Everyone enjoys a celebration, so here are a collection of the best festivals around the world to add to your wish list. Most travel can be booked around a year before departure and the only way to make that travel dream a reality is to book it now, so why wait?!

January

The Winter Light Festival of Nabana no Sato in Japan from November to March is one of the very best in the world. The park is famous for its seasonal flowers shows, illuminated with over eight million LED lights which turn it into an enchanting, twinkling winter wonderland straight out of a fairytale.

February

After a long dark winter, in the northernmost capital in the world, Icelanders take to the streets for a Winter Lights Festival to celebrate the shorter nights. The city is illuminated with light displays and nature’s greatest light show, the Northern Lights, will also hopefully make an appearance.

March

In the ancient Mexican Mayan city of Chichén Itzá, people from around the world gather during the spring and autumn equinox at the pyramid of Kukulcán. Just twice each year at the equinox the light and shadow of the sun creates the illusion of a snake slithering down the pyramid’s steps until it reaches the snake-head sculpture at the bottom.

April

Spain’s picture-perfect Seville is lively over Easter with Semana Santa, Holy Week. Parades, fiestas and celebrations spill onto the streets lit by bright spring sunshine and vivid blue skies. The Sevillanos have been celebrating this holy week since the sixteenth century with aesthetic and spiritual intensity.

May

Maderia has picked up the nicknames ‘Island of Eternal Spring’ and ‘Garden of the Atlantic’. The island’s Flower Festival, a tribute to spring, is a dazzling riot of tropical flower colours and showcases concerts, markets, shows, parades and competitions.

June

The Bali Arts Festival is an annual cultural treat that brings the island’s rich and varied cultural scene to life for a whole month of daily exhibitions, performances, and an array of art-related activities.

July

Crop Over in Barbados is a colourful and vibrant summer long carnival celebration where an unmatched stamina for partying means the rum never stops flowing, and the whole island lets loose.

August

Medillín’s Flower Festival in Colombia offers parade, parties, classic car rallies, live music performances, markets and fireworks displays with more flowers than you’d imagine possible. The city gives itself over to a ten day party amid a riotous backdrop of colour and blooms of all descriptions.

September

Hermanus Whale Festival in South Africa is described as an ‘enviro-arts’ festival, but the real stars of this show are the migrating Southern Right Whales. These gentle giants of the ocean swim close to land making Hermanus renowned as the best land-based whale-watching destinations in the world.

October

Since 1810 Germany’s Oktoberfest has been offering travellers who made the journey to Germany stomach-warming liquor and generous hospitality. Apart from drinks, the festival treats you to a cacophony of regional and folk dances, rich food, and an extremely friendly atmosphere.

November

The lakeside Hindu pilgrimage town of Pushkar in Rajasthan India hosts the cultural fête of an annual camel fair where thousands converge at the time of the Kartik Purnima full moon. The resplendent event exudes extravagance pomp and ceremony.

December

The Turkish city of Konya is host to a mesmerisingly beautiful spiritual ceremony as the Whirling Dervish dancers honour Rumi, the great Sufi mystic. Thousands gather to commemorate the thirteenth century Persian poet, who believed that dance and music led to a higher consciousness, which in turn helped to discover divine love.