Sun, fun and a good festival are what June’s all about. How about visiting a nontraditional celebration to get your summer off to a fun start? Wine, paint and oil wrestling make up some of the wackiest festivals found around the world this month.
KirkPinar Oil Wrestling Festival: June 29-July 5, Edirne
Get ready Turkey, oil wrestling is coming. At this festival participants of all ages and physical abilities come together to show off their skills at outwitting their opponent. They wear cowhide trousers called, kisbet, and get olive oil thrown all over them before the matches begin. After everyone has battled it out the winner receives the prestigious Kirkpinar Golden Belt and earns the title of Chief Pehlivan. As funny as this festival may look, competitors tend to take it very seriously and many of them train for months on end beforehand.
Haro Wine Festival: June 28-30, Haro
The small town of Faro is located about 6 hours from Barcelona, in the Spanish Basque country set amongst many vineyards. The main focus of this festival is wine. Festival goers have a huge shirt soaking bash where participants are doused with wine. The area wineries, as well as the locals and tourists, come together to celebrate wine. The festival starts at 7 a.m. and shortly after, the wine throwing and drinking begins. Participants use everything from balloons filled with wine to squirt guns. Afterwards there are bullfights and huge celebrations.
World Bodypainting Festival: June 28-July 5, Portschach
All things having to do with body art are celebrated at the World Bodypainting Festival. Generally around 40 different countries are represented as individuals paint their bodies to express themselves. There are a variety of classes and workshops available during the festival as well as a lot of people walking around with paint all over them.
Boi Bumba: June 26-29, Parintins
The origin of this Brazilian festival is quite interesting. A peasant pregnant wife asks her husband to kill a bull and once he does, some trouble occurs that he has to overcome. This strange tale is celebrated during Boi Bumba. The story is retold through street parades that have parade floats and actors in elaborate outfits. There are two sides in the street parades: The Garantido Team and the Caprichoso team. Both sides try to compete for the best floats and performances. What’s interesting about the location of the festival is that it can take as long as 50 hours to get there via boat since it’s located in the middle of the Amazon rain forest.
These are just a few of some of the rather interesting festival happening throughout the world in the month of June. If you know of any wacky festivals going on, be sure to tell us about it!
