Travel Articles

Have you always dreamed of running the bulls in Pamplona, but never quite got your act together? Are you fed up with trying to book a bed in Munich for the Oktoberfest in September? Have you tried desperately to find a hostel in Edinburgh for the Festival?

To make sure that 2009 IS different, here’s a quick rundown of the biggest events around the world. We’ve obviously missed a fair few out (the world’s a pretty big place, after all!) but we feel that these are the biggest dates on the backpacking calendar.
 

January

Mardi Gras, New Orleans, USA: 6th January - 24th February
The New Year kicks off with a bang in the unmistakeable shape of New Orleans’ Mardi Gras. The entire city is turned upside down as people organize themselves into ‘krewes’, and then parade through the streets in a burst of music, color and amazing floats!

And in the last couple of years, Mardi Gras has been even more important than ever, as the city has managed – with its usual aplomb – to get back on its feet after 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.
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Chinese New Year, Beijing, China: 26th January
Hot on the heels of the Rio Carnival comes this year’s Chinese New Year celebrations. The coming of 2008 – the Year of the Rat – will be celebrated throughout Asia (and the world), but nowhere is the party bigger than in Beijing. Known as the ‘world’s largest human migration’ the whole spectacular event reaches a climax with the beautiful ‘Lantern Festival.'
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February

Venice Carnival, Venice, Italy: 13th - 24th February
Over in Italy, on the other hand, Venice’s annual carnival celebrations are totally in keeping with this stunning city. With acrobats, elaborate outfits and iconic Venetian masks galore, the city becomes a wonderfully decadent costume ball!
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Rio de Janeiro Carnival, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: 20th - 25th February
But when it comes to carnivals, there’s only one contender for the title for the biggest of them all: Rio de Janeiro. The main event is, obviously, the huge samba competitions (held in the massive Sambadrome), a riot of extraordinary floats, music and dancing.

And it doesn’t stop there. Across the city, the bars and clubs shake (even more than usual) to the seductive samba beat… After a long night out in Lapa, it usually all ends up, tired but ecstatically happy, watching the sun come up from Copacabana Beach.
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March
 
St. Patrick’s Day, Dublin, Ireland: Leading up to the 17th March
Come March 17th, New York, Boston and many other US cities throw some pretty extravagant celebrations of all things Irish. But you really can’t beat Dublin – the event’s spiritual home – when it comes to the definitive St. Patrick’s Day.

The city witnesses more than 4,000 performers descend on and around O’Connell St. Oh, and then there are the rivers of Guinness that flow endlessly down the throats of thirsty spectators at all hours of the day and night!
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April

Semana Santa, Seville (and throughout Andalucia), Spain: 3rd - 12th April
April is a big month in the travelers’ calendar, and this year it starts off with the sensational ‘Semana Santa’, or Holy Week celebrations, of Andalucia. The week is awash with an endless series of somber processions (by day) and serious partying (by night).

Seville undoubtedly puts on the grandest show, but Malaga, Cordoba and Granada all have plenty to recommend them by.
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Queen’s Day, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: 29-30th April
Every year more than a million people descend on Amsterdam for the celebration of the Queen’s birthday. Never exactly a quiet city, at the end of April it really goes wild as it’s swept by a wave of orange-clad revelers.

As an interesting aside, for one day only, you’re permitted to sell anything at all on the streets and the city becomes one big flea market… Just another thing that makes Queen’s Day the day when a famously permissive, tolerant country becomes even more permissive and tolerant!
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July

The Running of the Bulls (San Fermin), Pamplona, Spain: 4 - 15th July
July sees the quiet town of Pamplona become swamped with brave (foolhardy?) travelers looking to follow in the footsteps of Hemingway’s Jake Barnes, and take part in the ‘encierro’, or the Running of the Bulls.

Throughout the Festival of San Fermin, every morning – generally after a night of hard drinking – you line up on Calle de Santo Domingo… Then the bulls are released, and you’ve got 800 meters to cover as fast as your legs can carry you!
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August

La Tomatina, Valencia, Spain: 26th August
Another month, another major Spanish event. Nowhere else in the world has as many events that are perfectly suited to the backpacker. Valencia’s ‘Tomatina’ festival, though, is possibly the messiest, and generally craziest of the lot!

The nearby town of Buñol is the final destination of the many, many travelers who make the annual pilgrimage to the town to pelt each other with ripe tomatoes in the baking summer sun… It just doesn’t get any better than that!
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Edinburgh Fringe, Edinburgh, Scotland: 7th - 31st August
Every August, Edinburgh gears itself up for the ‘Edinburgh Festival Fringe’, a couple of weeks of the best comedy, alternative theater, music and all manner of cultural offerings among the 15,000-plus performances.

Along with its slightly more sober cousin – the Edinburgh Festival – it makes up the world’s biggest arts event. Suffice to say that for the whole month of August, the atmosphere in the city is absolutely electric!
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October

Oktoberfest, Munich, Germany: 19th September - 4th October
Six million visitors. Several thousand ‘hendl’ (roast chickens) consumed. Countless millions of liters of beer drunk. And when it’s all over, an awful lot of sore heads. This is the Oktoberfest, a glorious homage to, well… drinking!

Away from the vast beer tents, there are parades, marching bands and fairground rides galore, in what’s held to be the ‘World’s Biggest Fair’. But this is hardly the point: It’s beer that draws the crowds, and beer that unites them. Prost!
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November

El dia de los muertos/Day of the Dead, Mexico: 26th October - 3rd November
The Day of the Dead is undoubtedly one of the world’s more intriguing spectacles. A merging of ancient Aztec and (more recent) Roman Catholic traditions, rather than being a sad occasion, it is, instead, a genuine celebration.

Although the day is celebrated across Mexico and the southern United States, it’s perhaps most spectacular on and around the islands of Lake Patzcuaro (to the west of Mexico City).
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December

As 2009 draws to a close, most people will be turning their attention to where to see in the New Year. And you’re not exactly short of options, either, as most of the world’s big cities tend to put on lavish New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Two in particular, though, probably represent the most prestigious places to party on 31st December: New York and Sydney. As the big crystal ball drops over Times Square, and Sydney’s skyline erupts in a glorious explosion of fireworks, the whole incredible cycle starts again…