Parties, festivals and kick ons from around the world
12 PLACES TO FUEL A YEAR-LONG BENDER
They say you make memories when you travel, but if you’re doing it right, there are some nights where you shouldn’t remember a single thing.
We’ve channelled our inner-Venga Boys to come up with the ultimate party guide to 2024 — where you can find the world’s most raucous parties and festivals.
What struck us when compiling this list is how a good party can take place literally anywhere. African deserts, Scandinavian caves and downtown Seoul — it’s less about the location and more about the vibe.
There’s crazy long nights under the midnight sun, and chic warehouse parties. There’s a 3,000 year old celebration deep in the Sahara as well as what is, effectively, a big friendly wrestle in the UK’s Midlands, there’s something here for every kind of party person.
So, without further ado, here’s 12 crazy party experiences to fuel a year-long bender in 2024:
July 10 – 13
TRÆNAFESTIVALEN
We’re fairly certain this will be the most picturesque gig or festival you ever go to.
It’s described as Norway’s most scenic festival, and look, if a country as pretty as Norway is saying that, then it’s clearly absolutely fucking beautiful.
The music is played on stages in caves that have been gnawed by the sea over thousands of years. Music is played in old churches and chapels, in forests and next to the sea. Also, aren’t you sick of being at a festival, only for the sun to go down, which means you have to stop having fun and get to bed as soon as you can? Well, no such problem at Trænafestivalen, where the midnight sun means you can party around the clock.
April 29 – May 5
AFRIKABURN
Mutant vehicles, themed camps, hot hot hot, dancing, dancing and dancing, and a gigantic fire. Has to be Burning Man right?
And it is, an offshoot at least. AfrikaBurn is one of the parties which spawned in the noughties and is still burning now, only the event is a much smaller and chiller affair compared to its American Dad. Around 12,000 people converge on a farm in South Africa’s Western Cape and party for a week in the name of self-expression. There’s all the same craziness of Burning Man, but AfrikaBurn brings a distinctly South African flair to this great creative experiment.
Guarantee you haven’t been to a music festival like this before.
July 10
LA BATTALIA DEL VINO
A good bottle of red wine is to be swirled, then sniffed, then swirled again. Then sipped, then you spray it at someone else, completely soaking them in it, tipping the entire bottle it over their head…wait what?
It’s all in the name at La Battalia del Vino, or the Battle of the Wine, held in Haro, La Rioja, Spain. It’s full-scale ‘wine warfare’, as combatants don ye ol time honoured Spanish party kit – white with a red bandana – and follow the mayor of the town through cliffs and countryside, spraying each other with wine from bottles, buckets, guns…and more.
The area is known for it’s delicious reds. It might seem sacrosanct to give away wine like this but really, La Battalia del Vino is one of the best parties you’ll go to…not just in 2024, but ever. And hey, if some or a lot of the wine aimed at other people somehow ends up in your mouth, then so be it.
July
WATERBOMB FESTIVAL
As far as travel destinations for 2024 go, they don’t come much hotter than South Korea.
In the summer months, when the actual temperature gauge is turned up a few notches, Seoul’s Waterbomb Festival is the best party to be at. It’s essentially the world’s biggest water fight, with a few incredibly famous Korean music superstars thrown in for good measure.
Pool party is the dress code as thousands of festival-goers flood to the Jamsil Sports Complex for house, rap and K-Pop acts, and to be soaked by gigantic water guns intermittently. There’s team water fights with water guns, and if you don’t like one of the acts you can try and soak them, which invariably interrupts a few acts ever year.
The festival tours to nine different Korean cities over the summer, but the capital is without doubt the main event.
July 6
SEBIBA FESTIVAL
The Tuareg are a semi-nomadic people of Berber descent, who have spread far and wide across Africa. At the turn of the New Hijri Year (July 6, if you didn’t know) Tuareg from all over descend on Djanet for Sebiba, a celebration no less than 3,000 years old.
This is the sort of travelling that exists less and less now — absolutely legit, nowhere near the beaten track and most importantly, without any influencers in sight.
The festival celebrates a few things; among them, the passing of Moses, and the resolving of a conflict between two ethnic groups which has long, long been resolved. Drum music is generated by female drummers and dancers advance towards them in a dance which has existed in various forms for the duration of the 3,000 years. The dancers are clad from head to toe in Tikemsine, a garb which is somehow both colourful and completely black all at once, creating the most extraordinary scene in the desert.
Victory is no longer achieved by means of war, but by the most impressive costume and most elegant dancing. It is a peaceful party, expressing joy through dance at the idea of no longer being at war. We can get around that.
February
ROYAL SHROVETIDE FOOTBALL
Parties mean different things to different people. In Ashbourne, in the England’s working-class Midlands, it means brawling, shoving and hurling your closest friends around town in the world’s largest and most intense scrum.
For the last 400 years, on Pancake Day (Shrove Tuesday) the town has been split into two: Up’ards and Down’ards. A ball made out of cork and leather is tossed into a crowd at 2pm, with locals then spending the remainder of that day and the next trying to get the ball to their end of town by any means necessary: kicking, screaming, barrelling, wrestling, punching, you name it. The earliest and almost only rule was: don’t commit murder or manslaughter.
At the conclusion of the day’s play, you see men who were hours earlier throwing punches at each other enjoying a pint in the local pub, local music playing and a more normal kind of party kicking into gear. Best described as medieval football, this is a party of a different kind.
September 6 – 7
BIRDSVILLE RACES
The Birdsville Races is conveniently located a short 16-hour drive from Adelaide, 18 hours from Brisbane, 23 from Sydney and 24 from Darwin.
Keep an open mind here, this is not a trendy warehouse party you can get an Uber home from. This is a journey into the outback which more resembles a long, dusty journey into the mind of a crazy man.
The dusty sand track at Birdsville holds races that are themselves a sideshow to the real party taking place trackside, a raucous affair where anything goes.
There’s punch ons. The legendary Fred Brophy Boxing Troupe is possibly the world’s last boxing tent, a real “roll up, roll up” affair where your average Joe can get out of the crowd and challenge one of Fred’s weapons in the ring, for cash. They’ve got names like the Burnett Heads Jaw-Breaker, and Beaver Brophy, who allegedly has hairs on her legs that would spear a rat.
Birdsville is a relic from another era. It is possible to time travel.
July 18 – 20
G! FESTIVAL
Bet ya haven’t heard of this. We specialise in off the beaten track experiences and events and even we had no fuckin clue when, what or where this festival was.
You could probably say we had no idea where the G spot was, but now we do: it’s at Syrðugöta (SID-ru-GO-tah) in the Faroe Islands, and although it may be difficult to find this place it is imperative you do, as we’re certain everyone will have a really fun time.
Situated in the seaside village Gøta, a particularly serene slice of the world, they put hot tubs on the beach, which seems like an incredibly ingenious idea to us. There is anything from hip hop to nu-metal, rock and folk, and traditional Faroese. There are sets where rappers wear horse heads (it’s art bro) and sets on boats. Joe and the Shitboys headlined last time, and although we’ve never heard of them, we’re curious, as we are about the entire festival. We want to know more. Go there, and tell us more.
December 7 – 13
YOUR PARADISE
A western music festival, but make it Fijian — this is Your Paradise in a nutshell.
It’s literally set in paradise — dancing barefoot to DJs amongst palm trees on Mamanuca Island, cooling down in crystal-clear waters afterward, is certainly unlike any other festival we’ve ever been to. It’s kind of like a luxury holiday and a festival rolled into one, only, a heap cheaper.
They attract big name DJs (Bonobo, Skrillex) for waterfront DJ sets, and there’s dayclubs set in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The wow factor is strong here.
Then there’s the Fijian flavour, which is to pretty much everybody’s taste. Learn traditional dancing, drink kava and stay in traditional thatched-roof bures, and hang with the locals.
May 29 – June 2
CPN DISTORTION
Food, architecture, lego, football – the Danes do literally everything really, really well. Partying is no exception.
Over 100,000 per people (per day) gather in Copenhagen and launch big time over the course of an entire week. The whole city essentially turns into one large party — and everyone gets involved — nightclubs, bars and pubs yes, but also shops, local businesses, specific streets and even houses — nowhere is off limits as a venue.
It’s mostly dance and electronic music that is the focus, culminating in Distortion Ø — a two-day event on a former industrial island in Copenhagen. There are around ten dancefloors — in forests, shipping containers and tunnels. This might just be the world’s greatest street party.
February 8 – 14
BAHAIN CARNIVAL
We get it. Rio is the home of Carnival, and rightly so. But drive a couple of days north to the tropical, coastal city of Salvador (not the country, still in Brazil) and you’ll find the same riotous party without being overrun by tourists and without having to pay the same sort of $.
Salvador is the Afro-Brazilian capital of Brazil, with around 80% of the 3 million population tracing their roots back to Mother Africa. The African influence is strong, Bahian drummers bringing the beat on day one and not stopping for the entire week.
There’s three parades, each with fusions of colour, music, samba, and a general level of hedonism that you expect from this part of the world. The first two are genuine parties, and the last is a little quieter and more traditional. All three are a proper vibe.
Give the pipoca (popcorn) a run, named because that’s what a large crowd of people bouncing to the beat looks like.
Late 2024
FYRE FESTIVAL 2
What could possibly go wrong?
Billy McFarland was the orchestrator of one of the biggest shitshows in history – Fyre Festival, a music festival promising lavish villas and Instagram models which delivered tents and pre-packaged sandwiches.
He was convicted of fraud and sent to prison but now he’s out, and he’s having another go. In August he vaguely announced that Fyre Festival 2 would be taking place in ‘late’ 2024. There were no specific details, with the location listed as ‘The Caribbean’ and no musical acts.
It’s important to note that the first Fyre Festival completely ripped off a bunch of local operators, not to mention investors and the thousands who bought tickets and flights. The first 100 tickets have allegedly already sold for US$499.
We’re not saying you should go, or that this will even happen… we’re just interested to see where this goes.
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