So you’re just back from St. Paddy’s Day, Cinco de Mayo, or Carnivale festivals? BIG DEAL! That’s nothing to brag about. The Joneses have all been and we’ve already sat through their slideshows. But tomato throwing, baby jumping, cheese chasing ... Next time you plan a vacation, plan for some bizarre festival fun and get some bragging rights to go with your slideshow.
La Tomatina, Tomato Fight Festival (Bunyol, Spain)
Every year, thousands of Spaniards—along with thousands of enthusiastic and inebriated backpacking tourists—gather in Bunyol, Spain for La Tomatina, the tomato fight festival. Between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on the last Wednesday of August, chaotic hoards gather in this small, provincial town to throw, smash, dive into, and hurl tomatoes—lots and lots of tomatoes—leaving everyone, and everything, immersed in a red, gooey pulp.
Kanama Matsuri, Fertility Festival (Kawasaki, Japan)
Most Japanese festivals involve smoking grills of yakitori, traditional drum players, and happy children licking brightly colored shaved ice smothered in condensed milk. During the Kanama Matsuri festival, huge pink members are paraded down the street, and the lollipops are penis-shaped, as are the hotdogs and everything else. This phallic festival dates back to centuries ago when prostitutes prayed for protection against syphilis. Today, thousands of hopefuls ask for blessings against STDs or blessings for those hoping to have children. It’s one of Japan’s most popular festivals and phallic food makes for very interesting photos!
El Colacho, The Baby-Jumping Festival (Castrillo De Murcia, Spain)
In this bizarre annual event in Spain, grown men dress up as the Devil (or the Devil doing a bad Elvis impersonation) and jump over cute, helpless little baby sinners. The El Colacho baby-jumping festival has been a tradition since 1620—not because there was nothing better to do, but to dispel evil and cleanse newborn babies of original sin. Nice picture for baby’s first photo album …
Cannabis Cup (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Sure, beer festivals, wine festivals, and even pickle festivals make for somewhat interesting water cooler conversation, but casually drop that you just came back from a five-day marijuana festival and you’ll command the respect and attention of the entire room. Amsterdam’s Cannabis Cup brings cannabis experts together so that they can “taste” and vote on the latest varieties of marijuana and hashish, in the same way a panel of wine experts might gather to judge the year’s wine offerings. If you consider yourself a cannabis connoisseur, an extra fee gets you a judge pass so you can vote for your favorite strain. The Cannabis Cup is also a forum and get-together for activists who fight for the decriminalization of marijuana.
Monkey Buffet Festival (Lopburi Province, Thailand)
During the annual monkey buffet festival held outside Pra Prang Sam Yot temple in Thailand’s Lopburi province, the region’s population of monkeys gather to eat over 2,000 kilograms of beautifully arranged fresh fruits and vegetables. The feast is in honor of King Rama, who was said to give his friend, Hanuman (the Monkey King) the province which is now Lopburi.
Cooper’s Hill Annual Cheese Rolling Festival (Gloucestor, England)
There are cheese festivals and then there are downright cheesy festivals. Cooper’s Hill annual Cheese Rolling Festival held in Gloucester might be the cheesiest of them all. In this bizarre celebration of cheese (and why not?), male and female competitors race down a hill, and sometimes up it too, chasing a huge wheel of cheese. What does the winner get? The cheese of course.
Camel Wrestling Festival (Selcuk, Turkey)
Forget bullfights or cockfights, even catfights; if you’re looking for some vacation respect, you need to arrive home with photos from a camel fight. Before you pull on your tights to get in on the action at the annual Camel Wrestling Festival in Selcuk, Turkey, you might want to know that this bizarre (and somewhat inhumane) festival pits camel to camel, hump to hump. Held during camel breeding season, the bull camels are first teased with a fine looking young cow camel. Then their mouths are bound and they bump humps in a contest for precedence in a herd, and more importantly, precedence in mating.