Arts Festivals
2009 Calendar

Other Festivals: English Speaking | UK Music

European Festivals | Exotic World Festivals

Explore, winner of three major travel awards in 2008 can take you to hundreds of colourful destinations and festivals. See Family Adventures | Low Budget Tours or check their new Festival Holidays list.

29 Dec - 1 January

SCOTLAND Edinburgh Hogmanay - a truly wild and wooly underwear occasion, with a torchlight procession, a Fire Festival, fireworks, concerts and much insobriety, in a city dark yet strangely light... Edinburgh Guide | Pictures

31 December - 28 Feb 2009

AUSTRIA Vienna Balls - dazzling dances in a blizzard of snow and elegance, especially the New Year's Day Concert. Vienna Travel | Vienna Pictures

5 - 26 January 2009

AUSTRALIA Sydney Festival - the biggest cultural event in the country, covering the arts from drama to music in international style but sadly lacking a mad Fringe. Sydney Travel | Pictures

27 Feb - 22 March 2009

AUSTRALIA Adelaide Festival and Fringe - the country's primo arts festival mixes it with the unruly fringe. A huge, colourful event - Edinburgh in the sun. 1 month every 2 years [even numbers]. Adelaide Pictures

HUNGARY Budapest Spring Music Festival - all sorts of arts, music, drama, dance, exhibitions, poetry and kid's stuff, local and international, in a pleasant city. Budapest Travel | Budapest Pictures

1 May - 30 June 2009

AUSTRIA Vienna Festival - this 5 week event offers a wide range of arts, especially music, naturally, but also dance and theatre, sometimes challenging pieces, all set in magnificent buildings. Vienna Guide | Photos

RUSSIA, St Petersburg, the White Nights arts festival's in gorgeous, romantic and endlessly light St Pete. Primarily opera and ballet. St Petersburg Travel Guide | St Petersburg Pictures

12 May - 3 June 2009

CZECH REPUBLIC Prague Spring International Music Festival - one of Europe's best music events. Prague Travel Guide | Prague Pictures

15 May - 19 Oct 2009 [same dates every year]

FRANCE Chaumont Garden Festival - 30 wonderful and sometimes wacky show gardens around a perfect chateau [castle], every year. France Guide

25 May - 19 June 2009

ISRAEL Israel Festival [of music and performing arts], in Jerusalem. Dance, opera, drama and music from some of the world's most talented artists. Israel Travel Guide | Israel Pictures

June - July TBC

GREECE Athens Festival - drama, dance and music in the 2,000 year old outdoor Odeion theatre at the base of Acropolis Hill. Location, location. Athens Guide | Athens Pictures

6 -26 June 2009

FRANCE, Festival de Musique de Strasbourg, an international contemporary music festival. France Travel Guide

RUSSIA, St Petersburg, the White Nights arts festival's best month in gorgeous, romantic and endlessly light St Pete. Primarily opera and ballet. St Petersburg Travel Guide | St Petersburg Pictures

6 - 30 June TBC

TURKEY International Istanbul Music Festival. An excellent month in a marvelous city, with everything from major concerts to traditional music. Turkey Travel | Turkey Pictures

6 - 14 June 2009 TBC

MOROCCO Fes Sacred Music Festival, in Fes [Fez] - not at all dull! Wide ranging music from Spanish gypsy laments to Sufi chanting in a perfectly evocative location. Morocco Travel | Morocco Photos

mid June - mid July
one month long 2009

INDONESIA Bali Arts Festival, Denpasar [near Kuta Beach]. A very exciting month of traditional song and dance embraced by the whole island, with processions and performances of all kinds. Indonesia Travel | Indonesia Photos

21 June
[same date every year]

FRANCE Fete de la Musique, in Paris. Free! A monster musical celebration all over this lovely city. Professionals mix with amateurs playing different sounds in different locations. Paris Guide | Paris Pictures

24 - 28 June 2009

ENGLAND Glastonbury Festival, Somerset, England - a massive, multiple music event, with different stages featuring different music, but heavy on soft/hard rock variations. The closest to Woodstock most of us will ever get. Camping is fine...but why does it always rain? Tickets are VERY difficult to acquire. Information | England Guide | England Photos

3 July - 1 August 2009

FINLAND Savonlinna Opera Festival - a grand classical celebration in the Finnish lake district, set in magnificent 15thC St Olaf's Castle. Finland Pictures

3 - 18 July 2009

SWITZERLAND Montreux International Jazz Festival - all sorts of non-classical music featured, in spite of the name, in an appealing location on the shore of Lake Geneva. Switzerland Pictures

4 - 26 July 2009

FRANCE, Avignon, Festival d'Avignon, a dynamic and diverse Arts festival, boasting over 50 official productions and many more fringes in a stunning historic city. Avignon Pictures

3 July -1 August 2009

FRANCE, Aix-en-Provence, International Festival of Lyric Art [Le Festival d’Aix-en-Provence], a popular summer arts festival, especially for classical music. Aix-en-Provence Pictures

11 - 15 July 2009

MOROCCO Marrakesh [Marrakech] Popular Arts Festival [Folklore Festival]- Morocco's most interesting city hosts the country's best arts festival, with hyperactive Djamaa el Fna [square] going into orbit at this time. Morocco Travel | Marrakesh Pictures

9 July - 9 August 2009

AUSTRIA ImPulsTanz - a dynamic and diverse dance festival across the whole of lovely Vienna. Vienna Guide | Vienna Photos

mid July - mid August
TBC

TUNISIA International Carthage Festival in Tunis, the country's biggest arts event, mixing local and international sounds in the old Roman amphitheatre. Tunisia Travel Guide | Tunisia Pictures

Generally the last two Mondays in July TBC

MEXICO Guelaguetza at Oaxaca - a lively and historic folk dance, music, and costume festival featuring Oaxaca state. Mexico Travel | Mexico Photos

GERMANY, Love Parade - no longer in Berlin, but in the city of Bochum for 2009, Duisberg for 2010 and Gelsenkirchen for 2011. the wackiest of local festivals, a weekend of ecstatic body-baring by 1.5 million techno- ravers. Google translation from German: The Love parade lives. Diagonally, schrill and color-gladly...Sounds about right to me. Berlin Travel

21- 22, 27 June 2009

GERMANY Lesbian and Gay Street Festival and Christopher Street Day in Berlin - the monster Gay Pride parade and street party.
Berlin Travel Guide

25 July - 28 August 2009

GERMANY Wagner Festival at Bayreuth - very expensive and elitist, held in the unusual theatre that Wagner built.

25 July - 30 August 2009

AUSTRIA Salzburg Festival - opera and concerts. 'Europe's most prestigious summer musical event.' Very large, very expensive. Every year in Mozart's pretty home town. Austria Guide | Salzburg Pictures

10 - 12 August 2009[International]

IRELAND Puck Fair in Killorglin, County Kerry. A large and loony street fair with plenty of singing, dancing and horse shows, and all overseen by King Puck - a goat. Ireland Guide

CANADA, Montreal Pride - a huge performing arts festival, gay, but not exclusively so. Free concerts, shows, parties conferences and more. Montreal Travel | Canada Pictures

14 August -6 Sept 2009[International]
7 - 31 August 2009 [Fringe]

SCOTLAND Edinburgh International Festival, and Fringe Festival - over a thousand shows of all kinds, ranging from opera to stand-up comedy, from near porn to mere corn. A monster art attack in a great city. Not to be missed. Edinburgh Festival Pictures | Edinburgh Guide | International Festival | Fringe

FINLAND, Helsinki Helsinki Festival - an arts festival including concerts, performance arts, parties and children's events. Helsinki Guide | Finland Pictures

21 - 23 August 2009

IRELAND Fleadh Cheoil - a huge celebration of Irish music, dance and arts, with over 10,000 musicians roaming and playing all over the place. Hosted by a different town every year; 2005 in Letterkenny, County Donegal. Ireland Travel

28 - 31 August TBC

ISRAEL Red Sea Jazz Festival in Eilat. Excellent open air music in a dramatic environment. Israel Travel Guide | Israel Pictures

USA Monterey Jazz Festival in California. This, the oldest and longest running jazz festival in the world, always hosts some big names but also has workshops, exhibitions and other appropriate entertainment. USA Travel | SW USA Pictures

NEW ZEALAND, Nelson, Montana World of Wearable Art Awards - a unique, bizarre and fascinating occasion for both artists and fashionists. NZ Travel | NZ Pictures

mid October 2009 TBC

HUNGARY Budapest Autumn Music Festival - all sorts of arts, music, drama, dance, exhibitions, poetry and kid's stuff. Budapest Travel | Budapest Photos

15 October - 1 Nov 2009

IRELAND, Wexford Wexford Opera Festival - a small but perfectly formed and positively regarded event in a brand new Opera House on a new date. Wexford Opera | Ireland Travel

AUSTRIA Kaiserball in Vienna - a stunning, glamorous, lively winter Ball at the magnificent Hofburg Palace, every year. Vienna Guide | Photos