Lonely Planet Comet - The festival issue

Subscribe - Unsubscribe - Update Details - Privacy - Contact Us - Read this Email Online Lonely Planet Comet The festival issue       Imagine the world without festivals - those events that let you throw your hat in the air and dive boots and all into something you love, be it a cuisine, a kind of dance, or a celebration of your own hometown. We're dedicating this issue to the festivals of the world and there's a lot of them out there. In fact, somewhere in the world, a party's just started. Keep it quirky - they celebrate what? Weather the circuit - party across the seasons Food, film and music - festivals to feed the soul Survival tips - packing the extra essentials A year of festivals - where to this month? Pick a free book and free delivery with minimum spend!  Keep it quirky For every glossy food or wine festival, there's a kooky step-sister festival happening somewhere else. Austin, Texas lures yuksters each May with the O. Henry Pun-Off while the Telluride Nothing Festival in Colorado requires less exertion. Get an eyeful of fog and fetish fests. There are festivals for cherry-pit spitting (can you spit further than 63'?) and getting naked in Japan. Europe has all manner of bizarre festivals - hell, the whole world's got some pretty weird festivals! Coming up: California's How Berkeley Can You Be in Berkeley festival, Sep 28, and Yellville's Turkey Trot, Oct 10-11 - could you be this year's Miss Drumsticks?     Switzerland's Santa Claus World Championships - or the Clau Wau - is as much go-go-go as ho-ho-ho. Hot off the Press   New Zealand Buy the book or buy chapters   New York City Buy the book or buy chapters   Mexico Buy the book or buy chapters   Jamaica Buy the book or buy chapters   Miami & the Keys Buy the book or buy chapters Want more for less? Check out our hot-off-the-press and buy-by-chapter titles.   ADVERTISING FEATURE Weather the circuit The changing seasons are as good an excuse as any to whoop it up. The Niagara Icewine Festival takes winter to tasty heights with sweet icewine, (the grapes are frozen on the vine), while China's International Ice & Snow Festival in Zhaolin Park and Sun Island Park entails whooshing down ice slides then destroying ice sculptures in a free-for-all at the festival's end.  Morocco's Rose Festival coincides with spring, when the Vallée des Roses is awash with pink Persian roses and 20,000 people come to celebrate the harvest with feasting, souk-like markets, a beauty pageant and a chariot procession through a shower of rose petals. And if you're sweating out a New York summer, there's a whole bunch of festivals for you. 'The rafts of spirits' - Kyoto Ubon Festival Get out your Super-Soakers - Thailand's Songkran festivities are as soggy as they are spiritual. Compass competition To win one of five copies of A Year of Festivals, tell us where you would attend: - Lajkonik Festival - Kumbh Mela - L'Escalade  Email your answers by September 30.  Food, film and music In the realm of universal loves, food, films and music have got to be up there, and boy do we love celebrating them. In Rome each March the streets are packed with chocolate vendors celebrating the Eurochocolate festival, while in April and May in Navarra, Spain, it's vegetarian tapas a-go-go at Exaltación de la Verdura. Anguilla's Eastertime Festival del Mar celebrates their fabulous seafood, Louisiana has a Giant Omelette Celebration in November and Gilroy, California stocks up on breath mints before the Gilroy Garlic Festival each July. There's all sorts of fun foodie festivals to get your appetite going. Coming up: the biennial Salone del Gusto in Turin, Italy, which focuses on the slow food movement and takes place in October. The world will never run short of music festivals, with new ones joining the circuit almost every summer. Read up on the world's top music festivals, Europe's summer line-ups or get your fill of festivals from Down Under. Get the sounds straight from the Sarawak World Music Festival or Glasgow's T in the Park, or tailor your trip around the European music festival circuit.  And as for film festivals, there's no end to them. You could travel the world chasing them but our favourite is definitely the Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams.   Coming up? A summer weekend of camping and great music at Meredith.  Dancing, parades, head dresses, sequins and bare breasts? A good old Mardi Gras will put the rattle back in your maraca. Top travel with G.A.P Adventures G.A.P Adventures offers quick one-week getaways to extensive round-the-world travels including Amazon riverboat tours, Machu Picchu treks, tours through Egypt & Jordan, cruising Antarctica and dancing it up in Cuba. Check out the special discounts, solo trips, and the current Top 20 tours.  Survival tips Sometimes festivals aren't all 'wave your hands in the air like you just don't care'. You have to be tactical. Sometimes you need a strategy. You have to be prepared to survive the festival season when the good times are rolling thick and fast. What about camping out during those multi-day music festivals? You need a plan for that, not least regarding what to pack. Take it from those who know - get your top tips from festival freaks. 5 days and 60,000 camels - Pushkar Camel Fair Want to know what it feels like to have 1000lbs of angry beef breathing down your neck? Let us put you in the picture.      Festival planner       A year of festivals You don't have to hang out for the big ticket celebrations to come to you. Just scan this calendar for the things that make the world party.  Looking for a party every week of the year? This is the festival guide for you.   Death isn't usually a laugh-fest, but in Mexico the dearly departed become the dearly de-partied.   January - Voodoo Festival, Ouidah, Benin Watch the horses, drink the gin and visit tents of different voodoo sects.           February - Thaipusam, Batu Caves, Malaysia Malaysia's most spectacular Hindu festival and a wild orgy of body piercings.           March - Holi, northern India and Nepal Take to the streets, armed with water and colourful gulal (powder), and get throwing!           April - Walpurgisnacht (Witches’ Night), Brocken, Germany Get thee to a mountain top in the company of witches and warlocks.           May - Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling, Brockworth, England Chase a small block of cheese down a very steep slope.           June - The Dreaming, Woodford, Australia Australia's first international indigenous festival takes place in a secluded valley.           July - Wife-Carrying World Championships, Sonkajärvi, Finland Grab your partner by the legs and win her weight in beer.           August - Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland The world's largest arts festival turns Edinburgh into a citywide performance artwork.           September - Cure Salée (Salt Cure), Tegguidda-n-Tessoum, In-Gall, Niger Journey to the deepest Sahara to watch bachelors in a beauty contest.           October - Entenrennen (Duck Race) Tübingen, Germany Not exactly the Running of the Bulls, more the racing of the rubber ducks.           November - Pirates Week Festival, George Town Harbour, Cayman Islands Geared towards infant swashbucklers and kicked off with a mock invasion.           December - Mevlâna Festival (Whirling Dervishes Festival) Konya, Turkey Be mesmerised as the dervishes dance their elegant, trance-like whirl.          Your privacy is important to us. Read our privacy policy  to find out what we do and don't do with your personal details. If you no longer wish to hear from us please click here or contact us at Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd 90 Maribyrnong Street Footscray VIC 3011 Australia / tel: + 61 3 8379 8000. Copyright 2008 Lonely Planet Publications | Locked Bag 1, Footscray, Victoria, Australia 3011 Subscribe - Unsubscribe - Update Details - Privacy - Contact Us - Read this Email Online

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