Festivals & events

Thousands of dancers in monstrous masks and cowbells chase away evil spirits in Pernik, near Sofia, the Balkans' biggest masquerade.

Hundreds of formal balls, from the Opera Ball to the Coffee Brewers' Ball.

Flower battles and giant papier-mâché floats along the Promenade du Paillon.

Masks, capes, and candlelit palazzo balls, two weeks of baroque theatre before Lent.

Five days of parades, céilís, and green everything across the Irish capital.

Andalusia's solemn, spectacular Holy Week processions, Seville does it grandest.

Seven million bulbs in bloom outside Amsterdam, Europe's great spring spectacle.

A week of flamenco dresses, horse carriages, and sherry in candy-striped casetas.

The whole country turns orange for one giant canal-side street party.

The Grand Harbour lit up by the islands' centuries-old fireworks tradition.

A week of international jazz in Palladian palaces, piazzas, and the Teatro Olimpico, one of Italy's most atmospheric festival settings.

Grilled sardines, paper lanterns, and dancing in every Alfama alley.

Free music on every corner of France on the longest day of the year.

Flower crowns, maypoles, and herring lunches, Sweden's real national day.

Northern Europe's biggest music festival, a short hop from Copenhagen.

Ancient drama and concerts in the Odeon of Herodes Atticus under the Acropolis.

Military flypasts, fireworks at the Eiffel Tower, and firemen's balls all night.

Ghent hands its entire city centre to ten days of free music and street theatre.

Pamplona's famous, and infamous, week of encierros and non-stop fiesta.

The world's most theatrical electronic music festival, in the town of Boom.

Tuscany's bareback horse race around a medieval square, twice each summer.

A century of world-class opera and Mozart in his own hometown.

Buñol's gloriously absurd hour-long tomato battle near Valencia.

A week-long 'Island of Freedom' on the Danube with a thousand acts.

One of Europe's great classical music festivals, the world's top orchestras descend on Bucharest for a month, in odd-numbered years.

Vicenza parades its 'Rua', a towering wooden pinnacle carried through the centre, in a civic procession dating back to 1444, around the September feast of the Madonna di Monte Berico.

Greek tragedy and classical drama performed inside Palladio's Teatro Olimpico, the world's oldest indoor theatre, on the same trompe-l'oeil stage set built in 1585. Seats are few; book early.

Six million visitors, seventeen days, one giant cheer: the world's biggest folk festival.

Mulled wine and wooden chalets from Vienna to Strasbourg, Europe at its coziest.

A fairy-tale market on a medieval square, often under real snow.

Light art installations glowing over the winter canals, best seen by boat.

Germany's biggest open-air party, fireworks over the Gate.