Florida Strawberry Festival :: Plant City, Florida

Every spring Plant City, Florida rolls out the red carpet for guests near and far to enjoy the exhibits of agriculture, commerce, horticulture and more at the Florida Strawberry Festival. The festival lasts nearly two weeks and was started in 1930 by the local Lions Club to help promote the local strawberry crop. The festival has grown in popularity over the years and in 2009 it attracted nearly half a million visitors. With its convenient location only 50 miles from Disney World in Orlando, visitors can combine a wonderful visit to the festival with all the theme park fun that Orlando has to offer. The festival today ranks among the Top 50 Read more

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta :: New Mexico

Every year thousands of people flock to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, a nine day event that is the largest hot air balloon festival in the world. The Fiesta began in 1972 as part of a 50th birthday celebration for KOB Radio and consisted of 13 balloons with around 20,000 spectators from the surrounding states. Today, hundreds of thousands of guests from around the world visit to see the magical images created by the hundreds of balloons painting the sky. Because of all these amazing visuals the Balloon Fiesta is one of the most photographed events on the planet. Read more

Lucerne Festival :: Switzerland

Held three times a year, the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland is a celebration of sound that features some of the world’s most famous orchestras, conductors and virtuoso soloists. The three festivals are held during Easter, in the Summer and the “At the Piano” event in November. The biggest of the three festivals, with around one hundred events held is the summer festival. Since 2003, the festival has opened with a concert by the Lucerne Festival Orchestra which is composed of internationally renowned musicians and formed by famous Italian conductor Claudio Abbado. The Lucerne Festival is one of Europe’s oldest Read more

Gasparilla Pirate Festival :: Tampa Bay, Florida

The Gasparilla Festival is the Tampa Bay area’s largest annual event. It is a large outdoor festival and parade that takes place on the streets of Tampa along Bayshore Boulevard and throughout downtown Tampa. The annual Gasparilla Pirate Festival includes several events throughout the day including the Gasparilla Parade of the Pirates, the Gasparilla Invasion and the Gasparilla Brunch. Gasparilla was first held in May of 1904 however it was moved to the first Saturday in February in 2005. And every year, the week before the main parade Read more

Great American Beer Festival :: Denver, Colorado

The Great American Beer Festival is a three day event hosted by the Brewers Association that brings visitors from around the world to sample over 2,000 different American beers. During this event, over 100 judges will award gold, silver and bronze medals in 78 beer-styles categories. These awards are recognized worldwide as symbols of brewing excellence. The festival gives you the opportunity to sample some of the best craft beers in the world and provides you with an assortment of ways to learn about that wonderful nectar that is beer. It is also quite fitting that the one of the festivals main sponsors is The Simpsons television show; Homer sure does love his Duff Beer. Read more

Burning Man :: Black Rock Desert, Nevada

Every year up to 48,000 people gather in the Black Rock Desert, in Northern Nevada to celebrate an experiment in temporary community know as the Burning Man Festival. Burning Man as is it known today started in 1990 as an artistic event featuring temporary sculptures meant to be burned and situationist performance art. The burning of a man shaped sculpture the weekend before Labor Day highlights the festival. Since 1 or 2 day passes are not available Read more

National Cherry Blossom Festival :: Washington, D.C.

The National Cherry Blossom Festival is a wonderful springtime celebration that commemorates the gift of Japanese cherry trees as well as the friendship from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo. Mayor Ozaki donated 3000 cherry trees on March 27th, 1912 in an effort to enhance the growing camaraderie between the US and Japan. The first festival was held in 1935 but the event was suspended due to hostilities during World War II. In 1947 the festival was resumed and in 1948 the Cherry Blossom Princess and U.S. Cherry Blossom Queen programs were started and in 1965 an additional 3,800 trees were accepted. Thanks to these donations, Japanese horticulturalists were able to Read more

Carnival of Venice :: Italy

First recorded in 1296, the Carnival of Venice is an amazingly beautiful celebration that takes place about two weeks before and runs through to Shrove Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday). Throughout the ages, the carnival has been canceled and revived multiple times including in 1797 when the Venetian Empire fell to Napoleon as well as in the 1930s when Mussolini banned the festivities. The current reincarnation of the carnival began in 1979 and by 1981-1984 it had hit its stride with hundreds of thousands of visitors attending the event. Read more

Las Fallas :: Valencia, Spain

Originally started as a feast day for St. Joseph, Las Fallas has evolved into one of the most unique and wild festivals in the world. Meaning “the fires” in Valencian, the focus of the festival is creating and destroying huge cardboard, wood, papier-mâché and plaster statues that are referred to as “fallas” or “ninots”. They tend to be quite realistic looking and depict a variety of things such as poking fun at corrupt politicians and celebrities. The fallas are very labor intensive taking up to a year to prepare and can cost upwards of $60,000. The days and nights are one running party during the five days of Fallas, with explosions heard all day long and Read more

Highland Games :: Scotland

With their roots planted firmly in the Middle Ages, the Highland Games in Scotland are a celebration of Scottish history, culture, athleticism, and art. Originally intended as a county fair of sorts, it was an opportunity for the various clansmen, and of course the chiefs, to show off their physical prowess to impress each other and the many ladies who came to watch the activities. Frivolity and merriment follow the festival goers as they walk from one event to the next waiting to see who would be the winner of the next competition. Highland Games are held throughout Read more

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