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Festivals
    

 
If you know of any festivals or events that would be of interest to our readers, or if you know of
a web link where one doesn't exist, let us know at info@day12.com

 
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Sydney Mardi Gras
Where: Sydney, Australia
When: March (every year)
Cost: Free!
The legendary Sydney Mardi Gras has been delighting party-goers and horrifying conservatives since 1978 and every March crowds line up along Oxford St to watch the parade which ends the month long celebration of gay and lesbian culture. The parade is started with a deafening roar by the 'Dykes on Bikes', and if you've never seen that many lesbians, you've certainly never seen that many Harley Davidsons. Over the next few hours you'll see floats, fig-leaves, firemen and quite a lot of flesh. Arrive early, find a good spot at the junction of Oxford and Flinders streets and bring a beer crate to site on - it's a looong parade. The biggest rounds of applause are reserved for the representatives from the police, the fire service (obviously) and PFLAG. Once the parade finishes, the parties start. And that's when the conservatives REALLY start to worry.
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Tropfest Film Festival
Where: Sydney, Australia
When: February (every year)
Cost: Free!
It's an odd experience to laugh at the same moment as 120,000 other people, but in Sydney, you'll laugh, groan, boo, cry and get lost coming back from the toilet. The Tropfest Film Festival features sixteen, 7-minute films (drawn from 600 entries) for a free, outdoor, short film festival held in Sydney's Domain (with 5 simultaneous screenings across Australia). The festival started in the Tropicana Caffe in Sydney in early 1990s and has grown into the world's largest short film festival. Judged by the likes of Tom Cruise, Salma Hayek, Keanu Reeves and Nicole Kidman, get a job serving in the VIP tent and who knows who you'll meet.
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Nimbin MardiGrass Festival
Where: Nimbin, NSW, Australia
When: June (every year)
Cost: Free (except for the weed, of course)
Nimbin is a tiny marijuana harvest festival held every year just outside Lismore, NSW. People come from all over Australia to load the boots of their Holdens, including a very vocal legalization lobby. Highlights last year included the Hemp Olympix; speed rolling - three skins, all from scratch - winner 7.9 seconds, (presumably you can only manage that for the first doobie) and bong throwing, which I kinda tried to make but was too smashed, and some other stuff but I forgot. The local MP made a speech, and local police chief even went on mic to say how calm the whole event had been (but did not condone the use of drugs). There are no stages, no bands, and posters saying "Heroin forbidden, alcohol discouraged" following a few years of hard drug abuse at the festival. The (only) pub is rammed with locals bitching about all those "guys getting wasted" (a spectacle in itself but don't check it caned - v scary!).
Links: None, obviously
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from Fabian Bonner (UK)
 
 
Semaine Nationale de Culture
Where: Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso
When: February 2009
Cost: See press
West Africa is becoming a bit of a rising star on the festival scene with the now legendary 'Festival au Desert' in Mali (and still only in its 6th year - that's how good it is), and the FESPACO film festival in Burkina Faso to name but two. Burkina is also host to the Semaine Nationale de Culture, held every other year (with FESPACO every other other year) in Burkina's second city, Bobo Dioulasso. A celebration of all things Burkinabe (and West African), the festival features dance, art, music, literature, traditional sports and, this being a Francophone country, lots of lively debates.
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Fiesta del Fuego
Where: Santiago, Cuba
When: September (every year)
Cost: Free
The incendiary 'Fire Festival' of music and dance is held in Cuba's second city (and former capital) and takes a different Caribbean country as its theme each year. The centerpiece of the festival is a carnival featuring traditional music, modern sound-systems, floats, feathers, food, and stalls selling every rum cocktail you've ever heard of, a few you haven't, and a lot of dancing. On Santiago's carnival night the entire city takes to the streets along with musicians and performers from across the Caribbean, several thousand tourists, and a very, very large amount of rum.
Links: Any ideas?
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Colours of Ostrava
Where: Ostrava, Czech Republic
When: (every year)
Cost: 16 Euros on the gate or from www.ticketpro.cz

Ostrava? Why you going there? It's dirty, ugly and industrial, full of unemployed miners and everyone is drunk all the time! Sounds perfect! Like Birmingham or Manchester before they filled them with soulless cafe bars and warehouse flats. The 'Colours' festival takes place in the centre of the city, in and around the exhibition grounds. Fields, stages, amphitheatres and dingy clubs inter-linked with bridges and flyovers, rivers and castles, bulging with stalls and beer tents and fabulous food. It's one of the weirdest and best venues for a festival I've been too. There's something for every kind of festival-goer. DJ tents and dance music stages. Punky/alt clubs and a vast range of music plus loads of local talent on the main stages. This year I saw Trans global, Fun-da-mental, Mariza, Alabama 3, and a right mixture of world music mannnnn!!! The organisers coped well with the mud (take note Glastonbury!) Everything is cheap, even for the locals. Not a sniff of trouble. The endless bars of the infamous Stodolni Street are close at hand and the locals will love you for combining a festival with a visit to a 'real' Eastern European city.
Tip: If you camp, get there the day before the bands start. The wait in the rain is bad! Don't take a tent, they have them. 6 Euros for three days.
Best part: All of it! But having proper tasty food at affordable prices helps you get over the flagons of cheap tasty beer you will have consumed.
Recommended: There are cheap hotels close by which is quite good for getting away from it all for a bit (the music goes on all night!). Try the faded splendour of the Hotel Palace. Opposite Dvorak Theatre; about 30 Euros a double per night.
After; visit the nearby Beskydy Mountains. To recover.
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from Nick Clarke (Czech Republic)
  
 
Bastille Day
Where: Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu
When: July 14th (every year)
Cost: Free
Southern India is probably the last place you'd expect to see French soldiers marching up and down the street singing La Marseillaise but every year in the Tamil town of Pondicherry the crowds gather to sing the French and Indian national anthems and celebrate their Indo-French heritage. The French arrived in this corner of India in 1674 and it remained their chief settlement until 1954. If you're in Tamil Nadu next year, we'd love to know if they sell masala crepes.
Links: Any ideas?
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The Sumida River Fireworks Festival
Where: Tokyo
When: July (every year)
Cost: Free
Japan has thousands of fireworks festivals but the Sumida River event, started in 1733 to celebrate the opening of the river to boats for the summer, is the biggest. Over the course of the evening around 20,000 fireworks light up the sky and thousands of people gather at the river to watch. Vendors sell traditional food and drink and many wear the summer kimono, or yukata. With all these people though, much of the riverbank is closed for fear of drowning and seats on boats and tables in roof top restaurants are booked up to a year in advance. You might find a seat in Nagoya though.
Links: Any ideas?
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from Koji Hasegawa (New Zealand)
  
 
Festival au Desert
Where: Essekane, Mali
When: January (every year)
Cost: Limited tickets - see links
Following the end of the Tamashek wars of the early 90s, the Toureg peoples of northern Africa restarted the centuries-old tradition of holding an annual gathering in the desert where various tribes could meet to arrange marriages, race camels and catch up on news. Over the last five years it has grown into one of the most sought-after festival tickets in the world. The 2005 festival featured Salif Keita, Afel Boucoum, Tinariwen and other stars of West African music. Tourist tickets are restricted (200 this year). The legendary 2003 festival, featuring Ali Farka Toure, Robert Plant, Damon Albarn and Oumou Sangare is available on CD and DVD on Independent Records.
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The World Buskers' Festival
Where: The Dux de Lux, Christchurch, New Zealand
When: January (every year)
Cost: Show your appreciation
The annual World Busker's Festival returns to Christchurch's Dux de Lux pub next January. The Dux (two bars, a cafe/restaurant, cocktail lounge, pool hall, sports bar, live music venue, award-winning micro-brewery and beer garden) has long been a backpackers' favourite and is part of the Arts Centre in the old university (where Rutherford learnt how to split stuff before moving to Cambridge). the Busker's festival takes place around the city for a week and every night there's a hilarious free show in the beer garden at the The Dux. If you thought busking was Bob Dylan songs outside Starbucks, and you're heading out to NZ next Christmas, make sure you're in Christchurch next January.
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The Wild Foods Festival
Where: Hokitika, New Zealand
When: March (every year)
Cost: NZ$15
Held in the normally sleepy New Zealand town of Hokitika, the Wild Foods festival has been turning stomachs since 1990 and 18,000 people now pitch up every year to sample gourmet 'West Coast' bushtucker such as Westcargots in white wine sauce, huhu grubs, spagnum moss candy floss, whisky sausages, possum & bambi burgers and high-protein earthworms, all washed down with plenty of Monteith's (a Kiwi beer) and some very tasty fruit ciders. Make sure you book accommodation well in advance, or, as parking restrictions tend not to mean much on the day, bring the Combi down early, park up next to the beach and watch the sun go down with a full stomach. Maybe.
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Virgen de la Camdelaria
Where: Puno, Peru
When: 27th February - 10th March (every year)
Cost: Free!
The Festival to the Virgin of the Candelaria in Puno, Peru is a perfect example of South America's creolized religion and combines Aymara and Quechua traditions with a Catholic feast day. Over the two week festival, 200 groups of dancers compete for judges along a route which snakes its way through the town, dancing to musicians who mix Spanish and Andean culture (brass bands and pan-pipes) all wearing curious costumes said to reflect the region's history with characters such as landowners, slaves, bears and devils. The judges are hidden around town which means the dancers just go full tilt all day, dancing the 'Diablada' to Jacancho, the god of mining; and the 'Waka waka' to Pachamama, the Earth Mother
See Godfrey Reggio's film 'Powaqqatsi' which features a short sequence from the festival.
Links: www.candelaria.i-p.com (Spanish)
from Elizabeth Milligan (UK)
   
 
Festival of Sao Joao
Where: Porto, Portugal
When: June (every year)
Cost: Free
The annual festival of Sao Joao, the feast day of St John the Baptist, is one of the most important events in the Portuguese calendar. Sao Joao benefits from being the patron saint of lovers and from Portuguese colonialism; festivals being held in Porto, Portugal; in Brazil; Goa in India and pretty much anywhere Vasco de Gama set foot. The festivals vary from country to country and town to town and events include church services and religious processions but there is also a strong party element and Porto holds one of the most raucous. The town is drenched in bunting, peppers and sardines are served from street stalls, whistles sound and then the inflatable hammers start to appear. Used to hit the most attractive revelers round the head, the hammers recently replaced the traditional leek, which, as a percussive instrument, is quite painful. If you're not seeing the wrong end of many hammers, team up with a mate and make yourselves feel better by hitting each other. Who knows where it might lead?
Links: Any ideas?
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from Elizabeth Milligan (England)
  
   
The Thaipusam Festival
Where: From Sarangoon Road, Singapore
When: February (every year)
Cost: Free
Singapore has a large Hindu community and the city holds the annual Thaipusam Festival as it has been banned in its native India. Penitents pierce their bodies with spikes and hooks, from which they suspend fruits and flowers, and then walk three kilometers across the city accompanied by spectators who chant prayers and clap their hands. It is also popular with tourists who encourage the devotees by grimacing and saying things like, "Oh, that has to hurt". The route runs (or rather, tip-toes gingerly) from the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple on Sarangoon Road to the Sri Thandayuthapani Temple on Tank Road.
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Rustler's Valley Festival
Where: Rustler's Valley , South Africa
When: Various events throughout the year
Cost: R150-200 (US$22-30)

Sitting at the feet of the Maluti mountains, near the border with Lesotho, Rustler's Valley is a living example of what the world could have become if the 60s had built a backpackers. Stunning surroundings, a very chilled vibe, and it also holds three cracking music festivals a year featuring DJs, musicians, artists and performers from across Africa and the world. Once the hostel is full, camping is available in two locations, depending on how close to the music you want to be, and there are hot showers and flush toilets as well as streams and pools to cool off in (eat your heart out Glastonbury).

Spring Equinox Gathering 23rd - 25th September
West African Drumming workshops in 23rd - 25th Sept and 27th - 30th Dec
New Year's Celebration 29th Dec - 2nd Jan
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from Huntly Munro (South Africa)
  
   
 
Jerez Flamenco Festival
Where: Jerez, Andalucia (Spain)
When: February (every year)
Cost: See link
Not a gypsy king in sight! So often disapointing in touristy Seville and Granada, a trip to Jerez, a beautiful, traditional Andalusian city is a chance to really get into the passion and heart of Andalusian culture. Forget the big sherry houses, I had quails and (far too many) testers of the local brew with the locals in a tiny tapas bar for next to nothing. Try the old quarter where the Flamenco museum is good for an hour watching old films of the legends. The festival is two weeks of shows, 3 main ones a day about a fiver a ticket. Get up early and get tickets on the day at the Theatre Villamarta. The town has loads of unofficial gigs every night (and all night). Look out for posters and flyers for local bars or Penas where you can find loads of cool young dudes from all over Spain getting down to fusions of all sorts. Balkan Flamenco, anyone? For an old punk to be moved to tears by Dancing is, well, embarrassing, but I don't care, it was all wonderful.
Tip: Take a partner or someone you wanna romance.
Best part: They stagger the shows so you can see loads of stuff and no tour buses!
Recommended: Book a room. Try the Hotel Las Palomas, Calle Higuerras 17, Higuerras. Lovely, cheap and very friendly.
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from Nick Clarke (Czech Republic)
  
   
Gracia Festival
Where: Gracia, Barcelona (Spain)
When: August (every year)
Cost: Free
In a city that seems to throw a fiesta at the drop of a hat, Barcelona's Gracia Festival has to be one of its best. People from all over the world come to walk the alleyways, sit in squares lit by the lazy golden dusk of Latin Europe and meet new friends at Barcelona's biggest street party of the summer. Visitors drink at makeshift bars and dance at any of the countless street parties. The festival runs for a week and the Catalonians give it everything. One street featured walls of blue spray painted bubble wrap, reams and reams of it, while above fluttered blue silk ribbons that gave the impression you were walking inside a glacier. In another street a 20ft high red robot with computer circuit boards for a stomach fought with a giant black spider that had ripped its arm off. The mojitas were strong, sure, but I know what I saw. The free festival succeeds in attracting nationalities from all over the world, partying in harmony, but while the Northern Europeans stagger about drunk, the Latinos are content to dance, to huddle in doorways smoking reefers or to spray slogans on bank windows. The Spanish know how to throw a party, but they don't party like the Saxons, Vikings or Celts. It creates a comfortable blend. The Gracia festival runs for a week in late August and beckons you back each day, hungover or not.
Click here for more of Barcelona's festivals
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from Howard Scott (England)