Do you like the idea of Berlin's Love Parade but hate the techno music? Hamburg's Schlagermove is the answer. Hundreds of thousands turn out to groove through the streets to the sounds of German pop music of the glorious 1970s.

Schlagermove calls itself the "Carnival of the North", but might as well call itself the "Carnival of Kitsch", so lovingly does it embrace the overripe flower-power aesthetic of 1970s pop music. With 25 sound trucks and 14 hours of non-stop retro-pop, the two young promoters who instigated the festival in 1997 now manage to pull in 700,000 revellers for their oldies megabash.

All who go the distance to the 3.30am end of the festivities will easily find the means to make it to dawn in the area's many bars and clubs, then they can chill out at St Pauli's lively Sunday morning fish market.

So if you're going to Hamburg, don't forget to dust off those platform shoes and unpack those polyester shirts - a festival of flares awaits you.

Official Schlagermove website...

The finest yodellers and alphorn players in all Switzerland gather once every three years for the national championships.

Yodelling began in Austria as a simple means of communicating from one mountain peak to the next, with certain sounds (rather than actual words) indicating certain messages. Over time, it spread to the Swiss and Bavarian Alps and evolved into an art form, both for solo voice and for three and sometimes four voices. Sometimes actual words are used at the beginning or end of a piece.

This event is a chance to hear the finest practitioners of authentic traditional yodelling, with the additional bonus of alphorn competitions.

Fribourg Tourism Website...

"An Ultimate & Intimate Brush with Royalty"  An Exclusive Offering presented by En Plein Air Masters - An Art Experience Fit for a King or Queen at the Château des Arts in rural France.

Each Photographer will reside in Private Rooms with Private Baths and in Room Fireplaces. Relax in your Superior accommodations with sufficient room to set up your projects and reflect on your days work. All Breakfasts will be served daily in the Château and each night will be full of critiques, conversations and camaraderie. A private transport vehicle will also be made available to the group of photographers to explore the surrounding region.

The Château resides along the banks of the River Creuse just south of the Loire Valley, in Central France. This Private Estate will be your home for a week, where you will be encouraged to photograph with the Jill and take the time to explore your own artistic visions of this inspirational and timeless environment.

>>click here for more information...

Lower Keys Chamber of Commerce

Rooted in the magic of its founding years and infused with a spirit of community involvement and creative inspiration, the 17th Annual daVinci Days Festival will take flight this summer on July 15, 16, & 17. Established in 1987 as Corvallis' celebration of the Arts, Science, and Technology, the festival features the creative genius of the Kinetic Sculpture Race, the Community Art project, a Film and Video festival, street performers, the Avenue of Imagination with hands-on activities for children of all ages, Robotics, the Entek Electrathon, Main Stage entertainment, the International Food Court and much more.

This year’s festival theme, “Living Legacy”, provides the backdrop for organizers to create a festival experience that remembers its roots and leaps boldly into the future. Under the direction of Executive Director Brenda VanDevelder, this year’s festival will focus on it’s roots as a celebration of community, creativity, entertainment, and intellectual exploration.

Official DaVinci Days Website...

>>Click here for more information...

"An Ultimate & Intimate Brush with Royalty"  An Exclusive Offering presented by En Plein Air Masters - An Art Experience Fit for a King or Queen at the Château des Arts in rural France.

Each Photographer will reside in Private Rooms with Private Baths and in Room Fireplaces. Relax in your Superior accommodations with sufficient room to set up your projects and reflect on your days work. All Breakfasts will be served daily in the Château and each night will be full of critiques, conversations and camaraderie. A private transport vehicle will also be made available to the group of photographers to explore the surrounding region.

The Château resides along the banks of the River Creuse just south of the Loire Valley, in Central France. This Private Estate will be your home for a week, where you will be encouraged to photograph with the Jill and take the time to explore your own artistic visions of this inspirational and timeless environment.

>>click here fore more information...

Combine a population of just over a hundred grand with year round temperatures that top 30 degrees Celsius and the unquestionable Australian zeal for a soothing ale or six and the result is one hell of a lot of empty aluminium beer cans. I'm talking Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory and those empty beer cans? Well they're the raw materials on which one of the world's most bizarre events is based.

For the last three decades the Combined Lions Clubs of Darwin have promoted Darwin's Beer Can Regatta held annually on Mindil Beach. The event pits arguably the world's finest beer can boat builders against each other in a battle of seaworthiness. And let me tell you, in this particular case, seaworthiness is a very loosely-bandied term.

Throw in plenty of festivities for the landlubbers - the Henley-on-Mindil bottom-less boat races along the beach, a thong (foot not under-wear) throwing competition, tug-of-wars and bathing beauty contests - and you got yourself one hell of a beach-party mate.

The Beer Can Regatta is fast becoming one of the North's premier tourist attractions as people travel from far and wide to attend the event. So get there early, sample a Darwin stubby or two - at a mere two and a quarter litres a pop, putting back a six pack is a mighty fine effort - and enjoy one of Australia's most unique events.

Northern Territory Tourism Commission...

From the exciting vibrancy of Bangkok lifestyles to the lush and colorful scenery surrounding the ever-enticing resorts in Phuket, the Kingdom of Thailand is a world of wonders unto itself. This fascinating country offers an irresistible mix of inspiring temples, colorful markets, warm hospitality, fine cuisine, ruins of fabulous ancient kingdoms, and, most of all, breathtaking natural beauty.

Like the brilliant gemstones and vibrant beaches for which it is famous, Thailand shimmers with colors that are as intense as they are rich. Her beautiful coastline is a visitor’s dream to simply laze away or to engage in numerous water sports. The vivid floating markets of Dumnean Saduak and Nakhon Pathom, where Buddhism first took hold in Thailand, lie to the southwest. The picturesque ruins of Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of the kingdom, are located north up the Chao Phraya River, where one can cruise along to discover the multicolored lifestyles of the locals by the waterfront.  World renown phtoographers Wolfgang Kaehler and Rosanne Pennella will be your mentors on this once in a lifetime exotic journey.

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Once a year the American legend Ernest Hemingway comes to life at this bizarre but interesting festival in Key West. Hemingway Days consists of a series of parties and events, including a lookalike contest at Sloppy Joe's Bar, which bills itself as "Hemingway's Favourite Watering Hole".

The lookalike contest (21-23 July) festures (you guessed it!) grey-haired, stocky men. The Lookalikes are the real stars of the festival, and also participate in an arm-wrestling contest and a Key Lime pie eating contest, to the delight of the crowd. There are several other festival events, including a marlin fishing contest and a unique take on one of Hemingway's favourite activities, the Running of the Bulls. For the less "endowed" visitors, there are a five-kilometre sunset run, Caribbean Street fair and a Twilight Party to enjoy.

However, no Hemingway Festival would be complete without a bit of literature, and Hemingway's grand-daughter Lorain takes care of that. Every year, she presents a few thousand in award money to the best short stories entered in the Lorain Hemingway Short Story Competition, which is open to the public.

Sloppy Joe's, Key West, FL

Inspired by writer Anthony Shaffer and director Robin Hardy's 1973 remote Scottish thriller-chiller The Wicker Man, it pitches camp at East Kirkcarswell Farm, Dumfries and Galloway, in the not-so-remote southwest of Scotland. After a healthy start in 2002, the Wicker Man Festival (yes they burn a wicker man on the Saturday night) is rapidly fulfilling the organisers' cherished hope of becoming Scotland's biggest alternative festival.

Featuring a main stage, campsite, dance and cult music tents, a children's area, trade stalls, alternative area, bars, a talent stage and food stalls, the festival fills 120 acres of isolated farmland in deepest Galloway. Profits are ploughed back into future events, so the festival celebrates a community feel, sadly lacking in many of the corporate commercial juggernaut festivals that crowd the summer calendar.

The Wicker Man is burnt at midnight on the Saturday, while other attractions include the likes of a "woodhenge" made from telegraph poles as well as a children's parade, topping a packed kids' programme.

Q magazine described the inaugural festival as "Highland gaiety with Pagan influences," and with a limit of just 7000 tickets, you need to get your skates on to ensure your place!

Official Wicker Man Festival Website...

On 26 July 1953, Fidel Castro led an ill-fated assault on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba. This date was chosen because it was the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Cuban writer and patriot Jose Martí.

Unfortunately the attack failed (the dictator Batista was not overthrown until 1959); but 26 July remains the most important date in the Cuban revolutionary calendar. It is a good time to be in Cuba for two reasons: it coincides with a number of local carnivals, and it is your best chance to see el Commandante speaking in person - albeit from a very long distance.

Havana and Santiago de Cuba - the two largest cities - both have huge 26 July celebrations. For weeks beforehand every town in Cuba is covered with banners, posters, placards and official graffiti (admirers of Communist kitsch can gorge themselves silly). In Santiago it is also carnival time. (This was another reason Fidel chose 26 July to attack the barracks: they expected all the guards to be drunk.) The Santiago carnival is an impressive affair - a riot of dancing, floats, sound systems, suckling pigs on spits and general merry-making lasting for several days. Being further from Varadero, Santiago is also - at least for the time being - a little more intimate and less touristic than Havana.

At the Moncada barracks, an Act of Commemoration takes place early in the morning every year: the list of the martyrs of the revolution is read out and guns are fired. On this date, Fidel also makes his customary (and customarily long) speech. The venue varies from year to year; only Party faithful are invited to attend, but it is sometimes possible to see the man by peering over the inevitable security stockades. The speech is also broadcast on Cuban TV, and, for its duration, all carnival activities close down. Castro holds the world record for making long speeches (see the Guinness Book of Records), and - since the bars only re-open when he has finished - the end of his oration is inevitably greeted with rapturous applause. ¡Viva el veinte-seis!

Cuban Travel Ministry

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In 1976, Johnson's Wax "Shout" Spray pre-wash had a great idea for a promotion in Scottsdale, involving 300 free white t-shirts and lots of mud.  Unfortunately for them, the Arizona mud proved too tough for their product.  Atlthough the company bailed, Scottsdale continues the event nearly 30 years later, attracting nearly 7000 kids each year. 

Participants in three age groups can try their hand at the muddy obstacle course, which includes the Knee Bender, Tube Trouble, The Mudwas, The Pit Fall and Inner Tube Drive.  Youngsters can also try the Mini Mud Obstacle Course, Mud Puddle Pools, Water Slides, or Sandcastle Building.

Mighty Mud Mania Website

The Sunderland International Air Show showcases military and civilian aircraft, parachute teams, stunt flying, entertainment, trade stands, displays and more along the seafront at Seaburn.

Official Sunderland Air Show Website