Colourful festivals don’t just occur in the summer like Notting Hill Carnival or Pride. We can experience them at other times of the year to escape wet and grey weather.
Are you looking to inject some colour into your life? Avoid the British weather by booking an adventure this February. Take yourself away from the grey, to experience a magical, colourful festival instead!
From Brazil’s Carnival in February to La Tomatina in August, here are some of the most colourful festivals for you to consider. Plus, a little history behind each one.
1. Italy’s Carneval
Italy has refused to feel glum during the last few weeks of winter for 12 thousand years. Instead, a festival atmosphere has existed. Carneval or Carnival takes place on the days that lead up to Lent. The last and biggest festival day is Shrove Tuesday. Shrove Tuesday is traditionally the last day to eat meat before the beginning of Lent and Carneval means to remove meat. So, the “Carneval” festival events mark the days that lead up to Ash Wednesday (before Lent) when traditionally Catholics don’t eat meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and the Fridays throughout Lent.
On balance, since Roman times (and sometime before) a carnival has taken place throughout Italy to celebrate the beginning of spring, fertility and new beginnings. The celebrations include colourful floats that parade through the streets. Plus, several tricks were played at masquerade balls with lots of dancing and loud costumes.
Today, these traditions continue. Parades pop up throughout each Italian town, each one more bonkers than the next. Also, each town is full of colour, cheer and confetti, alongside mischief and mystery. During the two to four weekends that lead up to Ash Wednesday (the start of Lent) visit an Italian town and join the party! Watch a dance troupe or parade drift through the streets and don a colourful mask. You may also enjoy listening to the live bands on the floats go by. While tucking into traditional sweet treats from a local bakery.
What should be noted is that the official Italian Carneval still takes place on Shrove Tuesday. However, you can experience more festivities and parades across Italy beforehand. Some of the biggest parades are in Venice, where fun masks are traditionally worn. Then in Fano on the Adriatic coast, hundreds of sweets are thrown from each float into the crowds. To see the most beautiful parades visit the Acireale’s Carnival on the island of Sicily. Here floats are adorned with bright flowers, to create a fresh floral aroma around the town, which are followed by folk poets who improvise verses.
2. Rio Carnival
Known as the greatest popular festival in the world you can’t find a more colourful festival than Rio Carnival. Although a Catholic tradition, millions of people from around the world flock to Rio to join the party. You can join the revelry in the five days that led up to Ash Wednesday.
Rio Carnival is a combination of dazzling samba balls, parades and large street parties (organised by street groups and the Simpatia é Quase). Watch the party people dance through the streets alongside live street bands. However, it’s these live street bands and dancers that grew to become Brazil’s best samba schools. See them perform the samba (African-Brazilian dance moves) on exotic floats throughout the Carnival.
Each performer from a samba school is dressed in a colourful costume that tells a story. Each of the top schools in Brazil competes to be the best, by dancing through Marques de Sapucai Avenue and into Sambadrome stadium. Join one of 80,000 visitors to watch them dance while listening to all kinds of music.
There are samba parades every night of the carnival. This culminates in a grand samba competition on Carnival Sunday and Monday. On the panel, 40 judges mark each colourful costume, song, and samba choreography. Before announcing a winner on Ash Wednesday.
3. Carnival Mardi Gras
Mardi Gras is a colourful festival that celebrates life each Shrove Tuesday in New Orleans. It’s a day of entertainment and balls. Plus, parades of beautiful and amusing floats, dancers and marching bands, flow around the town.
Why not join the party people by dressing up in green, gold and purple? These colours symbolise justice, faith and power. Then stand back to watch the charismatic characters from different krewes (social organisations) pass by on the floats. Each character dresses up in a colourful costume with big hair and glitter. See if you can catch the different gifts each krewe throws out to the crowds. Gifts include medallion beads, coconuts, stuffed animals, doubloons (Spanish gold coin) and trinkets.
Mardi Gras in New Orleans was first celebrated with high society balls in 1718, when French-Canadia explorer Jean Baptiste Le Moyne Sieur de Bienville (Bienville), established the town. However, today 100 carnival balls take place at nightfall after the parades. Both then and now people from different backgrounds and classes wear sparkly masks and party together.
The largest krewe (the Krewe of Endymion) organises the most extravagant ball in The Caesars Superdome. Here you can be entertained by well-known performers (alongside 10,000 guests and famous stars) while tucking into drinks, food platters and colourful king cakes. It’s not referred to as ‘Fat Tuesday’ for nothing!
4. Apokries
The Greek Apokries Carnival Season is one of the most colourful times on their calendar. Throughout Greece, much eating, drinking and socialising is embraced. Not to mention costume parties, masquerading and dancing before the Greek Orthodox Easter. This year the festivities will be taking place between February 25th and March 17th. If you visit in the three weeks leading up to Lent, you’ll notice the Greeks adopting these traditions. Why not join in and experience them alongside the locals?
There is Profoní week when the Carnival is Announced. Then the second week is Κreatiní (Meat Week). This is when everyone indulges in a range of meats because meat is not eaten during Lent. However, the real feasting takes place from Tsiknopempti (Smokey Thursday). BBQs are organised in pubs and restaurants and both the meats and their Smokey aroma are enjoyed until Meat Fare Sunday. This is the last day meat can be eaten before lent.
The final week is Tyriní (cheese week), which finishes with Cheese fare Sunday. A range of dairy delicacies are consumed and colourful festival celebrations, parades and masquerade parties take place. Each town celebrates its own customs and cultural heritage. So, it’s a great time to observe and learn more about Greek culture!
Why not visit the port city of Patras during Apokries? It has a reputation for organising the biggest carnival in the land. It is kicked off by the town crier. Then you can dance at balls, watch the parades and street theatres, as well as wave to the carnival king and queen.
5. Holi – Festival of colours
Known for its parties and jubilation, Holi (The Indian Festival of Colours) is an exciting event on the Hindu calendar. It usually takes place at the end of March on the last full moon day. It signifies the struggle between good and evil. Also, Hindus reflect upon the legendary story of Holika. However, the aim of the festival is to be merry with everyone!
Holi is a two-day festival. Celebrations start on Holika Dahan when a blaze of bonfires symbolise the victory of good over evil. This year Holika Dahan is on March 24th. Holi Main Day is on March 25th. Holi Main Day is the colourful festival that celebrates the end of winter and beginning of spring. Also known as the Festival of Spring. You may have seen pictures or film footage of happy people dancing and launching colourful liquid or powder (gulal in Hindi) at one another in the streets across India.
However, if you join this colour battle, the more shades of green, yellow and pink you’re scattered with represent the number of blessings you’ll receive in the year. To experience the best of the festival of colour visit Barsana, Nandgaon, Mathura, Vrindavan or Pushkar. Remember to pack old clothes!
6. La Tomatina, food fight festival
Similar to Holi, at La Tomatina you will end up covered – this time with tomatoes! The festival has been taking place since 1944/1945. Its origins are not 100% certain. Some theories say that it started with a food fight between friends, class wars, a procession that went wrong or a practical joke.
Today it’s a fun, colourful festival of juicy red, known as the world’s biggest food fight. It happens on the last Wednesday in August within Spain each year but only through the (usually quiet) streets of Buñol. To get there you could stay in nearby Valencia (38km away) or two hours north in Barcelona.
As it’s the only festival of its kind it might not come as a surprise that many thousands of people arrive each August. So, its limit is 20,000 people. Alongside over 100 kilos of over-ripe tomatoes, delivered by several trucks from Extremadura. The fight begins when water cannons are released into the air. The chaos stops after an hour, when a second shot of a firework is heard.
If you wish to attend, wear old clothes, goggles and sturdy shoes. Also remember to squash the tomatoes before throwing them to reduce impact. To refresh after the battle, join most of the attendees in a dip in the Bunol River to wash away the acidy of the tomatoes. The town’s buildings also have a nice deep clean too – citric acid is a remarkable natural cleaner.
Fancy attending a festival to escape a grey day? Don’t just refer to this guide for inspiration. Discover many more cultural festivals that take place throughout the year.