WORLD

Hunting with eagles is a Kazakh winter hobby, not a profession, and it's estimated that there are about 400 practitioners living in Bayan-Ölgii. Every October, around a hundred of them converge at Sayat Tube...

The Guelaguetza is a brilliant feast of Oaxacan folk dance staged on the first two Mondays after July 16 in the large, semi-open-air Auditorio Guelaguetza on Cerro del Fortín. Magnificently costumed dancers from...

Carnaval in Panama City is celebrated with merriment and wild abandon in the days preceding Ash Wednesday, between February and March. From Saturday until the following Tuesday, work is put away and masks,...

Come the month of Kartika, the eighth lunar month of the Hindu calendar and one of the holiest, Thar camel drivers spruce up their ships of the desert and start the long walk to Pushkar in time for Kartik Purnima...

Every winter from early December to late February (officially the festival opens 5 January), Harbin dons a fur-lined, technicolour dreamcoat of ice, snow and neon and gets down, Narnia style – no matter that it's...

Dating from the Middle Ages, this spectacular annual event includes a series of colourful pageants and a wild horse race in Piazza del Campo. Ten of Siena's 17 contrade (town districts) compete for the coveted...

The last Wednesday in August marks Spain’s messiest festival. La Tomatina is a tomato-throwing orgy attracting more than 20,000 visitors to a town of just 9000 inhabitants. At 11am, more than 100 tonnes of...

Held the week before Easter, this is Peru’s finest religious festival and attracts visitors from all over the country. Each succeeding day sees solemn yet colorful processions and Catholic religious rites....

Dating from 1934, the Tanglewood Music Festival is among the most esteemed summertime music events in the world. Symphony, pops, chamber music, jazz and blues are performed from late June through early September....

The exuberant, anarchic swirl of Las Fallas de San José – fireworks, music, festive bonfires and all-night partying – is a must if you’re visiting Spain in mid-March. The fallas themselves are huge sculptures of...

Skating and the Dutch culture are interwoven and no event better symbolises this than the Elfstedentocht. Begun officially in 1909, although it had been held for hundreds of years before that, the race is 200km...

One of the country's most prestigious marathons takes runners on a 26.2-mile course ending at Copley Sq on Patriots' Day, a Massachusetts holiday on the third Monday in April.

Ptuj marks Shrovetide with Kurentovanje, a rite of spring and fertility that dates to the time of the early Slavs and is now an organised carnival and centrepiece of Ptuj's calendar. Festivities are spread over...

The ancient Theatre of Epidavros and Athens' Odeon of Herodes Atticus are the headline venues for Greece's annual cultural festival, running since 1955 and featuring a top line-up of local and international...

Bengal's biggest carnival brings Kolkata to a fever pitch of colourfully chaotic mayhem, as the city’s biggest festival celebrates the maternal essence of the divine. For five days, people venerate ornate idols...

Every Easter the Merrie Monarch Festival swoops into town and turns laid-back Hilo into the place to be. Forget about booking a last-minute room! This sellout three-day hula competition was established in 1964 to...

On the first Saturday in May, a who's who of upper-crust USA puts on their seersucker suits and most flamboyant hats and descends for the 'greatest two minutes in sports': the Kentucky Derby, the longest-running...

In the lead-up to Day of the Dead (November 1 and 2), elaborate ofrendas (altars) show up everywhere. The huge annual street parade, Desfile de Día de Muertos, has been held since 2016 (initially in response to...

If you're from Lorca, you’re probably passionately Blanco (White) or Azul (Blue), the colours of the two major brotherhoods that have competed since 1855 to see who can stage the most lavish Semana Santa display....

Edinburgh’s Hogmanay is the biggest winter festival in Europe, with events including a torchlit procession, a huge street party and the famous 'Loony Dook', a chilly sea-swimming event on New Year’s Day. To get...