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It's an annual event about a week long. Farm kids show livestock. There's lots of booths, a butter cow, and about everything you can possibly imagine fried and on a stick: pineapple, Snickers bars, peaches. There are also daily concerts. And around presidential elections, at least one candidate usually stops by.
Des Moines, Iowa. www.iowastatefair.com
The Società Canottieri Esperia-Torino continues its traditional International long distance rowing regatta “D’inverno sul Po” on Saturday 13th February. The regatta has been running since 1982 and is open to men, women, boys and girls.
The regatta take place on the Po river, between the hills and the historical city centre. The race distance is 6000 meters, starting from Moncalieri Island and finishing in front of the Società Canottieri Esperia-Torino (Turin Rowing Club). Racing starts from 12:00 on Saturday 13th February and from 10:00 on Sunday 14th February.
Last year more than 1700 participants attended the regatta, from countries such as France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, the United Kingdom, the Principality of Monaco and of course Italy.
So get your oars and rowlocks ready, its time for a serious workout!
Down by the river at Murazzi close to Piazza Vittorio Veneto.
A picnic-esque, Afro-based music festival which has already had rave reviews from Capital FM Kenya, the next jazz-soul fusion collective featuring rising star Valerie Kimani, Hellon and Muthoni.
Nairobi on 07 December - at the Tayiana Stables, from 12:00 noon to 6:00pm (www.facebook.com/pages/MUTHONI/11760652297)
For general information on restaurants, events, bars, shows see:
- Chicago Magazine (a mostly medium-to-upscale monthly)
- Chicago Reader (a free edgier Friday weekly)
- Metromix
- Chowhound’s Chicago Board (individual reviews and comments, but generally on target)
- WTTW Public TV’s Check Please (see restaurant list)
You can eat well and with a lot of ethnic variety in Chicago. There are too many good restaurants of all kinds and nationalities to name here. If it were up to me, I’d buy a copy of Chicago Magazine, check out Chowhound (which, by the way covers other areas in the US) and check out WTTW’s Check Please site if I was interested in eating well and interestingly (and I am).
www.chicagomag.com
www.chicagoreader.com
www.chicago.metromix.com
chowhound.chow.com/boards/7
www.wttw.com/main.taf?p=1,5
Florence holds a sumptuous medieval fireworks festival, the 'explosion of the cart', in piazza del Duomo on Easter Sunday. Almost all museums are open (except on Monday when they tend to close anyway), and there's some of the best open-air sightseeing in Europe, with the piazza della Signoria, Ponte Vecchio and piazzale Michelangelo to visit. Most bars and restaurants have terraces or put tables out (many have canopies in case of rain too!).
It's usually warm to very warm spring weather. You can fly direct to Florence from Gatwick with Meridiana or to Pisa (one hour train ride) from Bristol with Easyjet. Both flights are around two hours.
I checked out a baseball match at Shea Stadium (Queens/Flushing). Home of the Mets, the stadium is due for demolition next year when they move to the Citi field being built next door. It was a good occasion although I know next to nothing about baseball!
The tickets we brought were $39, and it wasn’t a bad view. There are $25 tickets much further back in the stands.
We are standing in searing 38ºC heat in a small Spanish village square with goggles on. We are amongst a staggering 30,000 people and are being doused with water, buckets of it, from the flats above. Meanwhile, there are people trying to climb a greasy pole to reach a Serrano ham at the top.
BANG! A cannon fires.
The crowd roars and dumper trucks arrive, tipping tomatoes into the street. The crowd surges, grabbing tomatoes and hurling them at anything in sight. Within minutes we are ankle deep in tomatoes, water and assorted t-shirts. All three are also hitting us from all sides.
This is the madness that is La Tomatina, the biggest, messiest food fight in the world. For just one hour, the streets are filled with half-naked people covered in the sticky smelly mess. Then, the cannon fires once again and the wonderful Tomatina is over for another year and the cleanup begins.
Just where did it all begin? The story goes that one day in the 1940s a resident of this little town was walking across the town hall square singing, badly, and through a makeshift megaphone. Market stallholders and shoppers expressed their views of his bad singing by hurling tomatoes at him and a salad fight ensued. It was such fun that they decided to do it annually. It has survived bannings and public uprisings over the years to become one of the best known of the Spanish Fiestas of the year.
Oh, and why the goggles? Just try rubbing squashed tomato in your eyes!
Long live La Tomatina!
Buñol, Comunitat Valenciana, Spain
www.thisisvalencia.com/latomatina.html
The palace in Stockholm is well worth the SEK 120 admission fee - it was one of the highlights of our stay in the city. For a little extra grandeur and spectacle, try to catch the changing of the guard which takes place at 12.10pm (1.10pm on Sundays).
Slottskajen, Gamla Stan
If you're travelling in the Loire Valley, plan to visit the chateaux at night as many have light spectacles. At Blois on Wednesdays, it's in English. On July 4/5 over 2,000 candles are lit in the grounds of Villandry and Azay-le-Rideau has a wonderful show most evenings.
They don't start till late (sunset 9.30pm) so, if you have kids, eat somewhere late then visit, most of the nearby villages have bistros. Chenonceau has musicians roaming and night lights. Other events can be found below.
For other events in the area see: www.myweekin.net
The International Festival of Alternative and Experimental theatres is one of the oldest theatre festivals in Poland. It has been organised continuously since 1975. Always taking place in April, it is a good opportunity to combine a spring city break and cultural event. The weather in spring is usually bit more friendly than in London and you will enjoy spending the first nights out, having a drink.
The festival is an opportunity to get a first glance at the new season's productions. It uses the theatre in an attempt to make us aware of a problem that concerns us all from an unknown and extraordinary angle.
A series of open-air concerts in Lucca, Tuscany each July, the main 'venue' being Piazza Napoleone, also known as Piazza Grande.
For such a small, albeit perfectly formed, town, this event has attracted some big names over the years - Oasis, Paul Simon, David Bowie, Neil Young, Van Morrison, Alanis Morrisette, Black Eyed Peas, James Brown - to name a few, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Concerts usually begin at around 9pm; it's still warm, and the main square is closed off from early evening. During concerts most of the bars and shops around the square remain open, and the majority of the events are standing only - but not all.
The official website is notoriously late in announcing the lineup, but for 2008 some names are confirmed already - Sheryl Crow, Leonard Cohen, Alicia Keys, Chicago, Erykah Badu and Mick Hucknall. The latter is a fixture by now, be it as himself or Simply Red. Elton John is also a frequent visitor. It's rare for tickets to sell out, so you can usually be sure of showing up and buying on the day, but the official site also explains how to get tickets.
Below are some links - the official site, a blog post about the 2008 festival, and our favourite site for Lucca hotels:
www.summer-festival.com/
blog.ahotelinitaly.com/italy/2008/03/18/lucca-festival-2008-new-concerts/
www.ahotelinitaly.com/italy/hotels/tuscany/lucca/lucca/
Lucca, Tuscany, Italy - main venue is Piazza Napoleone, inside the famous city walls.
'Nuit Blanche' is an annual event in Paris, whereby (so rumour would have it) everything stays open all night for revelry and awe. Imagine touring the Louvre at 2am, followed by a quiet 4am brunch in a streetside cafe watching the crowds walk past, and the carnival-like atmosphere.
It would be great - if it were true!
Last year's was a shambles. The authorities didn't (wouldn't) release guides until the night itself (and then didn't explain how to get them) and most Parisians had no idea what was open, or where.
We joined the crowds milling outside the Louvre (closed), tried the Musee d'Orsay (closed) and settled for a Bateau Mouche - which turned out to provide the long awaited guidebook once you'd bought your ticket.
The boat trip itself was pleasant, during which we could read the guide - to discover few places indeed were open at all, and the promised 'all night opening' of the Metro only applied to certain lines in certain directions.
The only bar we could find open and not crammed with similarly baffled tourists was Australian (not very Parisian). When we finally gave up, we joined the thousands of others equally trying to desperately get a taxi home in the sub-zero temperatures, and ended up huddled in a Metro entrance (closed) for warmth until the hordes had thinned enough for us to try and get back.
It can't be blamed on our being tourists - as we have French friends who live in Paris and who we'd joined to spend the 'event' with!
Hopefully this year's will be better, but I'd definitely check every detail out in advance, just in case!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuit_Blanche
www.paris.fr/portail/Culture/Portal.lut?page_id=6806
goparis.about.com/od/events/p/Nuit_Blanche.htm
Should you care to rise slightly earlier on the last Friday in any month and make your way to the Post Office in Avignon you will enjoy the sight of hundreds of locals and a sprinkling of visitors setting off for a two-hour skate round the town.
Youngsters on skateboards, grandperes on ancient four-wheel rollers, and the more sportif flash past on inlines and even petites enfants wearing trainers with built-in wheels whizzed along by parents.
This entertaining spectacle reinforces the town’s reputation as the roller capital of France and in May/June it hosts the Avignon Roll'air festival.
Every new year, Valpo is home to the biggest and best fireworks display in South America.
Over a million people from Chile and abroad descend on the city for one huge party. Hotels need to be booked by October at the latest (prices 3-5 times normal) and reconfirmed at least 3-4 times in December to ensure they're honoured.
The fireworks used to be only in Valparaiso but now stretch 20-30km all the way along the cost to Con Con. The display lasts almost half an hour.
The best place to watch them is on Cerro Concepcion and Alegre where the police are out in force making it the safest area to be.
youtube.com/watch?v=jZnkUdb5Q34
All over Valpo
The annual carnival celebration in Basel is unlike any other: held after Lent begins, filled with traditions, images and rituals dating back to the Middle Ages, a truly (Protestant) Swiss celebration. Fasnacht is for the locals, although visitors are welcome to watch the parades and displays. This year's Fasnacht kicks off at 4:00am on Monday, February 26th.
For a description, visit
www.basel.ch/en/culture/fasnacht/fasnacht_carnival
This festival rocks. Who couldn't resist the lure of an enchanting landscape and one of the best line-ups I’ve seen in years? I’ll definitely be back. No other festival can quite compete with its wicked, friendly crowd, beautiful views and lovely weather (how did they manage that in Scotland?)
The Isle of Skye is the most northerly island of the Inner Hebrides.
www.skyemusicfestival.co.uk.
Seville is famous for its Easter celebrations, but if you can't face the crowds go in September. The weather is tolerable and you can take part in the street parades and activities that are part of the Festival of St Michael (Feria de San Miguel). Watch the locals struggle with heavy silver tableau through the streets at night, sit at the back of candlelit churches and breathe it all in. And it's free!
Feria de San Miguel takes place at the end of September each year (2006: 23 - 24 Sep).
This is a big, friendly event - in fact it's one of Central London's largest environmentally-friendly festivals. It's held on the first Sunday of every June in Regents Park.
At the festival you'll find many stalls offering options for the environmentally conscious consumer, with everything from herbs to green electricity and eco-holidays. Another aim of the event is to reduce its environmental impact each year.
The Bikefest allows punters to try out all sorts of bicycles and find out about cycling activities going on in London.
Regents Park
www.camdengreenfair.ik.com/
This'll be the seventh year Galaxy Radio have been on Ibiza with their legendary Weekender, with special broadcasts, exclusive parties, artist PAs and guest DJs. It's a chance to get up close and personal with some of the world's biggest DJs and all for the price of a drink.
More venues and lineup information on www.digitalgalaxy.co.uk
A heavyweight on the jazz scene, the Copenhagen Jazz Festival takes over the city like few other events. For 10 bad-ass, funkarythmic days each July, every form of jazz can be heard at dozens of locations throughout the city.
Big names feature regularly, but the best thing is the portable stages that can be found on every square in town, allowing music to waltz through the air wherever you wander.
Ten days every July (2006: July 7-16).
Check the English site at:
festival.jazz.dk/start.asp?l=2
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