Eight Festivals Worth Building an Itinerary Around

All these are great - but for accommodation at any you’ll need to book way in advance.

1. The Fiesta of San Fermin, also known as the Running of the Bulls, in Pamplona, Spain. A massive party, with an incredibly dangerous but exhilarating five minutes every morning. Every July ° this festival begins at noon with a rocket fired by the mayor over the heads of a delirious crowd in Pamplona’s main square. The next day, and for the following six days, at precisely 8am, six bulls and eight steers are run about half a mile through the streets of the town to the bull ring. Anyone who so chooses can run with them, although females are very unwelcome. If you want to see this spec~ tacular event, come a few days early and look very, very hard tor -room. I slept with twelve strangers in a three-bedroom apartment and felt lucky to sleep indoors.

2 The Edinburgh Festival. The official Edinburgh Festival, which lasts three weeks at the end of August/beginning of September, is a serious cultural event. At the same time, though, the city hosts a military tattoo, jazz and film festivals, and the Festival Fringe, with thousands of alternative events - comedy, theater, music - and pubbing and clubbing till dawn.