The Burning Man Festival
The most avant-garde art festival attracts a varied hi-tech crowd in the Nevada desert. The festival has a different theme every year and includes several artistic events. The festival ends with the ritual burning of a wooden effigy, the Burning Man.
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
Louisiana annually celebrates its jazz heritage on the last weekend in April and the first weekend in May. Twelve stages with different kinds of music, ranging from jazz and blues to gospel, R&B, and country, plus stalls selling local delicacies and folk crafts.
Venice Carnival
Both Napoleon and Mussolini tried to erase the Venice carnival from memory with the threat of heavy fines. However, this custom was revived in the 1980s, as baroque mask wearers filled the city streets and squares once again. The carnival culminates with the Dance of the Masks (Ballo Delle Maschere) that takes place in one of the city’s historical palazzos.
Oktoberfest
Every year at the end of September, millions of beer enthusiasts find themselves waiting for the indication from the mayor of Munich that signals the beginning of the festival. All sit around the long tables and enjoy the products of famed Bavarian breweries accompanied by local delicacies. One of the world’s largest festival dating 200 years.
White Nights Festival
From May to July the sun sets slowly or not at all and St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky (Kirov) Theatre hosts the best ballet and opera productions, featuring the world’s the greatest conductors and artists, masterpieces of music and many premieres.
Glastonbury
Every year the land of Druids and the myth of Avalon hosts the world’s biggest festival. Approximately 700 bands and musicians on 80 stages playing to 180.000 visitors on a farm measuring 9,000 hectares – these are the impressive statistics of a festival that has hosted the cream of pop-rock music.
Athens and Epidaurus Festival
A cultural institution since 1955, the likes of Maria Callas, Pavarotti, Hadjidakis, Karolos Koun, Nureyev, and Martha Graham have all graced this festival with their presence and enjoyed the applause of the crowds at the Herodus Atticus theatre or the ancient theatre of Epidaurus.
Rio Carnival
Impressive costumes, semi-naked dancers, outdoor parties and parades with 700.000 dancers to the rhythm of samba! Every year about 100 samba schools compete for the title of the queen of Samba, but the world’s most bacchanalian carnival extends in the streets, clubs, bars and on the beaches of “The City of God”.
The Edinburgh International Festival
The world’s biggest art festival is composed of six smaller festivals, the Fringe Festival being the most popular as it includes hundreds of different events such as theatre, dance, and exhibitions, every day in 265 spots around the city. In parallel, the events taking place in Edinburgh include 10 days of Jazz and Blues music, the International Film and also the International Book Festival that attracts the world’s most famous writers.
Festival in the Desert
In the middle of the Sahara desert, Touareg nomads celebrate their rich musical heritage every year in a three-day festival attended by visitors from around the globe while locals arrive on camels.