The World’s Most Weird & Wonderful Parties

Whilst the UK is home to an annual cheese-rolling festival and celebrates the advent of May with Morris dancing and cream teas in village fetes across the country, the rest of the world offers a riot of flamboyant and occasionally downright freaky festivals, to entertain even the wildest of party animals…

Some of the best include:

Songkran – Thailand – Mid-April
Songkran is a spiritual festival celebrating the Thai New Year and it’s designed to cool you down and wash away the sins of the previous year. What a good excuse to commit a few new ones, right?!  Whilst the biggest parties are in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Songkran takes place all over the country with everyone embarking on possibly the world’s largest water fight. Don’t forget your water pistol!

The Monkey Buffet  - Lopburi province, Thailand – Late November
Not at all as gory as it sounds, every year, all of the province’s approximately 600 monkeys are invited to eat fruits and vegetables during an annual feast held in honor of Rama, a hero of the Ramayana, who, it is said, rewarded his friend Hanuman the Monkey King with the province of Lopburi.  More than 3,000kg of fruits and vegetables are laid out on gigantic dining platters during the festival, and for anyone who’s a fan of ‘Planet Of The Apes’ or similar primates take-over-the-world movies, this festival offers the chance to be completely surrounded, engulfed and overwhelmed by the greedy mites! 

Full Moon Party – Koh Phangan, Thailand – Monthly
This legendary party attracts hard-core revellers of the backpacker kind from far and wide.  Hedonists everywhere still flock to the world’s biggest beach party every month, to dance from dusk till dawn to ear-splittingly loud trance and house music.  Not to everyone’s taste certainly, but it’s definitely a unique cultural experience. 

Holi – India - March
Similar to the Thai holiday of Songrkan, Holi is a two-day Hindu spring ‘festival of colours’ that occurs in northern India. The first night is marked by bonfires and the second day is spent re-visiting your inner-child by splashing multi-coloured powder and water over everybody. It’s a celebration about renewal, and the coloured stuff used to be traditionally made from medicinal herbs to fight against illness.

Australia Day – 26 January
A celebration of the three things Australians love best: beer, beaches and BBQ’s! This day of sun, fun, music and mayhem is a celebration of the first European settlement on Australia.  If you don’t already have an Aussie friend to take you under their wing, head to a beach with some beer and make some new friends! Most Australians would love nothing more to break in a newbie!

Spam jam  - Waikiki, Hawaii, 24 April 2010
American’s love their canned meat products, but in Hawaii there is actually an annual ode to Spam!  Drawing around 20,000 people each year, this well-known family-favourite is celebrated with a big street festival, with meat-lovers coming up with as many variations of Spam-themed dishes as possible.  Hawaii residents consume five million pounds of Spam every year, so no wonder they take the Spam Jam so seriously!

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