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Top event breaks
More and more travellers are looking for city break holidays that tie in with fun, cultural or sporting events and festivals. Here are our top picks of fabulous event breaks around the world
Brits are increasingly coordinating their holidays with local festivities to make the most of their short break. Last year, for example, bookings to Munich and New York increased by over 100 per cent for the period over Oktoberfest and the New York Marathon. Other events that saw visitor figures soar were the likes of the Cannes Film Festival, Rome's White Night and Milan's Fashion Week.
'Britons travel extensively and events are great excuses to either go back and spend time in places they have been to before or discover new destinations,' said John Bevan, managing director at Lastminute.com. 'Holidays are more than ever about the experience and have to offer something extra.'
La Tomatina in Bunol, near Valencia, Spain
A more light-hearted and vibrant alternative to the running of the bulls festival in Northern Spain's Pamplona, La Tomatina is the mother of all food fights, where thousands of revellers gather in the small town of Bunol in Valencia to hurl ripe tomatoes at each other, just for fun!
La Tomatina takes place on the last Wednesday of August and attracts more than 40,000 people each year, who gather in and around the Plaza del Pueblo in Bunol, where a greasy pole with a ham hanging from the top will have been set. Tradition states that the fight cannot begin until someone has managed to climb up the pole and released the ham.
Then a shot is fired to signal the beginning of the battle, as big trucks packed with around 120 tons of ripe tomatoes roll into town. The one rule: you must crush the tomatoes before hurling them. Another shot is eventually fired to signal the end of the battle. Then the clean up operation begins, helped by the powerful water hoses of the fire brigade.
Top tips: Make sure you bring goggles, old clothes and only waterproof cameras, and don't wear slip-on shoes you could lose in a sea of tomato puree! Visit www.latomatina.es
Rio De Janeiro Carnival, Brazil
Rio has a reputation for laidback living and knowing how to party, and its carnival is the biggest and most famous in the world, with over 500,000 foreign travellers alone attending each year.
It's a wild and colourful four-day celebration before the start of sober Lent, and is all about excess, opulence and the pleasures of the flesh. Think sizzling temperatures, delicious food, festive parades, colour and sequins, and music and dancing that goes on all day and night.
From the iconic statue of Christ perched atop Corcovado Mountain looking out across the sprawling city, to the bronzed and beautiful bodies on Copacabana Beach, nowhere says Latin America more than Rio de Janeiro.
Burning Man, Nevada Desert, USA
A massive and legendary eight-day festival that takes place in Black Rock City is a temporary settlement in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, USA, including theme camps, villages and art installations.
Expect crazy happenings, mad art everywhere, and an array of mutant cars, from giant motorised muffins to Yellow Submarines to mechanical spiders. There's even a Department of Mutant Vehicles that inspects all cars and rejects those that are unsafe or not creative enough.
The madness and festivities culminate in the famous burning of a massive 40-foot wooden man. It's increasingly becoming hugely popular - last year almost 50,000 people attended, and the event has sparked a number of traditions, including the burning of a temple.
One word of warning though: the event is clothing-optional so you'll see your fair share of nudity, but it's not compulsory and not practiced by the majority. This year's theme is American Dream. Visit www.burningman.com
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