July events around the world
Africa
Festival of the Dhow Countries, Zanzibar, Tanzania
Over 10 days Zanzibar hosts this festival of festivals, showing more than 250 films, 40 musicians and ten exhibitions as well as seminars, workshops, batik classes and numerous beach parties
Grahamstown Festival, South Africa
All sorts of performances are put on in venues across Grahamstown, which hosts Africa’s largest arts event – with big dance shows, dramatic and operatic productions, art exhibitions and early evening concerts
Marrakech Popular Arts Festival, Morocco
Performers from all around Morocco head to Marrakech to showcase their acts in Djemaa el-Fna’s alfresco setting – there’s fire eaters, fortune tellers, folk singers, Berber musicians, dancers from the High Atlas and Gnaouas drummers
Mwaka Kogwa, Zanzibar, Tanzania
Zanzibar celebrates the Shizrazi (Persian) New Year in this locally organised festival, with men staging mock fights, women parading in their finest looking for a suitor and the ritual burning of a grass hut
Panafest, Ghana
A biennial celebration of African culture and freedom which sees a candlelit vigil to honour the victims of slavery and raucous partying with music from traditional West African artists
Australasia & Pacific
Beer Can Regatta, Australia
Darwin hosts a stereotypical Australian festival in which hundreds of beer can are consumed and then strapped together to create rafts to race in a charity regatta
Camel Cup, Australia
Alice Springs holds the best known camel racing event in the country – a sport which the humped beasts don’t take to naturally
Heiva, Tahiti
Celebrating French Polynesia’s indigenous culture, the island of Tahiti comes alive with women dressing in vibrant feathered costumes, dancing much like in the Maori haka and a Mr and Miss Tahiti competition with events in palm tree scaling and stone lifting
Caribbean
Crop Over, Barbados
Bridgetown marks the end of Barbados’ sugar harvest with a spectacular festival of parades, calypso concerts and rum-based parties
Fiesta de Merengue, Dominican Republic
Santo Domingo’s population converges on the Malecón, a palm-fringed boulevard, for a rum-fuelled party which sees twenty bandstands host live music acts from Dominican stars
Reggae Sumfest, Jamaica
Jamaica’s top music festival is one of the best reggae events in the world, with several concerts and beach parties, reggae legends and R&B and hip-hop acts
Europe
Aix-en-Provence Festival, France
Aix-en-Provence hosts France’s best-curated classical music and opera festival with world-class performers and artists on the stages of some of Europe’s finest music venues, including Théâtre de l’Archevêché
Avignon Festival, France
The beautifully preserved buildings of Avignon hosts a number of cultural events and performing arts with enough going on to ensure there’s something for everyone
Bayreuth Festival, Germany
Dedicated to works by Richard Wagner, performances are put on at the purpose-built Festspielhaus between July and August each year – tickets are very hard to come by however, so book as early as September they year before
Bastille Day, France
France celebrates its national holiday – and the event that kicked off the French Revolution – with a mix of street parties and finery, and the best parties take place in Paris
Benicàssim Festival, Spain
Big names play at this music festival, termed ’Glastonbury without the mud’, just north of Valencia – the dance tents stay open all night and revellers head to the beach for paella and Frisbee to recover
Cartier International Polo, United Kingdom
Prestigious society event held at Windsor Great Park, with a match between England and another international side
Copenhagen Jazz Festival, Denmark
More than 600 concerts are hosted over ten days, both outside by Copenhagen’s rivers and canals and in its concert halls, piazzas, parks, cafes and clubs
Edirne Oil Wrestling Championships, Turkey
Oil wrestling has been a national sport in Turkey since at least 1360 and each year you can see it at its best at the Sarayiçi Stadium near Edirne – there’s a medieval feel to proceedings, gypsy bands and wandering kebab-sellers
Exit Festival, Serbia
World-class bands and 150,000 revellers head to the dramatic fortress in Novi Sad for this vibrant music festival
Festa de Noantri, Italy
This religious procession in Trastevere commemorates a group of fishermen who pulled up a statue of a Madonna from the Tiber in the sixteenth-century – surrounding days feature street theatre, dances and music
Festa del Redentore, Italy
Saturday sees St Mark’s basin in Venice fills with 2,000 boats, decorated in flowers, lanterns and balloons, whose passengers await a spectacular firework display which is followed by feasting and the young heading to the Lido to party till dawn – gondolas form a bridge over the Giudecca canal on Sunday to allow the faithful to walk to the Church of Redentore for Mass
Fiesta de San Fermin, Spain
Better known as the Running of the Bulls, Pamplona’s party sees the continual flow of beer and sangria, partying in the streets, bull fights and most famously the early morning daily bull run – scary, riotous stuff
Fiesta de Santa Marta de Ribarteme, Spain
People in northwest Spain who have had near-death experiences climb into coffins and carried into Santa Marta de Ribarteme – brass bands, fireworks and stall sellers surround the event
Giants of Douai, France
Douai’s festival is the oldest, biggest and best of those that involve parading giant figures made from wood or papier mâché – in all there’s more than 100 effigies, representing characters from local legends, some up to eight metres tall
Glyndebourne Festival Opera, United Kingdom
A beautiful, 700-year-old stately home in Glyndebourne hosts this festival of six operas throughout the English summer, with the very best international singers, conductors and orchestras performing and some exquisite picnics
Goodwood Festival of Speed, United Kingdom
The motoring afficionado’s event of the year sees three days of celebration of the car in the glorious grounds of Goodwood – the all round appeal of classic cars, concerts, food, socialising and people watching make it an event for everyone
Henley Royal Regatta, United Kingdom
This society event makes rowing its centre, with five days of racing in the picturesque setting – but the main draw is more likely the summer socialising, with afternoon teas, picnics, champagne and more
Il Palio, Italy
Siena’s holds its legendary bareback horserace each year in July and August, in which participants from opposing districts take a two-minute dash around the boundary of the Piazza del Campo – celebrations continue through the night
Kulmbach Bierfest, Germany
Oompah bands play along as festival goers try out the many different brews and ales
Landskronakarnevalen, Sweden
Landskrona’s carnival has a super selection of Caribbean calypso, local bands, samba processions and big street parties across the long weekend
Latitude Festival, United Kingdom
The boutique festival in Suffolk draws in a good, but not overwhelming, crowd, who come for the music, poetry, comedy, film, cabaret and literary acts on stage in this varied and gently debauched event
Love Parade, Germany
One of the world’s largest free music festivals, the Love Parade in Berlin attracts more than a million people to listen to techno music and get merry
Montreaux Jazz Festival, Switzerland
Montreaux hosts one of Europe’s most prestigious music events and features sorts, including acid jazz, gospel, techno, hip-hop, reggae, samba and salsa
Nava Cider Festival, Spain
Nava celebrates its greatest export, cider, with tastings, competitions – for the best brew – and bagpipe playing – and lots and lots of drinking the various types
North Sea Jazz Festival, The Netherlands
Rotterdam hosts a weekend of jazz and related genres, drawing in 100,000 revellers as
well as big name acts on several stages
Paleo Festival, Switzerland
The open-air music festival near Nyon is spread over six days and attracts around 40,000 people each day to hear performances from the two main stages, world music stage and smaller venues
Roskilde Festival, Denmark
Second only to Glastonbury, Roskilde brings in 90,000 people to listen to punk, rock and metal bands
Salzburg Festival, Austria
One of Europe’s most acclaimed arts events, Salzburg’s music festival is highly focused on Mozart, but includes plenty of other genres, some modern day, as well as a number of theatre productions
Spoleto Festival, Italy
This broad arts festival – with theatre, cinema and visual arts as well as music and dance – has some spectacular opening and closing concerts held in the main town square
Verona Opera Festival, Italy
The 2,000-year-old Arena di Verona – the Roman amphitheatre once a stage to gladiators and medieval games -hosts spectacular opera performances in the land of the maestro and diva from June to August
White Nights, Russia
For four weeks in June and July the sun never quite sets on St Petersburg, leaving a pearly twilight in which restaurants and bars stay open, streets stay busy and concerts, theatre and ballet are performed
Wife-Carrying Championships, Finland
The Finnish event at Sonkajärvi sees men carry a woman – not necessarily their wife – along a 250 m track marred with obstacles for which the fastest time wins the passenger’s weight in beer
Wimbledon, United Kingdom
The fortnight-long grand slam tennis tournament, the only one on grass, runs through the last week of June and first of July, and apart from the tennis, there’s lots of strawberries and cream and lashings of Pimm’s
Womad, United Kingdom
This truly world music event at Charlton Park in Wiltshire attracts a very diverse range of performers including South Korean percussionists, Egyptian lyre players, Malian stalwarts and Mongolian songsters
Far East
Gion Matsuri, Japan
The thousand-year-old festival in Kyoto ends with a massive procession through the modern streets of the old capital, with floats two storeys high being dragged by locals in loincloths, while geisha girls look on
Naadam, Mongolia
Mongolia’s ’Manly Games’ is one of the world’s most ancient events and pits the country’s best athletes against each other in archery, horseracing and wrestling
Indian Subcontinent & Indian Ocean
Esala Perahera, Sri Lanka
This 1,600 year old ten-day festival honours the Buddha’s tooth with a series of spectacular night time parades by drummers, dancers, torch bearers, whip-wielders, fire-eaters and more than a hundred costumed elephants
Hemis, India
Held in order to honour the founder of Tibetan Buddhism, this event is most spectacular in Hemis, Ladakh, where parades and masked dances celebrate the triumph of good over evil
Rath Yatra, India
This is the biggest festival of its kind, with a huge chariot for each deity celebrated – Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra – which is pulled by thousands from the Jagannath temple in Puri to outside town and back again
Shandur Polo Tournament, Pakistan
The highest and remotest polo tournament takes place in the Shandur Pass and involves six teams from each end of the pass – and manages to attract around 11,000 people each year
Latin America
Bumba Meu Boi, Brazil
This event was the origin for Boi Bumba and takes place in São Luís, northeastern Brazil, and is a song and dance spectacular to commemorate a farmhand and his wife saved from execution by shamans and healers
North America
Calgary Stampede, Canada
This ten-day extravaganza includes one of the most highly prized rodeos, chuckwagon racing, numerous fairground rides, an Indian Village and lots of deep-fried food
Cheyenne Frontier Days, United States of America
Cheyenne stages nine rodeos a day during the last week of July and numerous other western-themed activities and parades
Gilroy Garlic Festival, United States of America
This food festival in Gilroy, California, celebrates all things to do with garlic, serving 65,000 portions of garlic-based food each day
