The Balloon Fiesta began in 1972 as a birthday celebration for a local radio station. It was first held in a shopping mall parking lot. Since then, it has become the largest hot-air balloon event in the world, with more than 550 balloons flying the skies over Albuquerque each October. The nine-day festival includes a variety of events, including morning mass...
Christmas is a time for tradition and celebration in Alsace, especially in Colmar. Beginning at the end of November the Christmas Markets set up outside in four public squares and inside the Old Customs House (Koïfhus). The plazas each have a theme and wooden stalls are set up around historical buildings in Place des Dominicains, Petite Venise, Place de l’Ancienne Douane,...
Mulhouse uses its reputation as the birthplace of the region’s textile industry to host an extraordinary festival from late November through December each year. Designers and craftsmen create an original fabric every year to hang on the vendor stalls during the Christmas Market. Place de la Réunion, the town square, and nearby streets decorate extravagantly with the lush cloth and colorful lights....
Christmas is a time for tradition and celebration in Alsace. Christmas markets take place in almost every village from late November until the end of the year, and it’s possible to jump from place to place in search of unique products and seasonal entertainment. Colmar kicks off the season at the end of November when the Christmas Market begins. Stalls set up...
Eclectic music festival, held in Ayrshire in late-May to honour Rabbie Burns but also celebrate Scottish culture more generally. Good fun and definitely worth a look if you’re in the area – a free shuttle bus runs from Ayr station to Belleisle Park – the hub of the festival.
The largest Celtic music festival on the planet but much more than that too with World music coming here from it’s four corners – from Mongolia to the Cape Verde Islands. Held at venues throughout Glasgow, including the Glasgow Concert Hall – a key venue and location for this entry’s map marker.
A feis (pronounced “faysh”) is a festival of Gaelic music and dance, usually lasting several days. Most take place in the Highlands and Islands and burst with infectious enthusiasm and energy. There are several held every year, the biggest being the early-September Blas, but most are irregular, so check the website to find one that fits in with your travel...
Glasgow goes jazz-mad for a week at the end of June as musicians and devotees swamp theatres, pubs and clubs. Glasgow City Halls are a major venue and this entry’s map marker.
The idea that selling sheep might be a process worth watching might be seem strange, but then the Lairg Sheep market does see 40,000 of them converge. This makes it Europe’s largest such market.
This gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender festival takes over Glasgow Green for a weekend in late-August. It generally attracts around 25,000 visitors. At other times of year Outspoken Arts organise a calendar of LGBTQ theatre, visual art, music, dance, comedy, film, club nights, literature and exhibitions.
Folk music is alive and well at any time of the year in Shetland where fiddle-playing is still a big deal. But during its Folk Festival talent from far afield arrives and things really kick off – making this the best time to enjoy music on the island. The Festival Club, otherwise the Islesburgh Community Centre, is the hub for...
Three days of concerts and ceilidhs devoted to traditional and contemporary Celtic music. Also with a craft fair and a good number of free events; a fun atmosphere reigns! Events take place in a tented village – the box office is this entry’s map marker.
Timed for midsummer, the St Magnus Festival, a week-long arts festival, often combines music, drama, dance, literature and the visual arts with the long nights and Orkney’s remarkable landscape to good effect. But even without this there is often something of interest in the program for anyone; usually including a world premier or two. Several venues around Kirkwall are used,...
Getting it’s name from its sponsor, the Tennents brewery, this three-day rock concert sees a series of fields near the town of Kinross covered in tents. Then so much wild revelry takes place that the extensive line-up of world-renown indie, rock and pop bands sometimes seems like a sideshow! Book well in advance.
The New Year in Kirkwall kicks off with The Ba’, a free-for-all ball game played in the town’s crowded streets. Scrums can involve more than 300 men and broken and cracked ribs are not uncommon!
This top-flight music festival – officially the Royal National Mòd – attracts hundreds of talented competitors who don formal dress to perform Gaelic song and music. At stake are gold medals in various categories: solo, duets, choirs and a range of unusual traditional instruments: bagpipes, clarsachs (small harps), fiddles, accordions and melodeons. The location varies each year: 2016 – Western...
As nuts as it sounds: Shetland men dress as Vikings then burn a full-sized replica longboat. Great fun to watch! Takes place in ten locations across the Shetland islands, the largest being in Lerwick.
Some 3,000 pipers get dressed up and create a truly Scottish sound on Glasgow Green. Well worth making the effort to see.
One of Thailand’s wackiest festivals, Phi Ta Khon is a great one for experiencing traditional Thai culture in a rural setting. The village of Dan Sai never sees a tourist for 362 days a year, but on three others, the tiny hamlet gets packed with revellers for this bawdry fete, which is a combination of pagan and Buddhist. Villagers wear...
Poi Sang Long is a beautiful and colorful festival that lies off the radar, celebrated up in rural northern Mae Hong Son Province in Thailand’s mountainous north. The festival, which occurs at the start of April each year, celebrates the passage of young boys into becoming novice monks. While there are similar festivals celebrated in Chiang Mai and elsewhere, in...