- Hello everyone, my name's Kristen.
- And I'm Siya.
- And we are Hopscotch the Globe.
- And this video breaks down festivals
around the world month by month.
- Yeah, so this is everything's
happening this year, around the world,
all different countries.
Every month we are featuring a different
country, a different festival,
very different from one another,
but all of them are super cool,
very interesting, you're not gonna
want to miss any one of them.
You're gonna want to hit up all of them.
So get those calendars ready
to schedule in some trips for this year.
- Yeah, it doesn't matter what month
you're traveling, you can visit a new festival.
- Yeah, so let's get into it.
- Up Helly AA Viking Fire Festival.
It happens the last Tuesday in January
and it's the largest fire festival in Europe.
This is where the local men
channel their inner Viking.
They dress up like Vikings,
they act like Vikings,
they even torch a Viking boat.
This festival celebrates the end
of the Yule Season and it's a festival
I definitely want to check out in my lifetime.
- Tribal Gathering is a very unique,
special event that happens every year.
It happens in Panama and it brings in
60 different tribes from all over the world,
from 30 different countries together
to share and celebrate together.
There is many different music acts
from tribal bands to DJ's,
there's workshops, there's dance celebrations,
there's talks, the whole event is 18 days long.
Tribal Gathering happens in Playa Chiquita
in Palmira and it is about a three hour drive
from the Tocumen Airport.
You can get there by bus or you can
drive there yourself.
The road was only built a couple
of years ago so it was a little
bumpy to get actually to the spot,
which means there's not a lot of tourism there.
There's no hotels or hostels for you to stay in.
But your ticket also gives you access
to camp wherever you'd like in the camping area.
You can set up a tent or bring your RV,
Camper Van, whatever you'd like.
- The Battle of the Oranges Festival
happens in Ivrea, Italy.
I guess it would be Ivrea, Italy.
And this is the most peculiar festival in Italy.
This is also one of the oldest festivals in Italy
where people toss oranges at each other
in a crazy rampage of orange splatter.
It is to mimic the civil war that happened
between the Royal Napoleonic troops
and the Ivrean people.
If you're really into history you would love
attending this festival because the city
where it is dates back to 100 B.C..
You lookin' at me, huh?
You lookin' at me?
You want this orange?
- [Kristen] Ow!
(cat howling and glass breaking)
- The Penis Festival.
Yes there's a festival all for the penis.
Happens every April, in Japan.
And it's exactly what you think it is.
It's a festival of the penis.
You're gonna see penises everywhere.
From phallic deserts, snacks,
people wearing penises,
penis hats, you name it, penises everywhere.
And there's even a parade with a massive
pink penis that marches down the street.
Yep, yep.
Seriously though, what about the Vagina Festival?
Is there a Vagina Festival?
If there is and you know about it
I want to hear about it.
Okay, there's a couple of things
that I've heard of about this festival
and how it came to be.
One of the stories, my personal favorite,
is there was this young woman
and she had a demon living in her vagina.
And she married two men,
I'm guessing at separate occasions,
and when she had sex with them
the demon bit off their penises
and she was like, what do I do?
So she goes to a blacksmith
and he makes her a metal penis
which she has sex with and the demon bites it,
breaks his teeth and she is able
to live a normal life after that.
'Cause who wouldn't live a normal life
after having a demon in their vagina
that bit off penises.
Also the giant penis shrine that you will see
in the parade is something that sex workers
used to pray to in order to prevent
sexually transmitted diseases.
- Afrikaburn is very similar to the more
popular Burning Men where they build
a city in the middle of the desert,
except Afrikaburn happens in South Africa.
Volunteers run the entire festival
and then participants come,
they basically build an entire city
for this festival and when the festival's done
they take everything down.
They take away all their garbage,
all traces that they were there.
There's no advertising and branding
at the festival, you're not gonna see
booths set up with people trying
to sell you things, people selling t-shirts,
people advertising different things.
The only thing that's sold at the festival
is ice so that you can keep your food
and vegetables cold, you can have cold drinks.
That's it, this festival is really
about community and connection.
Meeting people from all over the world,
strangers and being one for the festival.
Being an entire tribe.
Being one loving family.
We've attended a few festivals like this
and it's incredible the amount
of emotion and oneness that you do feel
when you're amongst all these people.
There's no crime, there's no drama,
there's no fights, there's no anger.
It's just pure love, pure happiness,
and pure acceptance.
If you want to be naked the entire festival
you can do that, no judgment.
But it might get sandy.
- Electric Forest is one of my personal favorites.
I've been a few times
and absolutely love it there.
It is one of the most friendliest,
loving festivals that I have ever been to
and I feel like that exists on the planet.
It happens in Rothbury, Michigan
and the feature of it, of course,
besides the wonderful music
on several stages, is the forest.
The forest is filled with incredible
art installations and lights
and characters that are running around
like elves and geisha's
that definitely trip you out.
And you can explore the forest all three days,
during the day, during the night,
and still not see everything,
there's so much in there
and so much creativity.
Some of the featured bands this year
include BASSNECTAR, Kygo, ODESZA, and Zeds Dead.
There's a variety of different music
so if you are a music lover like myself
you will have so much fun there
and you'll get to learn about new types
of music, which is what I've done
every single year and now all the bands
that I actually discover at Electric Forest
are my current favorites.
Besides the many different musical performances
and the trippy forest, there is yoga
every morning, there's workshops,
there's the silent disco,
there's gong circles,
there's a lot goin' on.
And where you stay is, there's different options.
You can camp in a tent,
you can bring your RV or camper vans
and there's also little
cottages that you can rent.
- Wife Carrying Festival happens in Finland
and it's exactly what you think it is.
Men carry their wives or girlfriends.
This is actually a race.
Fastest wins but also you can get prizes
for being entertaining and funny.
It's a 250 meter race on land and in water
with obstacles along the way.
The women have to be 17 years or older
and weigh at least 49 kilos.
They have to be held three different ways.
Piggyback style.
(grunting)
Piggyback style.
(grunting and laughing)
Piggyback. (grunting)
(laughing) Ou!
Piggyback style.
(laughing)
Over the shoulders! (laughing)
Estonian style. (laughing)
- We'd so lose!
- Another favorite of mine,
Wanderlust Festival is another opportunity
to connect with yourself physically,
emotionally and meet like minded people.
There are two places that it happens in Canada.
In Whistler and Mont-Tremblant in Quebec
and I had the chance to go to the one
in Mont-Tremblant, it was an incredible experience.
It's many different yoga classes
and whether you are a beginner yoga,
advanced, there's classes for everyone.
There's different types of workshops.
There's outdoor activities
you can participate in.
There's dance celebrations at night.
There's music performances.
There's delicious food.
It's such good vibes and you can learn so much.
Accommodations for Wanderlust include hotels
or hostels in the nearby city that you are in.
Wanderlust also happens in so many different
places around the world, not just Canada,
so be sure to check them out.
- Cascamorras is a festival that happens
between two cities in Spain.
This looks like a ton of fun.
So basically in history, someone from one town
stole a statue from the other town
and because of that
these towns were mortal enemies.
Nowadays they're not enemies.
They just turned that history
into a fun festival.
Someone from one town dresses up like a clown,
naming them the Cascamorra and they go
and try and steal a flag.
And the flag represents the statue in history.
Once they have the flag they run
through the town and all the townspeople
chase this person, they cover them in grease,
it's just a really fun, positive,
high energy event and thousands
of people chase this person.
Can you imagine being chased by a thousand people?
In the end there's a massive fiesta.
People dance, they drink,
they party in the streets and it's just
all around good vibes, good fun.
I love that they took this part of history
that did cause conflict,
instead of holding resentment
they just flipped it into something entertaining.
- This festival is a celebration
of the Chinese community's belief
that not eating meat or doing stimulants
like drugs or alcohol during the ninth
lunar month of the Chinese Calendar
will bring good health and peace.
This festival brings a lot of extreme celebrations
like body mutilation, sticking really sharp
daggers through body parts, body piercing,
fire walking, it's definitely a very interesting,
extremely interesting festival to witness
for someone who's never seen anything like this.
The festival is said to have come to be
when a group of a Chinese Opera were traveling
and performing and they got to
Phuket and they all got malaria.
And in order to cure the malaria
they stuck to a very strict vegetarian diet,
they all got better and to celebrate
they created this festival.
- Dia De Los Muertos or Day of the Dead
is in Mexico and it's a beautiful
celebration to honor those who have passed.
The locals do this by making
an alter of the deceased.
They put up a picture of the person
and that helps the person transition
into the spiritual realm.
Rather than just mourning those
who have passed they actually celebrate them.
They make them their favorite dishes,
their favorite drinks
and they put them out on the alter
so their spirit can come
and enjoy the fruits of the food
and the beverages that they loved
when they were still alive.
And then they can pass into the spiritual world.
While we were in Mexico, we actually saw
a massive festival happening in a field.
There was so many people set up with picnics
and it just looked like such a crazy event
and then when we looked closer
we realized it was a cemetery.
They were celebrating their deceased
with love and massive celebration
and color and food and drinks and music.
Rather than just mourning them
it was this beautiful, wonderful, festival.
People dress up with skeleton makeup
and amazing clothes, amazing costumes.
It's just an incredible festival to be a part of.
- New Year's Celebration.
People celebrate it all over the world.
Brazil though, Rio specifically
is one of the best places to do it.
It is the second biggest celebration
next to Carnival,
brings in one million people every single year,
partying on Copacabana Beach, dancing,
drinking, eating, tons of festivities,
fireworks, lots of celebration.
Almost all Brazilians will be wearing
white that night because it is said
to bring luck into the new year.
I guess it's like a clean slate, right?
Many Brazilians will also bring
flowers to the sea and offer it
just before midnight to show appreciation
for the last year's blessings
and for the next blessings of the new year.
And there you have it.
There are 12 festivals in 12 different countries
around the world, all happening this year.
- Yeah, it doesn't matter what month
you're traveling, you can hit up a new festival.
Some of these I had never
heard of before we made this video.
- I know and I'm, just giving me the Wanderlusts.
- Yeah. - Like I want to book
some trips now so we should go do that.
Goodbye!