Most of my vacations center around footy matches, but lately the wife has started planning our trips to include other activities, like the Christmas Marts in Germany. Anybody got any recomendations on when to go to a certain place to take advantages of local festivals, both in the USA and aboard? Next on our list is the fireworks festival in Valencia.
Yeah its pretty cool, I also like the Artichoke festival in Watsonville. The Garlic festival has become a big deal, so there are loads of people and lots of lines, sort of losing the small town feel. Also this year I hit the Choclate fest. and the Crab fest. in SF, both are way too commercial, which seems to be the trend for these types of events in the Bay Area.
The best Music Festival to goto in Europe is Roskilde Festival in Denmark. Its a week of Partying (with 4 days of music) there are about 150 bands+DJs and they have EVERY kind of music you could ever want. Its one hell of an experience. http://www.roskilde-festival.dk/object.php?obj=f000c
if you at all enjoy theatre or dance you NEED to go to the Edinburgh Fringe festival. It is an absolutly great time. Very enjoyable. Not to mention how beautiful Scotland is in August.
If you're going to be in Spain, you might as well go to Bunol to the worlds largest food fight, La Tomatina. 240,000 pounds of tomatoes, and everyone is a target. It's the last wednesday in August. Bring some swim goggles though....I can't imagine that the tomato acid would feel very good on your eyes. And the Festival de San Fermin is a given. In Italy, there's Il Palio horse race in Siena. Riders representing each neighborhood race three or four laps around the town square bareback on a horse. Anything goes, and it's not uncommon to see a rider beat another rider with his whip instead of the horse. Afterwards it's a gigantic party that goes until morning.