Want to experience a destination you've visited before in a new light? Travelling during a festival season might be for you.
Throughout the calendar year, you can find a celebration somewhere in the world.
Traditional dress, food, drink or music can help you connect with the local culture.
Commemorate historical events or just do things as the locals do - a visit to a local festival can create unique memories.
We've selected some of the best events throughout the year, all over the world, that you may be interested in experiencing in 2019/20 as part of your travel plan.
February
Carnival of Venice
This annual event held in Venice ends with the celebration of lent, 40 days before Easter.
Most famous for its elaborate masks and costumes, traditionally people were allowed to wear them between the festival of Santo Stefano (St Stephen's Day, 26th December) and the end of the carnival season at midnight of Shrove Tuesday.
The masks themselves could be made of leather, porcelain or using the original glass technique. They offered an escape for locals from the rigid laws that dictated dress standards based on profession and social class.
The modern Venetian version of the festival is a cascade of masquerade balls, shows and dining experiences, making use of the famous canals to display stunning costumes, art and enjoy concerts and street performances.
March
Holi Festival, India
The Hindu festival of spring, Holi is predominantly celebrated in India, but has spread all across the world (including Perth) due to its amazing colours. It's also known as the festival of colour or love.
The celebration is about getting rid of your own internal evil and cleansing yourself. This is usually performed in front of a bonfire the night before the festival, with the next day celebrated as Rangwali Holi - a free-for-all festival of colour.
Anyone and everyone is fair game with the festival about breaking down barriers between ages and social status.
People smear each other with coloured powder and drench each other with water guns and water-filled balloons in the open streets, parks, outside temples and buildings. Groups carry drums and other musical instruments and go from place to place, singing and dancing.
People will visit family & friends to throw coloured powders on each other, laugh and gossip and then share food and drinks. Holi festival occurs on the 21st of March in 2019 and can be celebrated anywhere in India.
April
April King's Day, Amsterdam
King's Day (or until 2013 - as it was known, Queen's Day) is a national holiday in Holland. Celebrated in late April, it was originally the celebration of a Princess' birthday.
The holiday is now more of a national holiday to celebrate everything Dutch. One of the most locally well-known parts of any King's Day is the vrijmarkt ("free market") where locals come together to sell their used items. The Dutch government allows sales on the street without a permit or the payment of VAT and in 2011 it was estimated that one in five Dutch residents planned to sell something.
The holiday is a kooky and unlikely show of national pride. Otherwise staid citizens dye their hair orange, don silly costumes, and slurp orange drinks.
Aside from the markets, there are concerts and parades and generally a great time is had by all. Once the party's over, the spring flower show begins at Keukenhof Gardens and the tulip markets.
May
Vivid, Sydney
2019 marks the 10th year of the Vivid Festival in Sydney. Celebrated over the course of three weeks in May and June, it is a festival of light, music and ideas.
Most famous for it's impressive light installations and projections, each year Sydney's most well-known building - the Opera house - is transformed with a series of patterns, pictures and colours.
Other highlights include installations at Taronga Zoo, the Royal Botanical Gardens and the Rocks.
If you'd like to take in the light spectacular of Vivid in 2019 speak to one of our consultants about a trip over to Sydney
June
75th anniversary of the Normandy D-Day landings
The Normandy landings occurred on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 during World War II. Code-named Operation Neptune and often referred to as 'D-Day' it was the largest seaborne invasion in history. The operation began the liberation of German-occupied France and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front. A massive event in world-history, 2019 marks the 75th anniversary of the landings and tributes will be paid to those who laid down their lives all around the region.
Northern France is a beautiful area and is filled with poignant reminders of the sacrifice made there. There are numerous war memorials, cemeteries, museums and at Omaha beach, parts of the Mulberry harbour are still visible.
Whether you have a personal connection to the region, would simply like to pay your respects or have an interest in history, 2019 is a special time to visit France and see the history of WWI and WWII.July
Edinburgh Tattoo
Taking place on the esplanade of Edinburgh's iconic Castle, expect an unforgettable evening of music, ceremony, theatre and dance.
The first public military tattoo in Edinburgh was entitled "Something About a Soldier" and took place in 1949 at the Ross Bandstand in the Princes Street Gardens. The first official Edinburgh Military Tattoo, with eight items in the program, was held in 1950. It drew some 6,000 spectators seated in simple bench and scaffold structures around the north, south, and east sides of the Edinburgh Castle esplanade.
In 2018, the capacity of the stands was able to accommodate a nightly audience of 8,800, allowing 220,000 to watch the multiple live performances. The term "tattoo" derives from a 17th-century Dutch phrase doe den tap toe ("turn off the tap") a signal to tavern owners each night, played by a regiment's Corps of Drums, to turn off the taps of their ale kegs so that the soldiers would retire to their billeted lodgings at a reasonable hour.
A performance takes place every weekday evening and twice on Saturdays throughout August and has never been cancelled due to inclement weather. Performers from over 48 countries have taken part in the Tattoo and attract an annual television audience of 100 million watch world wide.
We've selected a great option to allow you to see this legendary military performance for yourself.
September
Oktoberfest, Munich
The world's largest Volksfest (beer festival & travelling funfair), Oktoberfest is held in Munich in late September.
Oktoberfest has been occurring for over 200 years although it was originally held to celebrate a royal wedding. The festival today serves only beer conforming to the Reinheitsgebot (German beer purity law), that has been brewed within city limits. 14 large tents and twenty small tents, make up the drinking halls where over 7.3 million litres of beer is served (enough to nearly fill three Olympic-size swimming pools).
Tents are open to anyone but it's not just beer at Oktoberfest - parades, food, fairground rides and displays of traditional Bavarian dress make up the fun of the festival.
Oktoberfest sometimes gets a bad rap of being full of intoxicated antipodeans. However, more than 70 per cent of visitors are actually from Bavaria. If you'd like to join them in 2019, speak to a travel consultant.
November
Singapore Christmas Lights
Not a traditional home for twinkling lights and yuletide delight, Singapore has been dedicating more and more resources to its Christmas lights display year by year.
The first Orchard Road Christmas light-up was in 1984 and lasted for 20 days, the following year this was extended to 37 days and now runs for nearly 6 weeks between mid-November to early January.
It's not just Orchard Road that gets a festive make-over however with the stardust spreading to Gardens by the Bay, Tanglin Mall, Universal Studios and Clarke Quay. The festivities typically attract photography buffs, families with kids, shopaholics and party-goers looking to soak in the festive atmosphere.
Join us on a Christmas cruise to Singapore's flashing lights and delights for 2019.
