So we’re solidly out of Music Festival Season, and deep into the more cultural stuff. But you know what? I’m cool with it. October is one of my favorite months of all time. The weather’s not too cold yet (apologies to those in Canada) or it’s just starting to warm up (apologies to those in Canada again). There’s all the beauty of Autumn or Spring. And there’s Halloween. I love Halloween. But I’ll get into that later. For now, feast your eyes on the festival calendar and event lineup across the world on this, our chronologically tenth, etymologically eighth month.

And as usual, subscribe to an easy-to-read Google Calendar version, as well as a downloadable iCal version.

---

The Elsewhere Man’s Top 5

Diwali – Oktoberfest – Treasure Island – Pride – Halloween

---

Africa

1st – International Festival of the Sahara (Douz, Tunisia) – I used to swim with a guy named Ous, a Tunisian Olympian who basically became that country’s Michael Phelps. One of the most famous and successful people there. And while I’ve never been in the country, and swimmers love to seem cooler than they are, he told me stories about the parties they threw him every time he went home. For a North African desert, Tunisia knows what it means to get down. The Festival of the Sahara is probably a little more clean cut than those parties, but with camel racing, belly dancing, and oasis hopping, it’s probably for the best.

3-6th – Hermanus Whale Festival (Hermanus, South Africa) – Seems like September is actually the month of animal homecomings, but in October’s defense, whales are a whole hell of a lot more exciting to see than cows (and they smell better). Everybody in town gathers on the bluffs to watch the whales come swimming back into the harbor. Or, well, I guess just the tops of them. Occasionally. When they need to breath. They fill the time between whale breaths with food, concerts, arts & crafts. So if you go, don’t get so drawn in to the distractions that you forget to check out the whale backs in that slim window where you can actually see them.

 

Asia

1-6th – Hajj (Mecca, Saudi Arabia) – It really sucks that Muslims are getting such a bad rap right now because of a few terrorists that can hardly even be called Muslims. Some of the religions traditions are just outstanding – for example, giving a huge percentage of your wealth to those in need, which inspired Mesut Ozil, the German soccer star, to pay for the surgeries of 23 underprivileged Brazilian children. The Hajj is another great tradition, where every able Muslim, at some point in their lives, comes to Mecca to see the Kaaba. You don’t need to be a practicing Muslim to appreciate the spectacle and the beauty of it. It might just help change some perspectives.

8th – Full Moon Party (Koh Phangan, Thailand) – See previous entries.

23rd – Diwali (Mumbai, India) – If you like pretty lights but don’t need to be on ecstasy to enjoy the light show (lookin’ at you, HARD), then check out Diwali in India. Although, given the nature of visas in India, you’re probably either going or you’re not by now. Diwali is India’s Festival of Lights. It doesn’t have anything to do with Hanukkah, but it does have the same familial focus. So while you’re gonna see a lot of pretty lights during Diwali, it’s probably best to try and make friends with a nice Indian family, where you can see how the home life goes. Just try and wash that shirt you’ve been wearing for six days straight. Just because you’re backpacking doesn’t mean you can forget your manners.

26-Nov 3rd – Pushkar Camel Fair (Pushkar, India) – India is an endurance test for the nostrils as it is. All that Indian food combined with, let’s face it, a cultural lack of hygiene (have you seen the Ganges lately?) gives the country a pretty bad stereotype. Add in 50,000 camels, and you might want to stock up on nose plugs. Still, the Camel Fair is basically a county fair on steroids, with all the trappings of an American fair with a South Asian laissez faire twist. That is, they usually give fuck-all about safety. Check out the Cage of Death, where cars and motorcycles zip past each other in a sunken pit damn near horizontally. The camels are all done up like a hooker on her first day, and there’s plenty of “festivities” to go around (read: ganja milkshakes). By the end of the day, you won’t even notice that your nose is numb.

 

Europe

1-4th – Oktoberfest (Munich, Germany) – I don’t normally include events in these that started in the month before, but it’s fucking Oktoberfest – I’d feel dirty if I didnt include it in the October Elsewhere Plans. It’s the event that needs no introduction. It’s been going on for a while now, so if you’re just arriving, you may need to step over the passed out bodies of the brave men who drank before you. But hey, maybe you could rifle through their pockets and find some money for a few more maßkrüges.

11-Nov 16th – Alba International White Truffle Fair (Alba, Italy) – I don’t understand truffles. It’s literally a little mushroom (that doesn’t even taste that spectacular, mind you, though my sense of taste is equivalent to that of the pigs that root them up) that somehow winds up being worth it’s weight in fucking anti-matter. So the people who go to the Truffle Fair are either those who pretend they can taste a difference in the things, or the peasants who want to see what all the fuss is about. I can only imagine their disappointment. But hey, if you’re over it, you can always just eat the pig that rooted the truffle up. It’s basically preseasoned in truffle oil.

15-19th – Amsterdam Dance Event (Amsterdam, Netherlands) – This one doesn’t really need an introduction. It’s Amsterdam, a city known for its lax take on drug use. It’s a dance event, known for being crazy. And it’s five days long. If you’re in the area, it’s not hard to imagine that you won’t be ending up there anyways. But if I still need to sell it (and if you’re not sold already, you’re probably not the type to go int he first place), then I could add that this isn’t so much a festival as it is a conference. It’s got dinners, talks, forums, and everything you need to make you feel like you’re learning something while going out of your mind.

30-Nov 1st – Pitchfork Fest (Paris, France) – Like I said, this has been a pretty light month. For the self-professed cultural capital of the world, Paris doesn’t really have a whole lot of festivals. Even this one is an American import, an attempt to share the love with our cheese-eating (non-Wisconsonian) brethren. That said, it does have some pretty bomb new artists here as well as some older festival favorites. So if you’re in Europe and you’re looking for something to do, there are worse things than a music festival in Paris. Like talking to the locals in Paris. Or doing much of anything else in Paris. Just do the music festival.

29-Nov 1st – LIFEM (London, England) – LIFEM stands for the London International Festival of Exploratory Music – you can see why it wouldn’t fit on the poster in any appealing way. In this case, “exploratory music” apparently means “white people exploring traditional music made by brown people.” This year’s event features primarily artists from Brazil, Mali, Sudan, Mozambique, and other afrobeat/worldbeat areas that DJs are just starting to mine in order to seem out of the box. But hey, if it gets some more attention for those genres, more power to it.

31st – Samhuinn Fire Festival (Edinburgh, Scotland) – Samhain is a gaelic festival (the opposite of Beltane) that marks the beginning of Winter, the dark half of the year. So obviously it’s a time of demons and junk – Samhain (note, it’s pronounced Sow-win, I don’t know, old English is weird) is the precursor to the modern Halloween. People light bonfires to cleanse the air, and this has evolved into the fire festival we know today. I know that if I was a demon, and I saw a dude all dressed up swinging fucking fire nunchucks around, I’d GTFO too.

31-Nov 2nd – Primavera Club (Barcelona, Spain) – Primavera is really expanding its brand. There’re the touring parties next month and the two main festivals in early Summer. Because nothing helps a brand like over saturation (lookin’ at you, SS Coachella, may you rest gently at the bottom of the sea). Primavera Club is a smaller version of the festival and represents the organizers hopes for the future, the smaller artists that they’re banking on becoming bigger, and thus earning them a bigger bank when they get them again next year. It’s basically the hipster Primavera Sound, which I think we’re all okay with.

31-Nov 3rd – Brussels Light Festival (Brussels, Belgium) – Earlier this year, I went to a festival called White Nights in Melbourne, in which the entire city was illuminated with a rainbow of lights (false advertising, I know, so disappointed). I ended up getting way too drunk, puking in a bush, and stealing a stereo I found in the street that more than likely belonged to a performer. And that’s in Australia, where the only stuff I can afford is goon. Belgium’s edition of the festival, Brussels Light Festival, has all the positives of Melbourne’s edition, plus all that amazing Belgian beer. I’ve always said Belgium does festivals the best, so stay a little more coherent than I did – the visuals are worth it.

 

North America

3-5th, 10-12th – Austin City Limits (Austin, Texas) – Named for a PBS special and costing roughly double PBS’ yearly budget (so pretty affordable!), this guy is one of America’s premiere music festivals. Just look at that lineup! Sometimes I feel bad about recommending so many music festivals on this blog – it’s hardly the kind of cultural experience people travel for – but that’s the kind of lineup I can bite my tongue on. And hey, music festivals are pretty much what Texas is best at outside of barbecue and shitty politicians, so you’re kind of getting the full picture anyway.

3-5th – National Storytelling Festival (Jonesborough, Tennessee) – If you didn’t know this about me, it’s time to come clean. I… am a writer. There, I said it. Man I feel great! So obviously, I’m gonna be a bit biased towards this, and if stories and literature and culture and being a functioning member of society doesn’t appeal to you, then by all means, skip it. But if you’re into that sort of thing, the National Storytelling Festival has all sorts of activities, panels, and entertainment going on over the weekend. After all, you can tell a story through just about any medium.

3-5th – Hardly Strictly Bluegrass (San Francisco, California) – There’s a saying: my favorite beer is free, my second favorite is cold. Now, my favorite music festival will probably always be Coachella. But for my second favorite, well, you better believe it’s Free. That means that right now, my second favorite festival is Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. Because it’s free! The lineup is great, and so is the venue. Somehow, I think the misty October atmosphere of San Fran lends itself to a bluegrass festival. Something Appalachian about it, without the incest and moonshine. But of course, this is all secondary to the fact that it’s free!

4-12th – Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta (Albuquerque, New Mexico) – For most of the year, Albuquerque is best known for its blue meth and being the hardest town in America to spell. But Breaking Bad is over (seriously, did you guys see that shit!?), so now we need something else to love. This month, people looking for some Blue Sky can find it literally with the Balloon Fiesta, a ten day hot air balloon festival over a desert that has a lot more to offer than the dead bodies of [REDACTED FOR PEOPLE WHO AREN’T CAUGHT UP]. Seriously you guys, I really love Breaking Bad. Albuquerque. Breaking Bad. Check it.

8-12th – A3C (Atlanta, Georgia) – I know people who still won’t listen to Biggie if they listen to Tupac. And vice versa. Like, I thought we had gotten past that? (Side note, how hysterical is it that Suge Knight got shot again?) Frank Ocean is a thing now, rap doesn’t have to be about where you come from. So that’s why I like the idea of A3C, which stands for All Three Coasts. I didn’t know Atlanta was a coast, but East Coast/West Coast/Atlanta is a decent trifecta when it comes to hip-hop and rap. Now, I saw OutKast twice on this tour and wasn’t thrilled either time (neither were they), but hey, you’ve got two other coasts to choose from if one of them is lacking.

9-12th: Joshua Tree Fall Festival (Joshua Tree, California) – Outside of music festivals, I have two favorite places in the world. Phong Nga Khe Bang National Park in Vietnam is the newer entry on the list, but the original champion is Joshua Tree. There’s something magical about the prehistoric ocean desert with its truffula trees and Hexagonian (don’t look up that word) rock formations. But like I said, those are my favorites – outside of music festivals. But Joshua Tree hosts its own music festivals, and this is the fall edition held in the desert I already love so much. Music and J-Tree. It’s one of those obvious combinations that you’ve always wanted without realizing it already exists, like prosciutto and cantaloupe. Seriously, try that, guys. It’s bomb.

10-18th – Celtic Colours (Cape Breton, Nova Scotia) – Man, what this month lacks in quantity, it makes up for in duration. All of these festivals run for a long time, which I like to think is the Universe telling me it’s okay for this guide to be so late this month. Gives you plenty of time to plan. Celtic Colours is yet another music and arts festival in a colder corner of the world, and its more steeped in its own culture. Lots of music and art from around the world, and definitely a lot of families. So those looking to get fucked up, well, at least do it quietly. Sip that crotch vodka discreetly.

11-12th – Corona Capital (Mexico City, Mexico) – It’s alliteration month! So many C’s! That’s three in a row! It’s almost kind of funny how Corona is so Mexican that it’s part of the biggest music festival in Mexico. For some reason, I always thought it was fake American-style Mexican, like Taco Bell and Emilio Estevez. But the misconception makes sense, since this lineup is so whitewashed it’s trying to put a fence up on the festival’s borders. Still, Mexico City is a lively town, and the people are absolute darlings. Not even gonna make another cartel joke – that ship has sailed. Obviously there’s still the worry in a lot of people planning a trip, but this festival should ease that right up. And hey, think of how easy it will be to get drugs there!

11-Nov 30th – Texas Renaissance Festival (Todd Mission, Texas) – See, I used to think of Texas as this big bastion of heterosexual macho-ness, the dude who wears his letterman jacket six years out of high school and beats up his nerd boss for liking comic books and making six figures more than him. But hey, looks like everybody grows out of that stage eventually! We’ve got Rick Perry getting his mugshot taken, and the largest Renaissance Festival in America taking place in the state nobody messes with. Apparently because they’ll joust you to the ground. Anything can happen.

14-15th, 16-18th, 24-25th – Culture Collide (Los Angeles, California/San Francisco, California/New York, New York) – Culture Collide started as a little festival in LA, celebrating all the different cultures of music out there (there was a lot of Latin music). Now the cultures are colliding even more, because the festival is expanding to two other cities in America. The only other two that really do the whole “multicultural” thing, really.

15-19th – Indie Week (Toronto, Ontario) – Seriously, what’s up? All of these are like a week long. Here’s another town-wide music festival, only this one is dedicated to the underground. Which is a noble endeavor; I don’t have the patience to go browsing through every list of “best new bands” put out by heatseeking music blogs. Like, I’m sure the newest Post-Shoegaze hardcore metalstep with a neoclassical blues bounce influence band is great and all, but call me when they have a hit. It sounds bad, I know. I profess to be a music fan. But it’s exhausting. So for the lazy music fans like me, Indie Week is a godsend. You walk around and see all these new bands, and if any of them hit it big, you can claim you knew about them before anybody else! It’s a win-win, really.

16-19th – New York City Food & Wine Festival (New York, New York) – New York is famous for its food. Well, it’s famous for the ability to get Chinese food to your door in five minutes flat. Jewish delis fit in there somehow too. Regardless, it’s a food and wine festival, and if there’s one thing I know about backpackers, it’s that free food is worth traveling miles for. It’s not free – obviously you gotta pay for your entry – but what backpacker hasn’t considered a few illegal border crossings in their time?

17-26th – Fantasy Fest (Key West, Florida) – Sometimes you look around while traveling and realize that it’s the most constructed, commercial thing in the world. But if it’s done right, you’re not gonna give a shit either way. That’s Fantasy Fest. A kind of mashup of Halloween and Mardis Gras, Fantasy Fest is basically two businessmen’s attempt to start capitalizing on the winter holiday season early. But damned if it doesn’t work. It’s grown out of those roots to become a crazy, downright hedonistic affair (you can smell the sex from here), and that should be enough to make you want to go already.

18-19th – Treasure Island (San Francisco, California) – This here’s another festival in the “biased California festivals” category. BUT it does have a lot of its own merits. It’s on an island in the middle of San Francisco Bay. How cool is that? The island atmosphere and the two day schedule is a bit of a decompression compared to the hustle and bustle of a lot of the bigger festivals. This leads to a smaller, more intimate festival that still brings world class acts. Of course, you do have to deal with San Francisco weather in October, but then again, nobody’s perfect.

21-Nov 1st – Neewollah (Independence, Kansas) – If you’re not a comic fan (not looking at you anymore, Texas, you Renaissancing son of a bitch!), Mxyzptlk is an enemy of Superman who can only be defeated by tricking him into saying his own name backwards, at which point he will be banished back to his home in the fifth dimension. I know. Comics. This little town in Kansas has the same kind of logic when it comes to Halloween (if you didn’t pick up that Neewollah was Halloween backwards, then you really need to watch Trolls 2), celebrating the non-pagan aspects of the holiday in safety. There’s very little chance you’re actually going to be in this little Midwest town, but hey, if your plane crashes and you need something to do while you wait for rescue, there ya go.

24-26th – Life is Beautiful (Las Vegas, Nevada) – There will come a day when I do not make a sarcastic joke about Vegas being a quiet town… but it is not this day. So yeah, obviously I don’t know why you would want to go to Vegas. It’s quiet. Syke! Anyway, Life Is Beautiful is a new festival out in Sin City, similar to most festivals, but it’s got the location behind it. It professes itself as having “music, food, art, and learning.” Now, my first reaction was that the only thing I’ve learned in Vegas was exactly how much I can drink before I pass out and get thrown out of a club for getting a lap dance from a middle aged flight attendant, but then I looked at the actual lineup. They’ve got motivational speakers and some really intelligent people there. So if this is their attempt to make Vegas look intellectual, it may actually be working.

25th – Festival Supreme (Santa Monica, California) – The next two festivals might as well go together. If you’re in California – anywhere in California – you can go to at least one of these. Hell, you could theoretically go to both for a day. We’ll get to Treasure Island next, but let’s talk about Festival Supreme. This one isn’t a music festival – it’s a comedy festival. Pretty unique for this list thus far! Right? It brings in a lot of big names, from the Workaholics to Tenacious D. Those are all really funny guys! And it’s in Santa Monica, which might as well be called The Part of Los Angeles People Actually Like Visiting. There’s nothing quite like a sunset on the boardwalk. The only problem is that it’s not in Venice Beach – a Theatre of Life with professional comedians would be amazing.

25-26th – Something Wicked (Houston, Texas) – Did I mention this already? I LOVE HALLOWEEN. I’m all about those hay rides and haunted houses. Like, the kind of haunted houses you need to sign a release for before entering. So Texas getting a jump on the festivities with a haunted music festival is awesome. You can do drugs and seek comfort in the fact that all the horrible things you’re seeing are actually there. And then, when you get home the next day, you’ll be so hungover that you’ll look exactly like that zombie you’ve been meaning to dress up as anyway!

31st – Halloween (Anywhere) – But here we are. Halloween. The one day of the year a girl can dress like a slut and nobody can say a thing. God I love it. No matter how you want to celebrate, you’re doing it right. Want to have a nice night exploring a corn maze or walking through the fallen leaves? Go for it. Want to get absolutely plastered and accidentally vomit on that cute girl dressed on a cat? Your move cap’n! So no matter where you are, you’ll have something going on. But if you’re smart, you’ll make your way to New York for the Village Halloween Parade, Santa Barbara for the IV Halloween Parade (though you’re probably going to either die or get arrested on the way), West Hollywood for the best street closure festival around, or, if you really want to get weird, Escape from Wonderland up in the Bay. No matter what you choose, you’re gonna be okay. Kind of.

31-Nov 2nd – Voodoo Experience (New Orleans, Louisiana) – I could easily include this under my general classification of Halloween events, but it wouldn’t feel right. Of all places hoodoolicious and black magic-y in America, New Orleans stands high (it’s gotta stand high in something, right? Uh, that’s a levee joke, not a poverty joke), so come celebrate the spookiest season in the spookiest city that doesn’t involve deserted cabins in the pacific northwest. The lineup’s an odd mixture of rock and electronic, so you may not even see too many witchcore people. Lookin’ at you, Lorde. So talented, so creepy.

31-2nd – Dia de los Muertos (Oaxaca, Mexico) – Here we go: the big guns. The holiday you REALLY look forward to in October, and it’s not even really in October. Dia de los Muertos is kind of like Halloween, except dressing up like a slutty version of something normal would probably be frowned upon. It’s very cultural but very nice to see. Of course, it has a huge following in Mexico, and Oaxaca may be the best place to experience it. However, pretty much every city in Latin America, all the way down to South America, celebrates it in some capacity, so if there’s some mad cartel violence and you wanna bail, there’s always another party out there.

31-Nov 3rd – La Calaca (San Miguel de Allende, Mexico) – Here’s another one we could have filed under Halloween, but hey, we haven’t gotten very many Mexican locations and I want to differentiate. La Calaca (a Spanish skeletal figure emblematic of Dia de los Muertos) is a festival making Dia accessible for those who may not be used to the more cultural side of things. It combines the traditional celebrations with more music festival oriented events, so if you’re just a little too afraid of spooky ghosts, let this ease your worries.

 

Oceania

4-5th – Listen Out (Melbourne/Brisbane, Australia) – Listen Out is a single-day music festival (don’t let the dates fool you) that travels around Australia. The Sydney and Perth events have already happened, and if history repeats itself, it’ll be a sight to behold. If you’re one of the more intrepid travelers, you’ll make it to both. If you’re lucky, you’ll be in the Jetstar flight that lets you know the drug situation beforehand, just for convenience’s sake.

18th, 26th – Out on the Weekend (Melbourne/Brisbane, Australia) – In a lot of ways, Australia is the real South America. I mean, they’re also hillbillys who managed to get out from under England’s thumb in a way. They like drinking a lot. Their current Prime Minister is basically George Bush, but with more apocalyptic tendencies towards the Great Barrier Reef. So it makes sense that they’ve got a festival celebrating all things Americana. The music, the food, the beer. All things which are basically identical to their Australian counterparts, but the important part is having something to celebrate, right?

18th – iHeartRadio Festival (Sydney, Australia) – Speaking of American counterparts. The iHeartRadio Festival took place in America last month (or, really, this month at the time you’re probably reading this), and I can’t predict the future but I’m gonna assume it mostly went off without a hitch, although one person died of drug-related dehydration. Mark it, I’m writing this August 28th. Either way, it went well enough that they’re moving to Australia. Sydney ain’t no Las Vegas, so I’m gonna assume this edition of the festival is gonna be a lot more tame, but hey – with Redfoo and Miley Cyrus headlining it, you never know.

18th, 19th, 26th – Blurst of Times (Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney) – Blurst Of Times is a new festival – it only premiered last year in Brisbane. But like iHeartRadio, quick expansion is the name of the game. Three cities get it now. It’s a pretty small festival though, very punk rock and metal and taking place in only a few venues, but if that’s your scene, then here’s something to do.

24-26th – Byron Bay International Surf Festival (Byron Bay, Australia) – Byron Bay is one of the best surfing joints in Australia. Well, it’s really more the best place to get weed, but hey, the sharks don’t really care about the reason you get in the water. The Surf Festival is a big celebration of the hippy lifestyle there (everything’s in tipis for fuck’s sake), but I’m sure you can watch people anxiously paddle around worried about being the next shark attack victim too. It can happen to anybody.

25th – Welcome to the Valley (Swan Valley, Western Australia) – Western Australia is usually last on the traveler’s hitlist in the state, just behind hitting a kangaroo with your car and being stabbed by a bogan meth-head on Lonely Planet’s Must List. But if you do make it out to the less developed side of the country, you’ll find a lot of cool stuff. Like Welcome to the Valley, a festival combining the beauty of Australian Spring with the majesty of Oktoberfest. So you’ll be passed out face down in a ditch, probably, but at least the birds will be singing when you wake up in the morning!

31st – Halloween Freakshow (Magnetic Island, Australia) – Magnetic Island is a sleepy little island where you wake up one day and realize you slept the entire time away on the beach and didn’t even see the things you wanted to see. Oops. Maybe that’s just me. If you’re staying at Base, though, there’s always something going on. The hostel is massive and features its own personal bungalows, a beach, car rentals, and more. They’re also desperate to be Thailand, and so they throw a Full Moon Party each month. In October, this is combined with Halloween for a massive dress up party. If it’s anything like their Boozy Bingo… it’s gonna get out of control.

 

South America

3-13th – National Beer Festival (Villa General Belgrano, Argentina) – Gee, I wonder why a place like Argentina would be so heavily inspired by German culture, especially since the late ’40s? Roughly right around the time World War II ended? All those “refugees” wanted to hold onto their culture, so they founded the South American equivalent of Oktoberfest from their fortified villas. It’s a little more tame and small compared to its mother festival, but the beer is just as good, and if Argentina’s anything, it’s a great country for enjoying a cold one without worrying about being held responsible or the atrocities you’ve committed outside its borders.

4th – Spirit of London (São Paulo, Brazil) – South America doesn’t have a whole plethora of music festivals. Maybe it’s the giant rainforests and mountains everywhere, maybe it’s the poverty. But regardless, when they do have one – especially one with some big multinational names, it’s a pretty big deal. Sucks that it doesn’t want to be named after it’s own cities. The artists playing here aren’t even English. Either way, it’s a cool town with a good lineup (The Chainsmokers!), so if you’re cruising through the Amazon and want a break from the camping in tents, make your way over.

11th – Pride (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) – I always though West Hollywood had a crazy Pride parade. I mean, it’s like a gay oasis in the Sahara of conservative America. But holy shit, Rio has a Pride? The place where plastic surgery is about as taboo as makeup and wearing a speedo to the beach is practically required? This is the town that hosts Carnival. If you thought any Pride parade you’ve ever been to was nuts, then Rio is going to put that one to shame, then drag it out, put it in makeup, and tell it it still looks fabulous.

18-19th, 28th – Lord of Miracles (Lima, Peru) – If you’re a little too conservative for the Pride parade in Rio, then maybe the Lord of Miracles festival in Lima is more your style. It’s the veneration of an old image of Jesus painted by an African slave. Over a century ago, a giant earthquake obliterated the city, leaving nothing but the mural standing – thus giving it its name, “Lord of Miracles.” Every year in October, a gigantic religious procession marches through the streets to celebrate Jesus and the event. They drape the streets in purple for it, too, so if you’re not going to Pride, at least you get a taste.

31st – Dia de la Canción Criolla (Lima, Peru) – Dia de la Cancion Criolla may seem like an old, Halloween-esque tradition, but the truth is, it was founded only a few decades ago as a way for the town to celebrate the musical heritage of Criolla. It might not be as cultural as most festivals, but its intentions are good and its a nice way to see some new music you may not have heard of before. And if you’re in Peru anyway, it’s a good chance to catch the Lord of Miracles events too.

[wpgmza id=”3″]

And that’s October. If you make it to any festivals, tweet me your pictures @theElsewhereman, and send any suggestions I may have missed through to me here. See you next month!