Festivals (107)

The Pasayaw Festival in Canlaon City, Philippines

Cheap tickets to Manila can be bought conveniently if you want to witness participating tribes of the Pasayaw Festival with their most vibrant and multi-hued costumes.

9008597257?profile=originalThey captivate both the local and visitor's attention through their fantastic performances amidst the scorching heat of the sun. The Pasayaw festival is a combined word from the phrase "Pasalamat Pinaagi sa Sayaw" which translates to thankgsgiving through dance. This is how they express religious fervor and gratitude. They utter lo

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The very name Cheltenham conjures up images of turf being thrown up by thundering hooves to a backdrop of shouts and cheers.  This elegant spa town in Gloucestershire in the heart of England is one of the country's most prominent horse racing venues, and each year in March the town's racecourse hosts a festival widely regarded as the "Oscars" of the horse-racing world.  The festival is commonly referred to as the Cheltenham Gold Cup, although strictly speaking it is the Cheltenham Festival, and

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Spring Festivals in Southern Europe

Has spring sprung yet where you live? Or perhaps you're in the Southern hemisphere, and summertime is easing its way into warm fall days. This "shoulder season" time tends to provide perfect traveling conditions in many parts of the world, when you can avoid the summertime crowds and heat, and the weather is just right for doing plenty of walking. photo
(click to enlarge)


April is a particularly lovely time to spend in Southern Europe. Spain, Portugal, Greece, and Italy are all warm enough to sit outs

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Return to Tallinn, Estonia


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Though I’m (quite obviously) not Estonian, I must admit to a lump in the throat on a cool, overcast morning as the gargantuan green-and-orange Tallink ferry pulled into this tiny Baltic country’s capital after a two-hour sea crossing from Helsinki.

It was July 2009, and I was embarking on my introduction to the shiny new Tallinn, 17 years after my last visit and 27 years after my first — as a student studying Russian in Leningrad, then as a travel writer visiting shortly after Estonia‘s indepen

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by José Balido

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Just a little more than eight weeks to go till pre-Lenten Carnaval time, and if you’re thinking of a warm getaway to the biggest par-tay in the Latin world, Rio de Janeiro’s is always a rip-roaring crowd-pleaser — but it’s also massively mobbed, pretty pricey, and these days, to say the least, just a wee bit overcommercialized. For a taste of this annual revelry that’s both more affordable and closer to its folkloric roots (so much so that it’s on UNESCO’s World Heritage list), c

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For those who think China does not embrace the winter spirit, Harbin's festivals will be an unexpected delight.


Since 1963 Harbin has hosted the Ice and Snow Festival which showcases an entire themed city cast from ice blocks produced from the Songhua River. The festival includes an international contest in which ice carvers from around the world compete for prizes and in the process create an amazing sculpture garden in Zhaolin Park.

The venues are completely different from day to night. Duri
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Every year, when spring and the Tet  holiday come, if you go on an excursion to highlands and the northern mountainous provinces, you will be glad to see blooming peach trees and plum and to discover the mysteries in the Hmong minority’s customs and habits, to welcome New Year, usually celebrated in early January in the lunar calendar.

The Tet holidays last 12 days, with many community activities, and the most typical is the Gau Tao festival, one of two important events each year to pray for good

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Dracula, Frankenstein and other heroes of the horrors will be on hand, while spooks and spiders, ghouls and goblins will abound in haunted graveyards. The Litchfield Hills of Northwestern Connecticut will be filled with unique ways to celebrate Halloween throughout the month of October. Families can choose from fearsome to friendly, with many chances for younger children to don their costumes and parade in happy small town celebrations.

Scary Scenarios

For chills, make haste to the Haunted Graveya
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Dia de Los Muertos is the ONLY holiday that is truly Mexican with Pre-colombian origins, symbols and practices still observed today in all communities. Dia de los Muertos begins on Oct. 31st and ends on Nov. 2 with the celebrations on tombstones washed clean and decorated with flowers and incense. Day of the Dead.jpg
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By BuzzInRome

Can photography interpret the future, can it provide Futurspectives? This is the underlying question that the Photography Festival of Rome, on display until October 24, will try to address. Bumpy ride, Maps and Legends, Unpublished-Unknown are the three main sections of the Festival, complemented by the work of Tod Papageorge on the city Rome, Giuliano Matteucci’s pictures of Africa, and a preview of “Mutations 3″, the new production by the European Month of Photography.

The ninth ed

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Connecticut's Mohegan Sun Brewfest Debut

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Autumn is harvest season and that means tons of festivals across the world marking the occasion. Food, wine, and of course beer are all fair game. I was extremely psyched to attend Mohegan Sun’s First Annual Brewfest and have my pick of sampling over 100 different brands. I quickly discovered that not only a ton of local breweries were spreading good cheer but some established giants offered up some obscure seasonal offerings as well. Here are some I’ll be hunting down and looking forward to tas

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Pushkar Fair in India

Pushkar_Fair-300x300.jpgThe Pushkar Fair: It is the annual five-ten days camel and livestock fair, held in Pushkar town in Rajasthan, India. It is one of the world's largest camel fairs that involves buying and selling of livestocks at one place. At present it has become an important tourist attraction in India. The highlights of this fair consist some interesting competitions and events such as the "matka phod", "longest moustache”, "bridal competition" and exhibition cricket match between the local Pushkar club and t

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Bavaria, Munich and Oktoberfest

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Oktoberfest will take place for the 179th time and rock & roll Munich for almost 3 weeks. The beer feast will begin on 22 September and run till 7 October this year. The city will change into a folk festival with people wearing traditional Bavarian outfits all these days. You will find it surprising to see women hurrying to work on bike in colourful Dirndl (traditional Bavarian dress) in the early morning. Men wear leather trousers and chequered shirts in the office and Wiesn - where the Oktober

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The Thornton Winery Champagne Jazz Series in the formerly “undiscovered” Temecula, CA wine country has set a standard for big names and great performances in an intimate venue, but this 24th season just might boast their best lineup ever.  It’s more than remarkable that a venue seating less than 600 can bring in the likes of Chris Botti, Bobby Caldwell & David Benoit, Dave Koz, George Benson, Boney James, and Peter White, just to name a few.  And a beautiful venue it is, with a Mediterranean ter

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The San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Celebration, usually known as San Francisco Pride, is dedicated to education, to the commemoration of LGBT heritage and to the celebration of LGBT culture and liberation. The parade and festival are celebrated every year, for the past 41 years, in the city of San Francisco which has a rich and lengthy history of gay rights. The celebrations take place the last weekend of June where hundreds of exhibitors and parade contingents get toget

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With summer in full swing, this year's series of Dragon Boat Festivals is underway today throughout coastal China; called Duan Wu Jie in Mandarin, they're normally held on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. Historically, this festival marked the beginning of summer and was celebrated to honor the gods in hopes of a good season. While Hong Kong is said to be the best place to go to take part in the festivities, each major coastal city on the mainland holds its own colorful and exciting races

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Being a native San Franciscan makes me somewhat of an expert on the events, the people, and the pulse of one of the most traveled cities on the planet. In the month of June, in the “City By The Bay,” marks the beginning of what I call “Street Fair Season.” Almost every week in June in San Francisco neighborhoods celebrate the arrival of summer with blocked off streets, arts and crafts, and just about every imaginable type of  succulent street food. Get your groove on at these “San Fran” block pa

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Mohegan Sun here in Connecticut’s Mystic Country held its first annual BBQ Fest, and I was honored to be invited and check out the festivities, running Friday, June 1 through Sunday, June 3. I picked a Saturday visit, which turned out to be the rainiest! Originally scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m., gates didn’t open until 3 p.m. when miraculously, the clouds stopped dripping and actual shafts of sunlight were able to occasionally poke through. Within minutes, lines were snaking from 6 venerable

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Giant puppet horses, giraffes on stilts, reggaeton superstars, Korean musicians and dancers, British rock legends and a host of other artists, musicians, dancers and actors will enliven
 San Jose
.
Costa Rica’s
 capital city transforms this week into a giant stage, playing host to more than 2,000 artists from 28 countries in the
 13th annual International Festival of the Arts 
(known as FIA by its Spanish acronym). Organized by the
 National Theatre 
and the Ministry of Culture and Youth.

Calle 13

The he

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¡Happy Cinco de Mayo!

9008701494?profile=originalThere are of course a bunch of Mexican patriotic holidays that come around every year.  But the that's caught on most outside Mexico is Cinco de Mayo – especially in the next-door United States, most notably out on the West Coast, but really, pretty much wherever there’s a taco/burrito/chimichanga emporium (I mean, when you’ve reached Omaha…).  As with St. Patrick’s Day, for many CDM has had its origins obscured and become just another excuse for carousing, so I’d like to take a moment to remind

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