Some festivals make perfect sense — fireworks, street food, a parade or two. But then there are the other kinds of celebrations — the ones that make you pause, smile, and ask, Wait… people really do that? From mud-drenched beach parties in South Korea to spiritual skull parades in Bolivia and beauty pageants that redefine representation in East Africa, the world is full of traditions that are equal parts joyful, meaningful, and delightfully unexpected.
They may seem out of the ordinary at first glance, but behind every costume, mask, or flying vegetable lies history, pride, resilience, and community. So whether you’re here to marvel, learn, or low-key add one to your bucket list — these festivals prove that human celebration comes in many colours… and occasionally, in pumpkin boat form.
1.
What started as a skincare marketing campaign somehow evolved into South Korea’s wildest beach rave, where tens of thousands of people gather in Boryeong to do one thing: absolutely yeet themselves into mud for Mud Fest. The coastline turns into a full mud amusement park, complete with mud wrestling pits, mud slides, mud obstacle courses, and a mud prison where you get blasted by cannons like a swamp criminal. By night, it transforms into a K-pop concert meets swamp rave, with everyone dancing while looking like freshly glazed clay statues.
2.
In La Paz, Bolivia, the Ñatitas Festival takes ancestor worship to its boldest form — by decorating real human skulls and parading them through the streets. Families lovingly dress the skulls in hats, sunglasses, flower crowns, and jewelry, then carry them to church to be blessed for protection and good luck. Some skulls even get cigarettes or shots of liquor as offerings, because even in the afterlife, vibes matter. It’s heartfelt, eerie, and surprisingly joyful — less spooky horror show, more Day of the Dead with extra personality.
3.
Move aside Miss Universe — East Africa hosts a beauty pageant that’s changing lives. The Mr. & Miss Albinism Pageant in Kenya and Tanzania celebrates people with albinism through a full glam runway show, complete with fashion segments, dance performances, and royal crowns. In regions where myths and discrimination against albinism still exist, this festival turns stigma into spotlight and celebration. Contestants walk in bold traditional outfits, glowing face paint, and unstoppable confidence — proving that representation can also come with sparkles and choreography.
4.
If you’ve ever wanted to witness 200 men dressed as Elvis Presley ordering double-doubles at Tim Hortons, this Canadian town was once the holy land. From 1995 to 2019, Collingwood hosted the world’s biggest Elvis tribute festival, where impersonators of all ages competed in singing battles, street parades, and hip-thrust showdowns.
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Night of the Radishes isn’t a salad recipe — it’s a real annual festival in Oaxaca, Mexico, where thousands of people gather every December 23rd to admire radishes carved into full-blown works of art — all to honour Oaxaca. Instead of eating them, locals transform oversized, mutant-looking radishes into scenes of mermaids, saints, monsters, and even political satire. The results are displayed in a massive competition that feels like The Met Gala meets a farmer’s market fever dream.
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At the Roadkill Cook-Off in Marlinton, West Virginia, the phrase tastes like chicken does not apply. Every fall, locals gather to compete in one of America’s most questionably legal-sounding culinary competitions — where the star ingredients include squirrel, raccoon, possum, bear, and sometimes mystery meat they just call “forest surprise.” Before you panic: no actual roadkill is scraped off the highway. These animals are legally hunted — and then turned into dishes.
7.
Some towns carve pumpkins for Halloween — but in Windsor, Nova Scotia, people climb inside them and race across a lake instead. The annual Pumpkin Regatta sees locals hollow out giant, 600-pound pumpkins, hop in like they’re boarding tiny vegetable submarines, and paddle their way across Lake Pesaquid with the grace of confused Vikings. Half the competitors show up in full costume — think garden gnomes rowing pumpkin battleships — while the other half immediately capsize and accept their watery fate. It’s fun, damp, and deeply Canadian in spirit. Who wins doesn’t really matter; what counts is not being the first person to sink in a squash.
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In Chiapas, Mexico, the festival known as La Danza de los Parachicos turns the streets into a surreal parade of smiling wooden masks, embroidered outfits, and synchronized shaking. Participants don large carved faces with fixed grins, wear colourful wigs and rattling belts, and dance through town while shaking maracas with dramatic flair — all to honour venerated saints. The tradition dates back to colonial legends of miraculous healing. The best part? The masks never stop smiling, even when the dancers clearly need a water break.
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If you’ve ever dreamed of biking through a major city without pants — or, you know, anything at all — Portland, Oregon is ready to hand you a helmet and zero judgment. The World Naked Bike Ride brings thousands of cyclists together each year to pedal through the streets wearing everything from full paint jobs to glitter pasties to absolutely nothing but confidence. Officially, it’s a protest promoting body positivity and environmental awareness, but unofficially, it’s the world’s largest parade of sunburned butts on wheels.
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Most music festivals hand you a wristband and a beer — this one hands you a snorkel. Every summer in the Florida Keys, ocean lovers grab their fins and dive into the Underwater Music Festival, where speakers are placed beneath the sea and swimmers float around listening to ocean-themed tunes like “Yellow Submarine” and “Under the Sea” while surrounded by actual fish. Some attendees even show up in full mermaid costumes or shark onesies, air-guitaring on inflatable kelp while parrotfish stare in confusion. The whole thing is technically meant to promote reef conservation, but let’s be real — it’s also an excuse to host the world’s chillest underwater mosh pit.
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Only in Hawaii could a canned meat become a national treasure worthy of its own street festival, and honestly? Respect. The Waikiki Spam Jam shuts down the streets in Honolulu so thousands of people can celebrate SPAM in all its salty glory — we’re talking Spam musubi, tacos, burgers, ice cream, even Spam-flavoured cocktails if you’re feeling emotionally unwell. Restaurants compete to invent the most outrageous Spam dish while hula dancers, food trucks, and costumed Spam mascots (yes, there are walking meat cans) hype up the crowd like it’s Coachella for processed pork. It’s delicious, upbeat, and the only festival where you can eat six different types of Spam and still be praised for your cultural appreciation.
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If regular winter sports aren’t thrilling enough, Anchorage, Alaska decided to strap wheels onto outhouses and race them down the street. During the annual Outhouse Races, teams build portable toilets on skis or wheels — complete with toilet seats, plungers, and questionable structural integrity — then push them like bobsleds while someone brave (or unlucky) rides inside as the designated “driver.” Racers dress in everything from hazmat suits to bathrobes and crowns, because why not be royalty while speeding in a porta-potty?
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In October, Dublin transforms into a citywide vampire playground in honour of its most famous literary legend — Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula. Instead of a polite book reading, the Bram Stoker Festival goes full gothic spectacle: costumed vampire parades creep through the streets, spooky light shows turn historic buildings blood-red, and late-night séances, cemetery tours, and undead dance parties take over the city. It’s theatrical, eerie, and just classy enough to make you believe Dracula absolutely had an Irish passport.
14.
If you think Canadians are mildly obsessed with maple syrup, Elmira, Ontario is here to prove it’s a full-blown lifestyle. Every spring, the town hosts the world’s largest maple syrup festival, where tens of thousands of people gather to pour liquid sugar on absolutely everything — pancakes, sausages, snow, possibly strangers if they stand still too long. Main Street turns into a sticky wonderland packed with boiling syrup cauldrons, taffy-pulling stations, and maple-flavoured experiments. It’s sweet, it’s sticky, and by the end of the day you’ll leave with glazed fingers, a sugar coma, and a deeply spiritual connection to trees.
15.
If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if thousands of monkeys were given an all-you-can-eat brunch, the answer is in Lopburi, Thailand, where locals host the annual Monkey Buffet Festival — a banquet thrown exclusively for macaques. Instead of politely nibbling, the monkeys swarm tables stacked with fruits. Some even steal cameras, sunglasses, or entire backpacks as souvenirs. The feast is technically meant to thank the monkeys for bringing tourism and good luck to the town…but based on the photos, it’s really just Planet of the Apes: Brunch Edition.
16.
At Japan’s annual Naki Sumo, also known as the Crying Baby Festival, parents willingly hand their infants to sumo wrestlers, whose job is to make them cry — because in Japanese tradition, a loud baby brings good health and scares away evil spirits. The ritual takes place at major shrines all throughout the country. Wrestlers bounce, roar, and even wear demon masks in dramatic attempts to trigger the first tear. The babies compete face-to-face like tiny warriors while a priest officiates like it’s the world’s cutest boxing match. It’s part blessing ceremony, part comedy show, and part lively parenting strategy.
17.
If you’ve ever wanted to battle your problems by pelting strangers with oranges, Italy has already perfected the art. Every February in Ivrea, locals and visitors split into teams, climb onto horse-drawn carts or barricade themselves in the streets, and launch into a full-scale orange war using hundreds of thousands of ripe oranges as ammunition. The festival reenacts an old rebellion against a tyrant, but these days it’s less political uprising and more Vitamin C-fueled gladiator match. Participants wear helmets, medieval costumes, and sometimes makeshift riot shields made of wood and tarps. It’s slippery, it’s heroic, and it’s the Battle of the Oranges.
18.
If a regular wine tasting feels too civilized for you, head to Haro, Spain, where locals celebrate La Batalla del Vino by ditching the wine glasses and hurling red wine at each other until everyone is soaked from head to toe in purple glory. People in white outfits climb a hill carrying wine jugs, squirt guns, buckets, and even entire hose systems, then spend hours absolutely drenching each other like it’s Napa Valley meets WWE. By noon, the crowd looks like a mass flash mob, stained fuchsia and sticky yet proudly hydrated. It’s technically done in honour of Saint Felice, but let’s be real — it gives the blood of Christ a whole new vibe.
19.
During the annual Puli Kali festival in Kerala, India hundreds of men transform themselves into full-sized tigers — and then spend the day dancing through the streets to pounding drumbeats. Participants paint their entire bodies in bright yellow, orange, and black stripes, complete with fangs, tails, and wiggling bellies that jiggle in perfect rhythm. Each “tiger” joins a troupe led by a drummer dressed as a hunter, and together they perform choreographed prowls, pounces, and spontaneous catfights for roaring crowds. If you’ve ever wanted to witness 200 tigers dancing in unison, Kerala is the place to be.
20.
Horse racing is classy — camel racing is pure chaos. At the Camel Cup in Alice Springs, riders cling on for dear life while camels sprint, refuse to move, or randomly turn around and run in the opposite direction. Spectators show up in attire perfect for the outback, cheering as the desert turns into a dusty battleground of spit and glory.
21.
Forget the haunted and spooky stereotypes surrounding Voodoo — in Benin, it’s a joyful practice, revered religion, and its annual festival in Ouidah is a vibrant spiritual explosion of drum circles, trance dancing, elaborate masks, and sacred rituals. Thousands gather on the beach to honour their deities through music, possession ceremonies, and costumed performances. It’s uplifting, communal, and powerful.
Which one stopped you in your tracks? Is there a festival you’d actually show up for, and did I miss any absolute gems? Drop your chaos in the comments!