Weird and funny festivals around the world

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La Tomatina festival

Visiting a place during a festival is like seeing a completely new face of the town and city you’re visiting. Sometimes it can completely transform a sleepy little town into a bustle of music and colour, and in the case of lively anthills (like Rio, or New Orleans), it makes them even more gaudy and energetic.

But what about festivals that are plain strange, festivals that celebrate things that you’ve never even imagined that anyone would like to celebrate? For example, radishes, or cheese rolling. While not exactly the most glamorous way to spend a day or two of your holiday, these festivals will surely bring a smile on your face (or at least make you giggle). Here are some of the weirdest and funniest festivals on the planet.

The Night of the Radishes, Oaxaca, Mexico

Yes, there really is a festival dedicated to radishes in Mexico. On December 23, when everyone else is preparing for Christmas, Mexicans blissfully carve little statues out of radishes. All irony aside, the Oaxacans have an amazing talent of turning this seemingly graceless vegetable into genuine works of art.

Local artists compete for the prize of master radish carver, and then everyone enjoys a typical festival atmosphere with fireworks, food stand and live music.

La Tomatina, Buñol, Spain

Although La Tomatina has been a tourist magnet for quite some years, but still, there are people who don’t know that there is something special about Buñol, a completely normal little Spanish town, by all outside appearances. On August 29, everyone in Buñol arms themselves with tomatoes, be they fresh or rotten.

The crowd then gleefully proceeds to throw around 115,000 kilograms of tomatoes. If you’re allergic to tomatoes, this is not the right festival for you, as there are zero chances to escape without looking like a giant bottle of ketchup.

Monkey Buffet Festival, Bangkok, Thailand

While this festivals sounds like something that would be organised by an animal rights organisation, it is more for the benefit of the tourists that of the hungry monkey population of Lopburi Province, north of Bangkok. Monkeys get free reign over lavish buffets of fruit and vegetables, but that doens’t stop the locals from trying to trick them.

People are regularly pulling pranks on the hapless monkeys by encasing the fruit into blocks of ice – which the moneky have to lick until they melt in order to get to the food.

Bog Snorkeling Festival, Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales

If you are a fan of snorkelling, you should participate to the bog-snorkeling championship. If you’re not, you should go and have a good laugh at the other participants, who, true to the festival’s complete absurdity, dress up in the most mind-boggling costumes: sumo wrestlers, nuns, ball gowns. Those who want to win might don a wetsuit, but that means completely missing the point of the festival. What is the point of the festival? Snorkeling though a 120 yard peat bog with zero visibility.

Mudslinging Festival, Chiba, Japan

The Japanses have a passion for the so-called hadaka, or naked festivals. This particular festival involves men dressed only in a loincloth, in a frozen pond, hurling mud at each other. Competitors regularly run back to the fires on the shore to warm themselves, but the whole ordeal lasts for over two hours, during which you probably won’t escape getting some dirt on your clothes.

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