Page 82 - Off the Tourist Trail - 1000 Unexpected Travel Alternatives (Part 1 of 2)

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FESTIVALS AND PARTIES

ABOVE Spectacular costumes add sparkle to Bridgetown’s streets at the annual Crop Over festival, Barbados
RIGHT Masked Pierrots, clad in satin, are a distinctive feature of the Carnival at Limoux, France

CROP OVER, BARBADOS Crop Over was originally a celebration of the successful LIMOUX CARNIVAL, FRANCE The dance of the Pierrot is graceful and slow. A masked
completion of the sugar harvest. Today, for almost two months each summer, the figure, dressed in baggy clothes and satin tights, he marches through the cold streets of
capital, Bridgetown, pulsates with the rhythm of calypso, folk music, and dance. On the Limoux, bantering with spectators and scattering confetti, a band of musicians in his
spectacular East Coast Road, sweaty calypso practitioners compete with rival groups wake. This unusual festival, thought to date back to the Middle Ages, takes places over a
against a backdrop of crashing Atlantic surf, while spectators gather on the surrounding two-month period beginning in January, with the marching bands and costumed
hillsides with picnics, beer, and rum. The festival culminates with the Grand Kadooment, characters taking over the town each weekend. On the final evening a straw dummy,
a joyful street carnival parade flaunting magnificent costumes and energetic dances. known as the “King of the Carnival,” is burned on a pyre in the main square.

FESTIVAL OF THE DHOW COUNTRIES, WIFE CARRYING CHAMPIONSHIPS, BUN BANG FAI, YASOTHON, THAILAND With an ear-splitting explosion, a rocket 13 ft
STONE TOWN, ZANZIBAR In late June, FINLAND Every July, some 8,000 visitors (4 m) long, packing several pounds of gunpowder, shoots from a bamboo launch into
the evocative, spice-scented island of descend on Sonkajärvi, eastern Finland, the clear blue sky. The sound is greeted by cheering and murmurs of approval from an
Zanzibar is the scene of a week-long to watch the town’s husbands navigate appreciative crowd. The “rocket festival,” held each May, has its origins in local mythology:
celebration of all things cultural, drawing an obstacle-course relay with their better the rural community believed that their far-flung offerings would be rewarded by the
film, music, and theater from countries half wrapped around them. Sensibly, the rain god, who would bless them with plenty of water for the upcoming rice harvest.
strung along dhow trading routes of old. men down plenty of beer throughout. The celebrations span three days and are accompanied by music, dancing, and drinking.

CHEYENNE FRONTIER DAYS, LATITUDE, SOUTHWOLD, UK Once BURNING MAN, NEVADA, USA Black
WYOMING, USA Cheyenne’s ten-day described as “the festival for people who Rock Desert, with its cracked earth and
rodeo festival each July regards itself as don’t like festivals,” Latitude, held in July, searing heat, emphasizes the spirituality
“the daddy of ‘em all.” A celebration of the is environmentally conscious and attracts of the Burning Man experience. An air of
Old West, it sees Stetsons fly as young a rather well-heeled crowd. You’re as inclusion and self-reliance pervades it,
men battle to stay on bucking bulls for a likely to find yourself listening to a poetry and festival-goers are not so much
full 8 seconds, for prize money of over a reading as to a band. It features literature spectators as participants, encouraged to
million dollars. The town’s streets bustle and comedy as well as music, and the come together for a week (in Aug–Sep)
with visitors taking in the Grand Parade small, scenic site makes it pleasant simply to devise art installations, costumes, and
and nightly musical performances. to wander and lap up the atmosphere. performances around a central theme.

GOLDEN SHEARS, MASTERTON, NEW MIMOSA FESTIVAL, HERCEG NOVI, PUNAKHA DOMCHOE, BHUTAN
ZEALAND The town of Masterton, host MONTENEGRO The gentle fragrance of Featuring war cries and fireworks, silk
to what it claims is the “world’s greatest mimosa wafts over Herceg Novi’s sunny skirts and resplendent swords, this three-
shearing competition,” greets visitors with streets during this annual festival every day military festival takes place during
a giant pair of golden shears. Each February. Floral floats fill the promenade the first month of Bhutan’s lunar year
February it draws hundreds of entrants and local horticulturists strive to outdo (Feb–Mar). A recreation of Bhutan’s
from North and South Island to take part one another with imaginative displays. 17th-century victory over Tibet, the final
in sheep-shearing and wool-handling There is local theater, music, and dance, battle is reenacted with costumed
contests. Dating back to 1961, competition and the chance to go mimosa-picking pazaps (warriors), who perform in the
is fierce and winners become local heroes. along the lush banks of the riviera. courtyard of the majestic dzong (fortress).

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