Best Festivals in the World

 

Whether it’s the arts and culture, food and wine, holidays, or religion you’re into, there’s a gathering somewhere with your name on it. Here’s a look at our “bucket list” picks for the biggest and best festivals in the world:

1. Best Cultural Festivals

2. Best Holiday Festivals

3. Best Music Festivals

4. Best Religious Festivals

1. BURNING MAN (BLACK ROCK DESERT, NEVADA)

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary there are nearly one million words in the English language. But we’re not sure any of them can adequately explain the inspired madness that goes down in the northwestern Nevada desert every summer. Burning Man started in 1986, when Larry Harvey and his buddy Jerry James assembled a 8-foot-tall makeshift wooden figure and dragged it to San Francisco’s Baker Beach on the Summer Solstice.

They lit it on fire, a curious crowd of around 20 people watched it burn, and thus one of the world’s weirdest, wildest parties was born. From those humble beginnings, the Man grew (hitting 105 feet in 2014), as did the number of attendees (nearly 80,00 in 2020, attendance dropped dramatically in 2021 during the pandemic).

Once an intimate gathering of friends and family, the festival is now an arty, apocalyptic paean to the wonder of self-expression, attracting a tight-knit community of bohemians and misfits from all around the world. It’s part Mad Max, part Survivor, and part Comic-Con (see: CRAZY costumes & festival clothing), with an emphasis on experimental creativity, cooperation, and civic responsibility.

It takes place from the last Sunday in August to Labor Day. And after the man is burned in the climactic culmination, the entire “city in the desert” disappears without a trace.

2. CARNIVAL (RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL)

Arguably the biggest festival in the world (not to mention its wildest party), Brazil’s Carnival is widely considered “the greatest show on Earth.” The event attracts nearly 5 million people each year, with a half-million or so being visitors traveling to see the spectacle.

Historically, Carnival is a religious celebration. The Brazil festival takes place in February or March, over the 5 days preceding the Catholic season of Lent, which starts 40 days before Easter. It also coincides with the end of the long, brutally hot Brazilian summer.

So picture 5 million people who’ve been baking in the heat for months, preparing to give up the things they love for 40 days, set loose in a city filled with lively music and half-naked dancers shaking what their mama gave them. Yeah, it’s THAT crazy. And colorful, thanks to creative costumes worn by the 70+ samba schools (each representing a different neighborhood) who compete for cash and national fame.

This famous festival culminates with a rowdy, raucous 2-night extravaganza at Rio’s remarkable Sambadrome, where 90,000+ spectators pay top dollar to watch the top 12 samba schools compete for the grand prize. There are annual themes for the competition, and the carnival parades are usually the stuff of legend. Carnival is celebrated in many Latin American nations, but nobody does it like Rio.

3. HARBIN INTERNATIONAL ICE & SNOW SCULPTURE FESTIVAL (HARBIN, CHINA)

Where Carnival celebrates the end of Brazil’s oppressive heat, the International Ice & Snow Sculpture Festival makes the most of the bitter winter weather you’ll find in Harbin, China. Located in Northeast China, Harbin receives some seriously cold winter winds blowing over from Siberia. How cold, you may ask? The average daily temperature in winter is around 1.8 ºF, and lows of -31 ºF are dauntingly frequent.

So why in god’s green earth would any sane person want to visit for this month-long Chinese festival (which officially starts on January 5)?

Because it’s home to the largest ice sculptures in the world, and the celebration takes over the entire city. There are two main exhibition areas: Sun Island is a recreation area along the Songua River, where you’ll find most of the giant sculptures. Ice and Snow World opens at night, with colorful lights illuminating full-sized buildings made of 2- to 3-foot ice blocks taken from the river.

Other activities in the area during the festival include alpine skiing, touring ice lantern exhibitions in various local parks, and– for the truly insane– swimming in the river’s frigid waters.

4. LA TOMATINA (VALENCIA, SPAIN)

Launched way back in 1945, La Tomatina is one of the oldest festivals on our list. It’s also easily the messiest, coming off like the world’s biggest food fight. Legend has it that the whole thing started when some local boys joined a parade alongside musicians, “Giants” on stilts, and “Big Head” figures.

The unruly boys knocked one of the performers off his stilts, he became enraged and started lashing out, and a vendor’s vegetable stand fell victim to the mayhem until the police arrived to break it up. The Spanish festival was banned for much of the 1950s, but in 1957 locals protested with a mock funeral, carrying a coffin with a giant tomato inside as bands played a funeral march.

Eventually the powers-that-be relented, and La Tomatina has grown into a huge tourism draw in the decades since. If you go, please follow some simple rules: Don’t throw hard objects, squash the tomato before throwing it, stay a safe distance away from tomato trucks, and stop when the starter pistol indicates that the hour of mayhem has ended. In other words, have fun, but don’t hurt anybody and don’t be a jerk.

5. MARDI GRAS (NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA)

Also known as Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras in New Orleans is a cultural spectacle to behold– sort of like the USA version of Carnival. But there is some debate over whether it was NOLA or Mobile, Alabama that had the first Mardi Gras back in the 1700s. Regardless of who did it first, few would argue that the New Orleans festival is the best. Though the celebration is held every year on the day before Ash Wednesday, the festivities last for months.

It begins with social events in November, private balls held on Thanksgiving Day and New Year’s Eve, with parades and more private balls throughout January and early February. Getting invites to the private events isn’t easy. But if you know someone (or have the money to grease palms), MOM’s Ball and  Orpheuscapade Ball are frequently ranked among the best.

And if you love music, check out the annual Galactic concert at the world-famous Tipitina’s on Lundi Gras (the day before Mardi Gras). When the big day arrives, it’s best to plan what you want to see and do before the parade of beads, boobs, and booze begins. Longtime locals love the Krewe of Muses Parade, the Rex & Zulu Parade, and the Krewe of St. Anne and Krewe of Julu Parades. But, for our money, it doesn’t get any better than watching the Mardi Gras Indians Parade in Treme.