Carnival celebrations are hardly unique to Rio de Janeiro, but, without doubt, the city boasts the world’s wildest, glitziest and largest of them all. Drawing participants from all over the globe, this is the world’s best party – full stop. Partying at the Rio carnival is something you definitely won’t forget so leave your inhibitions at the airport and get ready to party. And don’t worry that you can’t dance samba in the sexy, shuffling way the locals do; there are worse things in life than being taught how to samba by a Brazilian guiding the movements of your hips.
Holi, primarily in north India but also in various other states
In February/March for about four days
Holi is one of the most vibrant Indian festivals. It has its origins in Hinduism, but revelers today span the entire country, regardless of their religion, caste or class. Although it is a springtime festival, and hence a celebration of the arrival of the harvest season, Holi is essentially about colour, and everyone gets involved, showering friends, family and passers-by with multi-coloured powders, and assaulting complete strangers with water balloons and spray guns. Colour may be the common feature of Holi, but each region adds its own unique touch to the spectacle – from Mathura’s mock battles between the sexes to Phalen’s full-moon bonfire.
Queen’s Day, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
For one day on April 30 (unless this falls on a Sunday, in which case April 29)
Queen’s Day is the wildest possible time to visit Amsterdam. The queen in question isn’t one of the flamboyant transvestites hanging around Rembrandtplein but Holland’s reigning monarch, Queen Beatrix, whose official birthday is celebrated throughout the country on April 30. The ensuing fiesta is Amsterdam’s Mardi Gras and Oktoberfest all rolled into one. In a city famed for its easy-going, fun-loving population, it still manages to crank the party volume a few notches higher as the citizens of Amsterdam reclaim the streets, parks, squares and canals of the town from tourists, motorists and officialdom for one glorious party. There are just two rules to observe; you must dress as ridiculously as possible, in orange – the Dutch national colour, and you must drink enough beer not to care.
Bun Bang Fai, Vientiane, Laos
In May for one day
On the full moon in May, it’s time to light the fuse and stand well clear throughout Laos, as rocket fever grips the nation, and countless homemade contraptions are launched skywards to ensure good rain and a healthy crop as part of the Bun Bang Fai Festival. Vientiane is the place to be, although you’ll find smaller events going on all over the country. Buddhist monks are the most expert rocket scientists, using bamboo tubes – up to five metres in length – stuffed with gunpowder, decked in coloured ribbons and capped by a paper dragon’s head. There’s much bawdy singing and dancing through the day, and come the evening everyone assembles in raucous crowds by the Mekong river to watch the launchings.
Gnawa and World Music Festival, Essaouira, Morocco
In June for four days
The music of the Gnawas (or Gnaouas), a spiritual brotherhood that has its origins in sub-Saharan Africa and melds animist, Berber and Arab influences, is mysterious, hypnotic, trance-inducing stuff that can send the musicians spinning (literally) into another plane. Essaouira makes for a beautiful setting. Its picturesque lanes and squares, sparkling light and tranquil atmosphere have attracted many painters, woodcarvers and other artisans over the years. During the festival, the pounding rhythms of drums, reed pipes and castanet-like garagabs ringing out from Place Prince Moulay el Hassan, deep inside the city’s medina, or old town, only add to the atmosphere.
Il Palio, Siena, Italy
On July 2 and August 16 for two to four days, including associated festivities
Siena’s legendary bareback horserace – Il Palio – is a highly charged, death-defying two-minute dash around the boundary of the city’s majestic and equally famous Piazza del Campo. Twice every summer, riders elected by each of the city’s ancient districts compete in a bid to win the much-prized palio, or banner, that gives its name to the event. Following the race, the winning jockey is feted, and the residents of his district sing, dance and ferociously celebrate his victory into the small hours. The vibrancy of the costumes, grand architecture, stifling heat, and huge crowds all create a frenetic mood to go alongside the shocking potential for brutality and behind-the-scenes sleaze.
Esala Perahera, Kandy, Sri Lanka
For the last ten days of the Buddhist lunar month of Esala (usually late July and early August)
In terms of noise, colour and crowds, there’s nothing else on earth quite like Kandy’s Esala Perahera, a 10-day extravaganza dating back to the fourth century and the early days of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Forget Ibiza’s club scene, for truly all-out sensory assault, this is hard to beat. Held to honour the Buddha’s tooth, the festival is based around a series of increasingly lengthy and spectacular nighttime parades involving drummers, dancers, torch-bearers, whip-crackers, fire-eaters and, most spectacularly, over 100 costumed elephants. The final parade is the best part of a kilometre long, and can take several hours to wind its way around the city streets.
Burning Man, Black Rock City, Nevada, USA
The week before Labor Day (first Monday in September), for eight days
Picture a nudist miniature golf course, an advanced pole-dancing workshop, a motorised magic-carpet vehicle and a bunch of neon-painted bodies glowing in the night. Now you may be getting close to imagining what the legendary Burning Man is all about. Every year during the last week of August, several thousand geeks, pyrotechnics, Goths, hippies and hip yuppies descend on the Nevada desert for a week to burn a 50ft effigy of a man, constructed from wood and neon, and stuffed with fireworks. It’s not the ideal place to party – temperatures can exceed 38C (100F) by day – but the thousands of anarchists, deviants, mad scientists, techno-heads, dancers and freakish performance artists that arrive here from all over the world certainly give it their best shot.
Fantasy Fest, Florida, USA
From the penultimate Friday to the last Sunday in October, for 10 days
Fantasy Fest is a music-and-rum-fuelled party that reaches its zenith with a massive themed costume parade. It’s a camp affair all right, but whatever your sexual orientation, the mood is so exuberant that it’s hard not to get drawn in. There’s a Headdress Ball on Tuesday; an outrageous Beach Party and a Pet Masquerade and Parade on Wednesday (featuring cross-dressing animals and their lookalike owners); and a fancy-dress party on Thursday. There’s also the notorious Toga Party, where you’ll see some of the skimpiest togas ever worn, and, on Friday, the Caribbean Street Fair bursts on to the scene with feathered masks and tons of frivolous exotica on offer. Just before sunset on Friday, the Fairvilla Megastore Masquerade March winds its way through the fair, with the emphasis on – what else? – fantasy.
Day of the Dead, Mexico
November 1 and 2, for two days
It’s not every day you get to party with the dead, but on the first two days in November, all of Mexico does just that, as everything stops for the most distinctive festival on the calendar, a nationwide communion with the departed, known as the Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. Sound a touch morbid? It’s actually a more joyful occasion than you might expect, as it’s both a time for the remembrance of loved ones and a celebration of the eternal cycle of life – a carnival of welcome, if you like, for the spiritual return of the dead. For days in advance, favourite dishes are prepared and placed on flower-decked altars, along with some beloved tequila. Come nightfall, graveyards quickly start to resemble Mexican roadside restaurants, as picnic tables and chairs are set around graves, tortillas are fried, and substantial quantities of tequila are consumed in memory of the deceased.
Junkanoo, Nassau, New Providence Island, The Bahamas
Two all-night parties, from the early hours of December 26 and again on New Year’s Day
The Bahamas’ most important and spectacular party, Junkanoo is a blast to the senses. Parades flood the streets of Nassau in a whirling, reeling mass of singing and dancing chaos, as competing groups or “crews” rush out to meet the dawn, moving toward one another from all directions, rather than following each other in the semi-organised fashion of the modern parade. Various groups and societies compete to be the biggest and loudest floats, which means you’ll see stilt-dancers, clowns, acrobats, go-go girls, goatskin-drum players, and conch and cowbell ringers, all blaring out their tunes in an awesome celebration of life that can only have originated in the Caribbean.
“World Party: The Rough Guide to the World’s Best Festivals (£16.99), covering all of the above and 200 other events, is published this month.
