The EFH Event Guide

Your Guide to the Best Festivals Around

1. La Tomatina ‐ Bunol
   

   Bunol is an unremarkable industrial town, 38km outside of Valencia but once a year something very special happens here. Something very special and something very messy! Yes that’s right ‐ it’s La Tomatine. Every year on the last Wednesday of August up to 40,000 international revellers descend on the town, strip down to the bare essentials and hurl one hundred metric tons of over ripe tomatoes at each other for an hour. The festivities kick off when one adventurous attendee manages to shimmy up a greased pole to dislodge the leg of ham, skewered to the top. I kid you not. The festival around the tomato fight lasts for a week and includes paella cooking competitions, fireworks, parades, dancing and much more. To sample the full flavour of La Tomatine, check it out on You Tube. Travel Tip: It’s hard to find a place to stay in Bunol during the festival because of its small size, so book a bed in Valencia and grab a bus or train in!

2. Oktoberfest ‐ Munich
   

   Everyone’s heard of this one but here’s the who, when and where. Oktoberfest is a sixteen day festival that kicks off in late September and runs into early October. A whopping six million people plough into town to attend this one. Obviously beer is the key attraction, or as the varieties on offer are better known ‐ Oktoberfestbiers! The tasty options on tap are all concocted by six local breweries and generally pack a punch of six percent. The famous Beer Steins (beer tankards with a top) are standard issue and most of the tents are open from 10am, every day of the week! If you’re an eager beer drinking beaver, you can even reserve a bar propping spot in the tent of your choice. Travel Tip: If accommodation in Munich gets booked up (and it will) try staying in Salzburg and catch the express in the for the day. It’s quicker and cheaper than you might think.

3. Reading Festival
   

   The Reading (with a silent ‘a’) Festival is the world’s oldest music festival ‐ still in existence. It all goes off at Little John's Farm in central Reading ‐ not too far from the Caversham Bridge. The sounds from the best bands around are pumped out over the course of the three day Bank Holiday in August and the line up is generally held back until the summer time. Indie rockers are followed up by main stream rappers, and the pop acts who survive the first wave of bottle throwing entertain everyone with modern chart hits. BBC Radio 1 is a huge influence here and works studiously to get little known acts onto the massively popular BBC Introducing stage. Radio 1 also team up with music authority NME to set up another stage for lesser known acts to headline. Fresh new musical talent and established acts from around the world ‐ what more could you want? Travel Tip: The hardcore music fans camp here but if you need your little luxuries (such as flushing toilets) then Reading and Bath are both nearby.

4. Naked Bike Ride ‐ London
   

   Every June approximately 1000 brave souls strip off their clothes and cycle through London wearing nothing more than their birthday suits and a smile. Joking aside these guys and girls strip down with a serious aim in mind ‐ to protest against the global dependency on oil, curb car culture, advance the rights of cyclists, demonstrate just how vulnerable cyclists are on city streets and celebrate bodily freedom. Most of the cyclists paint their skin with the message that means the most to them and it’s not uncommon for the Londoners along the route to scream and cheer their support for the causes. The cycle starts out from the Achilles statue in Hyde Park and heads through the slightly shocked city centre to the finish line at Wellington Arch, 10km away. You won’t see anything like this in London, so if you’re around in June, Google the finalised date and bring your camera! Travel Tip: Some roads and tube stations might be sealed off for this so if you’re sight seeing on the same day, check with tfl.gov.uk first.

5. Cannabis Cup ‐ Amsterdam
   

   The Cannabis Cup has been a point of annual celebration in the city of sin ever since 1987. More than twenty years later it’s still smoking hot and travellers in town for this one of a kind event are exposed to countless varieties of the pleasure‐paranoia, inducing drug! They also get to help the judges figure out who brought the top marijuana to town and who made the biggest splash! In 2008 the festival called on a judging panel ‐ made up of 2300 ready and willing individuals. Despite the ban on tobacco in Amsterdam’s cafes and coffee shops, it’s still very much legal to indulge in a joint or two ‐ provided you do it in the allocated areas and don’t mix it with tobacco. A popular new fad in many bars is the glass bowl ‐ a crystal ball feature that keeps the smoke and the smoker, sealed in! The festival usually happens in the back end of November, so check out hightimes.com for the exact details. Travel Tip: If the police suspect that there’s tobacco in your joint they can get a warrant to open and search it, so make sure you keep it pure.

6. International Blues Challenge ‐ Memphis, Tennessee
   

   Not everything cool happens in Europe but a lot of the talented folks from this alliance of great countries do head over to the U. S of A for an incredible annual event ‐ called the International Blues Challenge. This Blues festival takes over the infamous bars and stages of Beale Street for four days of pure music appreciation. The atmosphere on this neon riddled avenue is charged with electrifying talent and true southern hospitality. There’s not a push or a shove in sight and with just one wristband you can easily wonder from bar to bar, sampling the different acts, interpretations and reactions from a ‘yee‐haw’ prone audience! The acts that make it through the Beale Street judging sessions then go on to fight it out in the finals at the Orpheum Theatre. This joint is also neon‐tastic and the talent that’s siphoned off into this stage is incomparable. Do it.

7. Edinburgh Fringe Festival
   

   This one needs no grand introduction. It quite simply is the biggest arts festival in the world. Theatre, music and performance arts of all varieties, from all over the world play out at venues across the Scottish capital and many of the boundary breaking plays that debut here, go into production with the big hitters in the West End, and Broadway! There’s nothing quite like a summer in this city ‐ on top of the dormant volcano, surrounded by international, thespian geniuses! The fun times span most of August, the price of a ticket for each show ranges from about £0 to £10 and the big one not to be missed has to be the grandiose, Military Tattoo. The Rough Guides named this the number one tourist attraction in the UK ‐ you gonna argue with that? Travel Tip: International Flights to Edinburgh are relatively cheap with the budget carriers, but if you’re coming through the UK then advance train fares, travelling off peak with National Express East Coast, can save you a lot of money.

8. Athens Fringe Festival
   

   You didn’t misread the title ‐ the Fringe is also coming to Athens this year and better yet, the AthenStyle hostel is one of the venues where the festival events will take place! The hostel will become a creative open space where artists can meet, perform, show their artworks and interact with the audience! It follows the same Fringe format because well, this is the most successful festival concept in the world and it’s also organised by The Edinburgh Fringe Festive, in partnership with the local media. When is it we hear you ask? It kicks off on June 15 and runs to June 21, 2009, and will centre around ‐ Technopolis of the Municipality of Athens in Gazi. Expect performances galore, street theatre, puppetry, juggling and more, all in collaboration with students, NGOs and other generally cool folks. Prepare yourselves for scheduled shows, spontaneous clandestine events and a whole lot of fun surprises. Everyone’s invited, there’s a minimal participation fee for artists and a very affordable entrance fee for the audience. Check it.