Worldwide October festivals: Student Travel Guide picks for international October festivals and special events! Find fun fall festival picks from your Student Travel Guide or use this handy
search engine from
Travel Cuts, a Canadian student travel agency, to find worldwide festivals and special events - search by country, festival theme and/or date. The engine offers the option to search up to two years in advance, but you'll probably only see this year's festival dates unless they're annual special events - you'll see a disclaimer if it's possible that a particular festival's details may change.
Themes
Without specifying destinations, a random search for special events and festivals in the ten theme categories pulled up some examples of interesting things to see and do worldwide in October:
Arts -
This Is Not Art, New South Wales, Australia - Six separate festivals over five days; "Australia's largest annual gathering of young media makers, musicians, artists, writers and troublemakers", according to TravelMax.
Bizarre -
Rock Paper Scissors International World Championships, Steam Whistle Brewing, Toronto, Canada - This is serious biz (sort of) with a $10K Canadian purse.
Classical Music - Stratford-upon-Avon Music Festival, Stratford-upon-Avon, England - Chamber music and jazz bands at several venues in an English setting evocative of days gone by. Venues include the venerable Holy Trinity Church.
Festivals & Heritage - Confucius' Birthday, Confucius Temple, Qufu, China - The awe-inspiring Confucius Temple's fabulous grounds are the setting for a wonderful street fair celebrating the Chinese philosopher's birth 25 centuries ago.
Gay and Lesbian - Black and Blue Festival, Montreal, Canada - Jump up at a week-long clebration which includes the Jock Ball, Leather Ball and Military Ball, while raising money for AIDS charities and lesbian and gay groups alongside Montreal's Bad Boy Club. A spendy spree at $300-650 (Canadian) per weekly pass, but fun filled and party packed.
Kids and Family - Haunted Halloween, Warwick Castle, Warwick, England - a 22 ton trebuchet (like a catapult) launching a giant chocolate ball is just one of the Halloween treats at this authentically haunted mansion. Enjoy, ye fearless ones!
Lifestyle - Attitude Festival, Montpellier, France - Urban culture is an adult-ified codeword for young and crazy people's favorite things. Festival Attitude is all about urban culture: skateboard competitions and exhibitions, grafitti contests, live music and dj's and bad BMX bike stunts.
Music & Nightlife - Rock in the Park, El Parque Simón Bolivar, Bogotá, Colombia - Powerful pounding from Public Disorder, The Gangas, Head Crushers, Primal, Apocalyptica, Black Cat Bone, Suicidal Tendencies and Miranda headline this heavy action at Rock al Parque. Pow.
Science & Knowledge - SMAU 2005 Technology Exhibition, Fiera Milano, Milan, Italy - Best new cell phones ain't the half of it here. We're talking major techie gadgetry, including the newest hizute vid games.
Sport & Outdoors -
Moloka'i Hoe Outrigger Canoe Championship, Duke Kahanamoku Beach, Waikiki Pacific - Sponsors Outrigger Canoe Club of Oahu have won this 41 mile open water huff 16 times since its inception in 1952 and Team New Zealand/Hawaii are the current title defenders. Open water canoe racing is the Aloha state's official sport (hangin' on the beach is just a runner-up). Speaking of sports, the NFL is still cooking and hockey is back on the ice -
buy NFL football tickets
or buy NHL hockey tickets if you want to catch some body blocking live this fall.
Details
When you click into an event, you'll be taken to its individual page with details like dates, venue and contact info, location and directions, a weather link, tourist offices and a link to the event's website if one exists. Because Travel Cuts is a full-service student travel agency, a bonus is that any event's home page also contains links to information about the hosting country:
Overview
Introduction
Government
Environment
Society
Economy
Pre-departure
Climate
Communication
Getting There
Getting Around
Culture
Images
Map
The Bottom Line
The search engine is surprisingly comprehensive, considering that it attempts to cover events and festivals worldwide. Play around with it for a bit and you may find yourself changing your travel plans to make sure you hit the Swiss National Yodelling Contest or the Japanese Rice Planting Festival.
"I think that travel comes from some deep urge to see the world, like the urge that brings up a worm in an Irish bog to see the moon when it is full."
--Lord Dunsany
