain
Festival Type(s): Traditional, Dance - Folk, Medieval
Barcelona simmers in June day time heat as the refreshing evenings grow steadily longer. Firecrackers left by teenagers in street rubbish bins explode late at night, reminding us that the longest day of the year celebrated on the eve of Sant Joan, the 23rd of June, is only just round the corner.
Article Title: Bedfordshire Medieval Festival
Festival Name: Bedfordshire Medieval Festival
Festival Country: England
Festival Type(s): Medieval
Fayre opened with a ground-shaking explosion as the gunners from the Compagnie of Saynte Barbara fired their fearsome one-and-a-half tonne siege engine, the Bombard, to let people know that the programme of demonstrations and displays was about to begin
Article Title: Fighting Fans - Cannes Film Festival
Festival Name: Cannes Film Festival
Festival Country: France
Festival Type(s): Film, Party
"Dom! Dom!" The crowd around me was going wild as a black car swept past. Through the tinted windows a woman smiled and waved directly to me. She looked vaguely familiar but I could not place her.
Article Title: Sampling Umbria Jazz
Festival Name: Umbria Jazz Festival
Festival Country: Italy
Festival Type(s): Music - Jazz
The Algiers Brass Band from New Orleans is marching down Corso Vannucci, the
main street of Perugia in Italy, led by a grand marshall with purple
feathers
Article Title: World Body Painting Festival
Festival Name: World Body Painting Festival
Festival Country: Austria
Festival Type(s): Art, Bizarre
Colors fly in a weeklong event known as the Mecca for body painting. A quaint Austrian town plays host as artists from around the world come to feast their eyes on the wonders of nature and all who are naturally painted.
Article Title: Midsummers in Sweden
Festival Name: Midsummer
Festival Country: Sweden
Festival Type(s): Traditional, Summer, Party
I've discovered that Scandinavian summers are different to those in Australia. For instance, they have a middle. The middle in this case being Midsummer, a festival celebrating the longest day of the year, which in this part of the world can be pretty much an entire day.
Article Title: Santa Run
Festival Name: Santarun
Festival Country: Wales
Festival Type(s): Sport - Bizarre, Christmas
Surreal was not the right word. The sea of crimson that stretched behind me deserved something more than that. This was more of a crazed hallucinogenic trip, a dream that I could wake up from at any second. This was either the work of a madman or a genius. But, as they say, 'when in Rome...'
Article Title: Siena Palio
Festival Name: Siena Palio
Festival Country: Italy
Festival Type(s): Sport - Equestrian, Sport - Bizarre, Traditional
It was Palio, the biggest event in a Sienese year. When the local contrada's (districts) take to the track with their finest horses and race for a coveted silk banner. When horses become Gods, passions are high and the square fills with the excitement of a race for glory.
Article Title: Luminara and Historical Regatta of Saint Ranieri
Festival Name: Luminara and Historical Regatta of Saint Ranieri
Festival Country: Italy
Festival Type(s): Sport - Water, Traditional, Historical
Around 9:30 PM on June 16th, the eve of feast day of Saint Ranieri who
is the patron saint of Pisa, the buildings along the Arno River are
transformed into a fantastical fairyland setting.
Article Title: Game of the Bridge
Festival Name: Game of the Bridge
Festival Country: Italy
Festival Type(s): Bizarre, Re-enactments, Historical
Rival teams from different quarters of Pisa fought for symbolic
possession of a bridge over the Arno River. In those times, the games
often degenerated into brutal and bloody man to man fighting.
Article Title: Canada Day in London
Festival Name: Canada Day
Festival Country: England
Festival Type(s): National, Historical, Party
Canadians seldom get vocal about much. There are loads of us in London but we never make ourselves known like our fellow Aussie and Kiwi working holidaymakers. A big reason for that could be that we don't have many events in London to support, but when July 1st rolls around, Canadians flock to the Maple Leaf pub in Covent Garden to show their patriotism.
Article Title: Medieval Pageantry Lives On
Festival Name: Ommegang
Festival Country: Belgium
Festival Type(s): Medieval, Historical, Re-enactments
Brussels' Grand Place is packed with spectators, including the Royal Family and their guests, for the annual Ommegang, or 'walk about' in Dutch, the major annual event in the city since 1549. Although historians believe it began as a religious ritual in the 14th Century, the huge parade and festival is now devoid of religious connotations and focuses on local folklore and heritage.
Article Title: Russian Around Aarhus
Festival Name: Ship Ahoy Festival
Festival Country: Denmark
Festival Type(s): Maritime, Historical, Re-enactments
Bellowing out his command loudly in Russian from right behind my ear, the captain sharply snaps me from my momentary lull in the baking Baltic sun.
Article Title: Food and Wine Tasting in North-West Italy
Festival Name: Montà Food and Wine Festival
Festival Country: Italy
Festival Type(s): Food and Wine, Wine, Food
It was on my very first trip to Italy where I stumbled on this food and wine tasting adventure to rival all others. An annual celebration - 2003 being its tenth anniversary - it was only by chance that I happened to be in Italy during the last weekend of May to catch up with two old school friends from Australia, one of whom was Italian.
Article Title: Bathtubs on the River
Festival Name: International Regatta of Bathtubs - La Regate des Baignoires
Festival Country: Belgium
Festival Type(s): Bizarre, Sport - Bizarre
The hot sun of a mid-August day beats down on a motley flotilla as it makes it way down the River Meuse through the town of Dinant, Belgium. One of Europe's lesser-known festivals, La Regate des Baignoires, the International Regatta of Bathtubs, was, as the local tourist board cheerfully admits, a promotional stunt dreamed up to bring visitors to this sliver of a town wedged between steeps cliffs and the Meuse River about an hour from Brussels.
Article Title: The 10th Annual High Times Cannabis Cup
Festival Name: Cannabis Cup
Festival Country: Netherlands
Festival Type(s): Bizarre, Adult
The Cannabis Cup is a 5 day long celebration of the many wonderful things about marijuana. It's official purpose is to bring cannabis experts together so that they can 'taste' the latest varieties of marijuana and hashish, and vote for the one they like best, much as a panel of wine experts might gather to judge the year's wine offerings.
Article Title: An Irish Christmas - St. Stephen's to New Year's Eve
Festival Name: Christmas
Festival Country: Ireland
Festival Type(s): Christmas, Religious, Traditional
When I was a little girl, the day after Christmas was almost as much fun as the day itself. It was, and still is, a national holiday in Great Britain and Ireland, which makes a great deal of sense to me; adults get a day off to relax (or recuperate!), kids can look forward to going to the pantomime, and best of all, there's still that magical feeling of good cheer in the air.
Article Title: Starkbierzeit: Strong Beer and Bavarian Heritage
Festival Name: Starkbierzeit - Strong Beer Festival
Festival Country: Germany
Festival Type(s): Beer
Have you heard of Starkbierzeit? It's German for 'strong beer festival,' an event held every March in Munich. For two weeks, Münchners take a break from Lenten self-denial, breweries bring out their most potent beverages, and beer halls throw noisy parties with Bavarian food and entertainment. Locals call it their 'fifth season.'
Article Title: Respect
Festival Name: Respect Festival
Festival Country: England
Festival Type(s): Multicultural, Music - World, Music - Varied
It was a beautiful summers day in London and I was on the way to RESPECT - an Anti-racism and Multicultural Festival. This annual event has been held in July, for the past 2 years in various parks around London. This year the festival was held in Victoria Park, Hackney.
Article Title: A Homage To Sevilla
Festival Name: Semana Santa
Festival Country: Spain
Festival Type(s): Cultural, Religious, Traditional
Semana Santa represents a pulsating celebration of Easter and is as much of a sacred tradition to the proud Andalucians, as the rather more barbaric pastime of Bullfighting.
Article Title: The Festival of the Soggy Bed and Some Guy Called Our Pat
Festival Name: The Championships - Wimbledon
Festival Country: England
Festival Type(s): Sport - Racquet, Traditional
As far as sporting festivals go they don't come much purer than the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club's annual Championships, at Wimbledon.
Article Title: St. Michael's Carrots - The Feast of St. Michaels
Festival Name: St. Michael's Carrots - The Feast of St. Michaels
Festival Country: Ireland
Festival Type(s): Religious, Traditional, Cultural
On the afternoon of the Sunday preceding Michaelmas, women and girls in the Hebrides gather St. Michael's wild carrots. But they don't just dig them up haphazardly - a very special ritual must be observed.
Article Title: Shrove Tuesday - Pancake Day!
Festival Name: Shrove Tuesday - Pancake Day
Festival Country: Ireland
Festival Type(s): Religious, Traditional, Cultural
Throughout the British Isles and in many European countries, the day before Ash Wednesday - Shrove Tuesday - is commonly known as Pancake Day. As children, we loved watching the Pancake Races. Usually, the contestants were housewives. Each of them carried a skillet which contained a large, very thin pancake. The idea was for the women to race to the finish line, tossing their pancakes as they ran. It was hilarious - especially when a stray pancake landed where it wasn't supposed to!
Article Title: Isle of Iona - Innis na Druineach
Festival Name: Isle of Iona Festival
Festival Country: Scotland
Festival Type(s): Local, Party
Visitin' yer unsestors r ye?' The driver asked as I gratefully climbed into his clapped out old van. I ignored his mistaken questioning. A mistake caused by my red hair, a mistake I was hearing all the time in Scotland. 'Are you going as far as Tobermory?' I asked hopefully, by way of a response. I was going to the 'capital' of The Isle of Mull, the third largest island in the Scottish Hebrides.
Article Title: Galway Races - Where the Pint is the Unit of Currency!
Festival Name: Galway Races
Festival Country: Ireland
Festival Type(s): Sport - Equestrian, Party
Throughout Ireland people of all ages and occupations prepare for the Galway Races with a fervour that is almost religious in its intensity. Budgets are planned, holidays are arranged and business is scheduled to conform with the sacrosanct dates of the annual week-long festival.
Article Title: Art on Cows - Luxembourg
Festival Name: Art on Cows
Festival Country: Luxembourg
Festival Type(s): Art, Bizarre
The plaque on the base of the first cow offered little in the way of an explanation - Spledide by Christine Dumbsky. She was a metallic blue beast for the most part, with deep purple hooves and featured two topless pole dancers air brushed on her left flank.
Article Title: Battle of the Oranges
Festival Name: Battle of the Oranges - Ivrea Carnival
Festival Country: Italy
Festival Type(s): Carnival, Bizarre, Party
That fight for liberty is recreated with the Battles of the Oranges, which substitute stones. Italy exceeds its production quota of oranges as agreed within the EEC (the European Economic Community) , so the excess needs to be destroyed (just to keep up the retail price). My co-citizens cooperate in the difficult path towards a unified Europe by helping to smash some oranges.
Article Title: Seville's April Fair: Spain At Its Best
Festival Name: Abril Feria - April Fair
Festival Country: Spain
Festival Type(s): Traditional, Food and Wine, Party
The word 'Spain' invokes images of a most vibrant nation, Latin passion, proud bull-fighters, flamencos, and of course, of Carmen and Don Juan. Seville in the Andalusian region in southern Spain is the very embodiment of the Spanish character and spirit, and its cultural richness is best manifested by the annual week-long festival in this city during the last week of April -- Abril Feria, or April Fair.
Article Title: Sagra di'Pinolo - The Pine Nut Festival
Festival Name: Sagra di'Pinolo - The Pine Nut Festival
Festival Country: Italy
Festival Type(s): Food, Food and Wine
A couple of years ago, on our last evening in Florence, our friend Monique crammed us into her Fiat and took us for a short drive, just a few minutes away from the city. The place was Chiesanuova, the time was mid-June, and the celebration was the Sagra di'Pinolo -- the Pine Nut festival.
Article Title: Moments of Magick at the Stones
Festival Name: Summer Solstice
Festival Country: England
Festival Type(s): Solstice, Pagan, Folk
Me, I haven't rebounded on Earth since the Stones. Not yet. I'm a day back and my head is still somewhere on that wind, rain and mist-filled Plain of Salisbury. The Y2K solstice party seemed to be full of good vibes.
Article Title: Celebrating St. Patrick's Day In Old Ireland
Festival Name: St. Patrick's Day
Festival Country: Ireland
Festival Type(s): Religious, Party, Food and Drink
All over the world, St. Patrick's Day is celebrated with elaborate parades; families tuck into the traditional dinner of corned beef and cabbage; and, in the pubs, the green beer flows swifter than the River Shannon. It's odd to think that just a short time ago, none of the most popular customs we often take for granted even existed.
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