10 Wonderfully Weird Festivals to Add to a Bucket List This Year
Travel does not always have to revolve around famous sights or postcard photos. Some of the most memorable trips come from stumbling into something unexpected, like a town celebrating a tradition that sounds slightly unbelievable at first. These festivals grew out of local habits, family customs, or ideas that somehow stuck and spread. They are strange, genuine, and full of personality, and each one is reason enough to plan a trip around the date on the calendar.
Air Guitar World Championships – Oulu, Finland
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
This competition turns invisible instruments into a global spectacle. Since 1996, air guitarists from dozens of countries have gathered in Oulu to compete with elaborate characters. Performances last one minute and are judged on technical skill, stage presence, and “airness,” which measures how convincingly the performer embodies the music rather than imitates it.
Trailing of the Sheep – Ketchum, Idaho
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
What began as a practical need to preserve a sheep migration route has become a full festival featuring 1,500 sheep parading through downtown. It’s been happening for 30 years and includes sheepdog trials, wool craft demos, and lamb dinners. Every hundred sheep includes a single black one, a simple visual trick ranchers use to keep track of the herd as it moves through town.
Telluride Mushroom Festival – Telluride, Colorado
Credit: Facebook
Telluride’s high-altitude forests make it a prime spot for mushroom foraging, which is why mycologists and fungi fans gather each August for workshops and guided hikes. The festival also includes a street parade where hundreds show up in mushroom-themed costumes, some intentionally absurd. There are no tickets or barriers. You just step into the street and join.
Rougarou Fest – Houma, Louisiana
Credit: Instagram
Inspired by the Cajun legend of a swamp werewolf, this Louisiana festival reimagines the creature as an environmental mascot. The event includes a folk-life village, cooking contests, a parade, and the annual “critter pardoning” of an invasive species. Neuty the nutria has been pardoned three times and lives with a local family, often appearing in parades wearing a T-shirt.
La Tomatina – Buñol, Spain
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
What started as a scuffle during a town festival in the 1940s became the world’s largest food fight. Participants are handed crushed tomatoes and have one hour to join the frenzy. Cleanup crews spray down the streets immediately after, but locals recommend goggles and a change of clothes. The town of Buñol hosts about 20,000 visitors for the event.
Kanamara Matsuri – Kawasaki, Japan
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Known informally as the “Festival of the Steel Phallus,” this annual gathering celebrates fertility and safe intimacy. Processions feature large sculptures and souvenirs. The festival began as a way for local workers to pray for protection and now also raises money for medical research.
Sitges Carnival Bed Race – Sitges, Spain
Credit: iStockphoto
In this pre-Lent event near Barcelona, teams in costume push beds on wheels through the streets, racing for bragging rights and applause. The person on the bed is strapped in, which adds to the challenge. Spectators cheer as racers dodge water balloons and confetti.
International Hair Freezing Contest – Yukon, Canada
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The International Hair Freezing Contest happens each winter at Takhini Hot Springs, where participants soak in hot pools, lift wet hair into the cold air, and shape it as it freezes. Sub-zero temperatures harden styles within seconds, creating stiff, odd forms. Winners earn prize money, and standout looks like winged shapes or frozen beards often spread online.
Lopburi Monkey Festival – Lopburi, Thailand
Credit: iStockphoto
Each November, the city of Lopburi throws a feast for its local monkey population. Monkeys living around the Khmer temples are served fruits and vegetables stacked into pyramids. The event honors the Hindu monkey god Hanuman and also helps draw tourists to the area. Visitors are warned: monkeys are fast and curious.
Frozen Dead Guy Days – Estes Park, Colorado
Credit: Instagram
Frozen Dead Guy Days centers on the story of Bredo Morstoel, a Norwegian man whose cryogenically preserved body has been kept in Colorado since the 1990s. The festival includes coffin races and live music. It began in Nederland and moved to Estes Park in 2023, where it still draws people curious about the strange histories towns choose to celebrate.