Mud festival, beer regatta or roller bed race. Imagination is limitless when it comes to partying.

We have traveled the planet in search of the most offbeat and / or delusional parties. Some are folk or religious, others completely crazy.

On the way to a festival of unusual festivals, to write down in your calendar as a matter of urgency

Unusual festivals: France, Reunion and Europe

Between the bed race and the toe battle contest, this is a very good introduction to discover all our selection of unusual parties in the world! Direction France and Europe to start.

If the famous rolling bed by Gaston Lagaffe has always made you dream, the race of rolling beds by Mahalon will delight you. The principle: make the best time on the 345 m circuit around the church, driving this funny machine.

This competition is part of the ” festival of the unusual “, during which you can indulge in a race of office chairs or even compete for different records to beat throwing berets, spitting apricot kernels.

If you don’t feel like an unusual competitor, make yourself a spectator. The festival also organizes numerous street entertainment, a country meal, a popular ball and a fireworks display.

After the herring, the beer and the pig here is the bear! Each year, in the Catalan village of Prats-de-Mollo-La Preste, a carnival is held which does not create melancholy. The bone diada – understand the “bear day” – which commemorates a medieval legend: the abduction by a solitary bear of a pretty shepherdess who was saved from the animal’s clutches by a band of valiant hunters. Brought back to the village, the bear was shaved and found a human form. Not really Winnie the Pooh!

Each year, villagers disguise themselves as bears, wearing animal skin or covering themselves with soot. The others, dressed in white, disguise themselves as hunters. The “bears” armed with clubs – don’t worry, this is a tradition – then run down the hill and smear the faces of passers-by with soot.

Once caught by the hunters, the “bears” are chained on the village square and shaved, in front of the delirious crowd. The animal skin and the soot removed; the “bears” gradually take human form. Once this ritual is accomplished, music brings our happy friends to the rhythm of a frenzied round. Man has overcome the beast.

Every month, except March, May, September, October and November.

This Tamil ceremony ends a period of purification by Lent (consisting in practicing vegetarian fasting), sexual abstinence and prayer. Lent lasts 21 days and ends with a fire march.

From the 18th day of Lent, the penitents prepare themselves the pit, divided into two parts: the “hole of fire” on which the embers are spread, and the “basin of milk” in which they plunge their feet after crossing the blaze.

This Pandialé festival is especially celebrated in the cities of Saint-Pierre and Saint-Louis, near the Tamil temples, and in the small family temples of the Hauts de l’île.

The concept of the World Toe Wrestling Championship: “arm wrestling” with your big toes! Yes Yes, it’s possible. This atypical competition has been held in the United Kingdom since 1976. Its organizers have even tried to introduce it to the Olympic Games without success, much to the chagrin of the fans! Who will dare to face the great champion Alan “Nasty” Nash? Here are 10 championships that he did not give up his title.

The World Bog Snorkeling Championship has been held every August since 1985 in the swamps of Waen Rhydd, near Llanwrtyd Wells. 200 participants of all nationalities take part in this strange swimming competition in (very) troubled waters.

The principle: make a round trip of a hundred meters in a mud trench, in the heart of a swamp, equipped with fins, mask and snorkel.

Only constraint: the ban on swimming in a traditional way which makes the competition very funny. The competition knows some variants, with a mountain bike in particular.

Course comrade, the old cheese is before you. Thousands of spectators are expected every year on the hills of Coopers Hill, in Gloucestershire to admire an unusual race, the Cheese Rolling.

The principle of this unusual race: throw a cheese 30 cm in diameter and almost 4 kg (a double Gloucester cheese) along a steep hill and run after it to catch it! The winner is the first to achieve this. And of course, the winner can take the cheese home.

Beginning of the festivities at lunchtime, four races punctuate the afternoon. Small detail: mice are not allowed to participate.

No, it’s not a concert going wrong! La Tomatina is a giant tomato battle to laugh, during which more than 40,000 happy drilles are swinging tons of tomatoes in their faces. This crazy party was born of an argument that broke out in a group of teenagers with a tomato stand nearby.

Nowadays, we are more peaceful: the tomatoes must be crushed before being launched on the participants of the biggest food battle on a world scale. Rest assured; the streets are cleaned with plenty of water at the end of the day.

It is advisable to wear clothes that you intend to throw away. Goggles and protections are required to avoid small inconveniences due to the acidity of the tomato. The day before, to get in condition, a giant paella is organized.

The start of the herring fishing season is a great celebration in the port of Scheveningen, near The Hague. Clou de la fête: the competition for the biggest herring eater, very impressive and not to be missed under any circumstances.

The Queen of the Netherlands is also solemnly and symbolically offered the first ton of herring caught. She must also have a good appetite

Unusual festivals: Americas and Oceania

Transform yourself into a real American during a barbecue festival or put on your best cowboy hat to train a Canadian horse.

A mega barbecue competition stretching from 9th to 14th Avenue, on the famous Pennsylvania Avenue. Hundreds of barbecues, grills as far as the eye can see and a smell of wood fire invade the city for a weekend. Stands allow barbecue enthusiasts to exchange tips for successful grilling, recipes for marinades full of flavor.

Music accompanies the competition, since three stages mark out the course and offer to listen to more than thirty jazz and country groups. Enjoy your steak.

Canada’s third city, 80 km from the Rockies, Calgary hosts an all-round rodeo week every year. Impressive shows, spectacular activities, larger parades each year, mounted police parades make this week in early July a gathering of thousands of enthusiasts.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of this event, around thirty concerts were organized, where rodeo stars were present. 100 years of rodeo and this is not about to end. The Alberta is the Wild West of Canadians.

On the evening of December 23, crowds come to celebrate the night of radishes under the arches of Zócalo, the main square in downtown Oaxaca. Three days before the radish festival, the artists (artisans and market gardeners) choose the radishes which will soon become sculptures. Some reach up to 50 cm in height.

The evening of D-Day, the statues are born on the small stands of the artists. The plant works mainly take up Christmas themes: scenes from the Bible, manger, visit of the wise men. The works are mainly in radishes but also in dried flowers and corn leaves (“totomoxtle”), ie three categories.

Each of them also has its winner, appointed by a jury at the end of the evening. This popular festival, which combines art and tradition, attracts many people.

Are you a fan of sailing and foam? The beer regatta is for you. Thousands of participants meet each year at Darwin with a simple objective: to succeed in building a raft, but not just how …

Throughout the year, participants keep all their cans, beer bottles and sodas to build the most resistant raft. The rafts rarely exceed the first 25 meters of the race, but it is an excuse to drink beer the rest of the year.

This event is very popular in northern Australia. On the program: the famous regatta with rafts built by hand, but also concerts, dance and sports competitions.
Unusual festivals: Asia

We end in style with the unusual festivals of Asia and especially our favorite: the Holi in India!

Every first Sunday in April, for the arrival of spring, the Shinto fertility festival is celebrated in Kawasaki (Japan). Kanamara Matsuri, or festival of the iron penis, therefore, puts the male sexual organ in the spotlight. The feast takes place at the Kanayama shrine, once frequented by prostitutes who have come to pray there for protection against venereal diseases.

Supported by carriers, three giant penises show off: the wooden penis, the black iron penis and the giant pink penis. The phallus is also present in all kinds of forms: images, carved vegetables, or sweets to taste.

Similar festivals: In Japan: Hönen Matsuri in Komaki (every year on March 15). In Greece, the Burani, in Tyrnavos (March 11, 2019).

On the occasion of the spring equinox, Holi celebrates the arrival of spring and fertility. It is known as the festival of colors. People, dressed in white, circulate with color pigments and spray passers-by, tourists being the favorite targets.

The colors of the pigments have special meanings: red for joy and love, blue for vitality, green for harmony, orange for optimism. The color festival is an opportunity for young and old to sprinkle with powders and water of all colors.

Be careful what you wear, because the mixture of powder and water gives a kind of indelible mud. Difficult to take off your clothes after Holi! You have been warned.

Songkran corresponds to the Buddhist New Year, which falls in April during the hottest season. Suddenly, the Thais are engaged in a giant water battle in the streets of cities, with buckets of water, water cannons or even elephant trunks. Special mention to Khao San Road, where it’s crazy!

One reason for all these aquatic games: water is a source of purification and keeps bad luck away. Originally, the Thais bathed the Buddhas and poured scented waters on the hands of their elders. But Songkran degenerated into giant water battles in the streets. On the other hand, we don’t just drink water during the festivities.

It’s almost Planet of the Apes. In Lopburi, the monkeys live in total freedom. Once a year, at the end of November, the inhabitants organize a large buffet in their honor.

On the menu: refined dishes, often sweet, sodas, delicacies specially prepared for the occasion. The dishes are offered, accompanied by curtsies, in a festive atmosphere. It is an extraordinary buffet whose monkeys love every year.

In Thailand, monkeys are revered because they are considered to be the descendants of the monkey god Hanuman. Monkeys are the main tourist attraction in Lopburi: they have even invaded a temple!

Dive in the mud as in a fountain of youth? The Boryeong Mud Festival, which is held annually on Daecheon Beach, is said to celebrate an invigorating mud.

This mud, rich in nutrients and minerals, is said to have cosmetic properties. Festival-goers dive into large inflatable structures filled with mud in the Mud Experience Space and cover themselves with it, taking advantage of its virtues for the skin.

On the program: mud baths, massages, mud slides for the youngest, wrestling competition in slippery terrain for the older ones.

The mud festival is an opportunity for Koreans to buy cosmetic and care products on site, but above all to give themselves to their heart’s content by rolling in the mud.

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