Want to spice up your routine? Then try going to any of these fun international festivals being held around the world. Who knows? Maybe you can find one in your own hometown! From having a full-blown tomato fight to throwing bright and colored powders on unsuspecting strangers, you won’t want to miss these 9 crazy international festivals.
La Tomatina, Spain
Looking for a vegan alternative to the running of the bulls festival? Well, then this is it! Around 120 tons of tomatoes are tipped from trucks into the narrow streets of this small village in Spain each year. Word of advice: bring some goggles!
Battle of the Oranges, Italy
Italy has its own giant food festival but they chose to go with oranges instead of tomatoes, which they throw around in one epic and colorful food fight. There are nine different squads waging war on each other by throwing fruit. The battle lasts three full days and 250 tons of oranges are used.
Boryeong Mud Festival, South Korea
Step aside tomatoes and oranges! South Korea stepped it up a notch and replaced the food of those famous European festivals with straight-up mud. Originally, this festival was designed to celebrate the mud from the local region that is typically used in skincare. The event was so successful, tt became an annual event.
Holi, India
This incredibly colorful festival is celebrated every year to mark the arrival of spring. It is sometimes known as the festival of color as people throw brightly colored powder over each other. Each color has a special meaning. Green represents vitality. Red stands for purity. Blue represents calmness. And yellow equals pious feelings. Once the festival’s over, make sure to have plenty of shampoo to wash your hair afterward as the colors can stain, especially those with lighter colored hair.
World Bog Swimming Championship, Wales
Wales is known as a wet country and they sure as heck like to celebrate it! The World Bog Swimming Championships require people to swim two lengths of a certain trench. You can use a snorkel but you don’t really need to wear a wetsuit, but most people do anyway. All the proceeds from this super fun event go to charity.
Chinchilla Melon Festival, Australia
The town of Chinchilla hosts a super fun event called the Melon Festival every year. Chinchilla is known as the melon capital of Australia, (is that a thing?) and the event includes a wide range of competitions. You can get involved with the melon rodeo, melon skiing, or bring along your biggest melon for the annual weigh-in for the largest melon.
Rouketopolemos Rocket War, Greece
An ancient tradition continues to this day in this small Greek town. Originally conducted with cannons, two rival churches fire bottles rockets at each other in the hopes of hitting each other’s bell tower. This tradition is just as dangerous as it sounds, with burns, lost digits and smoke inhalation happening each year. But a winner is never firmly confirmed, so they all agree to do it next year (and hope the tourists will continuing coming).
Monkey Buffet Festival, Thailand
Humans aren’t the only stars of these super fun international festivals. Each year, tables are laid out with over 4,500 pounds of fruits and desserts in hopes of appealing to the local monkeys who are said to bring good luck to the people in Thailand.
Water Gun Festival, South Korea
After all that mess, you’re probably ready to dust yourself off and get a nice bath. Well, then you’re probably going to love the last festival on this least. The Sinchon Water Gun Festival has a bunch of students flooding the streets over the course of two days having one major water gun fight. So if you plan on stopping by, make sure to bring your own water gun. But if you forget, it’s all good, as they sell them there too.
