Best Cultural Festival Destinations Around the World
Browse more guides: India travel | Asia destinations Best Cultural Festival Destinations Around the World The first big festival I traveled for was Holi in Vrindavan, India, in 2019. I'd been warned - by friends, by guides, by every blog post - that Holi gets chaotic. What none of them captured was the moment when, standing in a courtyard at the Banke Bihari temple, a stranger pressed pink powder onto my forehead while another poured a jug of orange-tinted water over my head, both of them laughing, both saying things in Hindi I didn't understand but could absolutely feel. I left the country eight days later with my luggage tinted pink in places that never washed out and a permanent shift in how I thought about travel timing. Festivals concentrate culture into intelligible peaks. A normal week in Oaxaca is wonderful; the week of Día de los Muertos is transformative. Edinburgh in October is lovely; Edinburgh in August during the Fringe is a different city entirely. Travel bu...