By now, most of us have been to our fair share of food festivals, holiday events, and city-wide parties in the places we grew up and call home today. However, it’s important to remember that not all festivals are created equal and some events are definitely a bit more “out there” than others. Unique festivals around the world involve food, animals, and cultural traditions you won’t find anywhere else on earth.
Festivals have a way of pulling us out of a rut, interacting with people we would have otherwise never met, and learning about new things in exciting ways. If you’re looking for an excuse to travel and see a new place, festivals can also provide a little extra push to get you out the door. So if you’re looking for something a little out of the ordinary, these are some of the world’s weirdest festivals worth traveling for.
Thaipusam Festival – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Many of us have a few piercings on our ears or elsewhere on the body, but the Thaipusam Festival takes piercings to a whole new level. This is a Hindu religious celebration that is celebrated in South India, Singapore, Malaysia, and other areas where the religion is practiced. The Sri Subramanian Swamy Temple inside the Batu Caves in Kuala Lumpur hosts one of the most popular celebrations. Devotees piece multiple parts of their bodies with silver skewers, creating some of the most intense body piercings known to mankind. Part of the celebration even involves trying to pull vehicles and other heavy objects with hooks implanted under the skin. The festival typically lasts for about two days and is all about making sacrifices and enduring pain to receive eternal rewards.
Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake – Gloucester, England
Another food-related festival that is nothing short of weird is the Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake, which is held near Gloucester in England. Lots of travelers plan to visit the Cotswolds region and check out this festival while in the area. Watch for a round of Double Gloucester cheese to be rolled down a hill while race competitors charge down after it. The first one down the hill wins, and the photo opportunities here are absolutely hilarious. This event has been featured in television documentaries and podcasts, and it typically takes place in late May each year.
La Tomatina – Buñol, Spain
You’ve really got to love tomatoes (or just superb randomness) to travel to Buñol for La Tomatina. This event has been dubbed the world’s largest food fight with tens of thousands of people throwing hundreds of thousands of pounds of tomatoes at each other. The tomato-throwing festival is held on the last Wednesday of August each year and is near Valencia. The tomato battle lasts for just an hour but is certainly an experience to remember. It’s been a local tradition since the mid-1940s, and although the exact origins of the festival are unclear, theories claim it started as a practical joke, a juvenile class war, and a small food fight among friends.
Wife Carrying Festival – Sonkajarvi, Finland
And now for something entirely different…a wife-carrying festival! Each July, the Wife Carrying World Championships take place, with preliminary programs beginning as soon as the previous January. Couples travel from around the country and beyond to trust their partners with strategies like the fireman’s carry, piggyback, or hanging upside-down with the wife’s legs around the husband’s shoulders and holding onto his waist. Expect the course to be pretty brutal with sand, gravel, rocks, and streams, and there’s a team series and a sprint version for options.
Moose Dropping Festival – Talkeetna, Alaska
Not to spoil your appetite if you were simply expecting a list of tasty food festivals here, but there’s an event in Alaska that celebrates moose poop. The Moose Dropping Festival takes place in Talkeetna in July and has undergone some big changes since the event got too big and rowdy for the town to handle. Now the festival has broadened and extended out to several weekends with programs like raffles, silent auctions, games, and a parade. But between 1972 and 2009, this fascinating festival was all about tossing moose “nuggets” as far as you could and dropping them from a crane onto the town’s VFW parking lot.
Baby Jumping Festival – Castillo, Spain
What adult in his right mind would ever try to jump over babies? Well, there are plenty of people in Spain that make it an annual tradition! The festival is called El Colacho, and it has taken place every year since the 1600s. Celebrations are held all over Spain to celebrate the Catholic festival of Corpus Christi, but this celebration is particularly unique. Festival organizers lay babies and young children on the ground and men dress up like daredevils to jump over them as a symbol for cleansing the children from future troubles. It’s held the first Sunday after Corpus Christi (usually in the month of May), and this intriguing practice is said to protect children from bad things in their lives.
Road Kill Cook-Off – Marlinton, West Virginia
Most people would agree that roadkill isn’t exactly appetizing, but some folks in West Virginia have been trying to change our minds for years now. But you might be relieved to find out that the animals cooked here weren’t actually killed by traffic and found along the side of the road. Instead, the festival dishes are prepared with the kinds of animals that might find themselves in that situation. The festival takes place in September each year in Marlinton, West Virginia and is paired with an Autumn Harvest Festival. Top media outlets, including the Food Network and the Travel Channel, have covered this event in past years. Examples of what you might find here include squirrel gravy over biscuits and teriyaki-marinated bear.
Boryeong Mud Festival – Boryeong, South Korea
Lots of us got a kick out of playing in the mud as kids, but quickly grew out of that gross little phase. However, the Boryeong Mud Festival aims to bring back that nostalgia and squishy feeling. This event typically takes place in July and began as a celebration of mud cosmetics. According to local experts, the mud is quite high in germanium and bentonite, both of which are believed to provide health benefits to the body. There are only about 100,000 people who call this town home, but that number soars into the millions at festival time. The area is beautiful right along the coast, and festival helps boost the local economy. It all began back in 1998 and has grown into a world event at the Daecheon swimming beach. Main events include mud massage, a mud air-bounce, a mud skin care contest, and mud cosmetic academic seminars.
