Where to travel to in March
Africa
Ben Aïssa Moussem, Morocco
A pilgrimage festival, held on the Prophet’s birthday, which sees crowds gather at Meknes – meanwhile devotees to Ben Aïssa test their endurance while in a trance
Cape Town Jazz Festival, South Africa
Major South African and international jazz acts perform at Cape Town’s International Convention Centre – a free Community Concert takes place at Greenmarket Square, where local artists perform
Maulid, Kenya
Held on the third month of the Islamic calendar, this festival celebrates the birth of the Prophet Mohammed – hosted in Lamu for the past 100 years, it mostly involves singing and dancing, as well as other organised events
Australasia & Pacific
Adelaide Festival of Arts, Australia
Modelled on Edinburgh’s festival season, Adelaide’s version, running since the 1960s, strives to have a similar mix of highbrow culture and cutting edge acts
Golden Shears, New Zealand
The world’s top sheep-shearing contest, includes events such as wool-pressing and wool-handling as well as ’Shearable Arts’ – it takes place at Masterton
Moomba Waterfest, Australia
This family event held on the Labour Day weekend in Melbourne includes a firework display over the Yarra River, a Garden Party at the Treasury Gardens featuring Aboriginal bands and a parade down Swanston Street
New Zealand International Arts Festival, New Zealand
Wellington showcases theatre, music and dance acts, authors give readings and paintings and photography are exhibited at various venues across the city, all from local and international talents
Pasifika, New Zealand
Auckland celebrates its ties with the Pacific island communities by holding traditional celebrations from Tonga, Samoa, Fiji and the Cook islands – there’s a music festival and numerous stalls selling crafts, clothes and jewellery
Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Australia
Uniquely Australian, this uninhibited extravaganza is the single largest nighttime parade in the world – full of drama, colour and wit the Mardi Gras also includes arts, sport and lifestyle festivals taking place throughout the month
Wild-foods Festival, New Zealand
Hokitika’s food festival has run for more than 20 years and now attracts around 20,000 people who try rare and special foods – larvae, shark’s penis, scorpions and more – and enjoy live music
Caribbean
Trinidad Festival, Trinidad and Tobago
The Caribbean’s biggest carnival takes place over two days with the focus on Port of Spain – it’s a happy, rum-fuelled, celebration
Europe
Basel Carnival, Switzerland
Around 12,000 people take part in this carnival that comes after Mardi Gras, building big bonfires and parading through Basel’s streets in papier-mâché masks
Binche Carnival, Belgium
The 400 year old festival sees 600 identically dressed and peculiar looking men march Binche’s streets, hurling blood oranges at rivals as they go, in the March of the Gilles – copious amounts of Belgian beer is also consumed
Cologne Carnival, Germany
Five days of street parties and drunken revelry take over the city, while a five-mile parade of floats, costumed people and jesters flow through the streets
Dead Rat’s Ball, Belgium
A decadent party held in Ostend as part of the town’s carnival celebrations which goes on into the small hours and sees around 5,000 people celebrate – it includes much drinking as well as a clog-throwing competition and parade
Düsseldorf Carnival, Germany
A similar event to Cologne’s sees half a million people come to watch the parade – watch out for Old Hag’s Day in both cities, when women stalk the streets harassing men for a kiss
Easter Feria, France
Arles in southern France hosts three days of bullfighting in an arena that seats 20,000 but which attracts 500,000 over the weekend – the town itself is otherwise archetypal and its mile-long market is not to be missed
Holy Week, Portugal
Braga holds one of the great Easter celebrations, with Gregorian chants piped around the city centre and candlelit altars brightening the streets by night – there’s two processions marking Christ’s Passion and the crucifixion
Las Fallas, Spain
Valencia’s patron saint’s day is a fiery treat, all fire-crackers, rockets, sulphurous smoke and massive bonfires – meanwhile fantastical effigies are placed around the city on street corners and much sangria is consumed in this all-out party for around two million people
St Patrick’s Day, Ireland
Ireland’s national holiday sees a number of street parades take place with performers, puppeteers and bands from across Europe participate, but the real party is held in Dublin’s pubs
Sa Sartiglia, Sardinia, Italy
Costumed spectacle in which equestrian events are judged by the mysterious, masked, King of Sartiglia and which ends with jousting, to fulfil the medieval feel of the event
Semana Santa, Spain
More than one million Spanish people head for Seville for Holy Week processions and celebrations
Snow Bombing, Austria
Mayrhofen attracts snowboarders and partygoers from across the world for six days of parties, DJs and bands – plus a little powder – as it establishes itself as the winter Ibiza
Starkbierzeit, Germany
A smaller version of the raucous Oktoberfest held in Munich attracts fewer people but is just as keen to celebrate strong beers – the first keg is opened at Paulaner Keller while stone-lifting contests take place at Löwenbräukeller beer hall
Vienna Opera Ball & Season, Austria
The long held tradition of elegant dances, all silk gowns and top hats, continues in the Austrian capital, with the season of 300 balls running from January to March – the biggest being the Vienna Opera Ball the week before Ash Wednesday
Far East
Crucifixion Re-enactment, Philippines
The city of San Fernando spends Good Friday recreating Christ’s final days and his death in quite graphic detail – twenty people carry crosses through the streets, whipping their own backs before being nailed to the crosses and left to hang for ten minutes in a test of faith
Hanami, Japan
Cherry blossom across Japan is usually in bloom by the end of March and the Hanami tradition is for picnic parties among the blooming trees, either in the daytime or when the moonlight makes them even more ethereal
Hounen Matsuri, Japan
This risqué celebration in Komaki dates back to the seventeenth century when prostitutes made offerings to the gods to avoid STDs – now it’s an HIV/AIDS fundraiser which also draws those hoping to conceive and others who just enjoy its sauciness
Nyepi, Indonesia
Celebrations take place over a number of days for the Balinese New Year across the Indonesian island – festivities include parades, sacrificial ceremonies, music, prayers and speeches as well as offerings to ogoh-ogoh, huge monstrous dolls
O-Mizutori, Japan
This ’water-drawing’ festival at Nara’s Todai-ji temple has been held every March for more than a thousand years – a large crowd gathers outside while monks drop embers from a balcony above which they try to catch to ward off evil, until, some hours later, they are doused in water from the sacred well
Sumba Pasola, Indonesia
The remote island of Sumba hosts one of the region’s more authentic festivals at which battles and jousts are held between hundreds of well dressed horsemen in an effort to balance the sphere of the heavens and the sphere of the sea
Indian Subcontinent & Indian Ocean
Holi, India
Possibly the most vibrant Hindu festival in India – it’s all about showering friends, family and strangers with multi-coloured powders and having water fights, other festivities vary according to where you are
Kumbh Mela, India
By far the biggest religious festival in the subcontinent – and indeed the largest gathering of humanity anywhere – Kumbh Mela sees 70 million pilgrims bathe in the Ganges near Allahabad, to wash away their sins (it occurs roughly every three years, with 2010’s event in March/April and 2013’s in January/February)
Latin America
Spring Equinox, Mexico
The ruined temple city of Chichén Itzá produces a remarkable display – thanks to its Mayan architects – during the vernal equinox (when night and day are the same length) where the morning and afternoon sun creates a light and shadow illusion of a serpent climbing the El Castillo pyramid
Festival de Tango, Argentina
Argentine capital Buenos Aires hosts this annual festival to tango with events across the city featuring dancers and musicians
Rio Carnival, Brazil
Rio is able to lay claim to the most famous, largest and wildest party on earth – the whole city comes to life to celebrate, but the central focus should be the Sambadrome where parades and floats perform their dances
Noche de Brujas, Mexico
Otherwise known as the Night of the Witches, this festival sees hundreds of shamans, witches and healers head to Catemaco for a mass cleansing ceremony to rid them of negative energies – in what is becoming a fairly commercial event
Semana Santa, Guatemala
Antigua, Guatemala comes alive during Holy Week, covering everything in colourful and vibrant sawdust and flower petals, while incense billows through the streets – elsewhere processions remember the crucifixion
Semana Santa, Peru
Holy Week in Cusco has a clear religious intensity – activities begin with an after-dark procession of the Holy Sepulchre, with other services following in the coming days and some crazy parties in the small window between crucifixion and resurrection when Christ might not be around to judge
Vendimia Festival, Argentina
The small Andean town of Mendoza celebrates the grape harvest with hundreds of thousands of the world’s wine lovers in an orgy of barbecued beef, singing and tangoing and copious quantities of wine
North America
Calle Ocho, United States of America
Miami hosts the largest Hispanic event anywhere in the world with a raucous street party and a music festival attracting Central and South America’s best acts
Iditarod, Alaska, United States of America
Known as the ’last great race’, this event sees people take part in a 1,850km race across Alaska’s Iditarod National Historic Trail by dog-sled over nine or ten days, with the audience largely just seeing the start and finish
Mardi Gras, United States of America
New Orleans’ major party is a riotous, raucous event, yet totally accessible – featuring the usual floats and parades, its French Quarter setting, bohemian atmosphere, jazz and funk bands, and masked balls that make it what it is
South by Southwest Music and Media Conference, United States of America
This massive ten-day music festival in Texas has earned Austin the title of ’live music capital of the world’ – by day industry heads get together to talk shop, while by night more than 1,200 acts take to the stages of around 50 venues
Spring Break, United States of America and Canada
Thousands of US and Canadian students take to the beaches of southern Florida and other places for a week’s worth of wild parties – something to either relish or avoid
