Top 10 Festival Cities

This city is a lovely one to visit at almost any time of the year, but one of the best times is for Bastille Day. The national holiday, which takes place on July 14th, is one huge party here, full of military parades and fireworks. For music lovers, be sure to check also out the Pitchfork Music Festival in late October as well as the Rock en Seine festival, which attracts major musical acts every August.

This is a city full of history, architecture and universities, but it’s also got plenty of festivals that are among the best in the world. There’s Berlinale, which is the film festival with the highest public attendance in the world; the Festival of Lights, which sees landmarks across the city get lit up in October; and music festivals like JazzFest Berlin and the more electronic-focused Berlin Festival, which happens every September.

The colorful and very liberal attitude of the city itself is definitely reflected in the look and style of their festival events. One example is Queen’s Day, which celebrates the birth of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands - though it’s now called King’s Day for her oldest son after she abdicated – and is celebrated at the end of April. If you’re there for it, be sure to come out in the streets dressed in orange. There’s also the Amsterdam Pride, a gay-festival and parade, as well as – surprise, surprise – the Cannabis Cup.

In terms of major festivals for arts, culture and just about everything else, there’s something for everyone in New York City. Major ones include the Governors Ball and the New Yorker Festival, as well as New York Fashion Week and the Tribeca Film Festival – both of which generate hundreds of millions of dollars each year. In other words, some of the world’s best festivals for culture are in the city that never sleeps.

Definitely one of the biggest festival cities on the other side of the equator, this is one category where the Australian city certainly does not play second fiddle to Sydney. Aside from festivals like St. Jerome’s Laneway and Future Music Festival, which stop in Melbourne but tour across the country, there are other festivals that are more purely local, like the Melbourne Fringe Festival, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and Moomba, which is a massive community festival bringing out up to a million people.

This city’s festival reputation can be best defined in four letters: SXSW. Yes, the festival known as South by Southwest is a week-and-a-half long extravaganza for music lovers, with guest speakers, film screenings and of course, shows, all making for one of the best music festivals of its length on Earth. There’s also the Austin City Limits Festival, which is held over two weekends and also attracts some big musical names. Both festivals keep Austin hip, eventful, and of course, weird.

There are many amazing festivals to take in while you're visiting this German city, but none are quite as wild or as big as Oktoberfest. For more than 200 years, this funfair has been the place to be for those looking to drink all kinds of beer – as much as 7 million litres of it consumed per festival over the course of a little more than two weeks. There are also plenty of local delicacies to munch on whenever you get hungry – hint: they all have to do with meat.

You’ve seen it in pictures and on TV, and you may or may not have imagined how crazy it would be to actually be there. Yes, this city’s Carnaval is a huge party lasting a couple of days and held just before Lent with everything from huge floats and parades to loud, blasting samba music to scantily-clad women dancing on the street. With two million people participating per day, it owns the world record for the largest carnival in the world. So don’t be sad, it’s Carnaval!

Two words: Mardi Gras. Yes, the festive season that translates to English as Fat Tuesday that's also held just before Lent is one hell of a street party and then some. In a way, it’s basically like the North American equivalent of Rio’s Carnaval. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is not to be missed either, with major musicians playing the festival from the realm of traditional music from New Orleans and the state of Louisiana, to blues, rap music, and of course, jazz.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honourable mentions

San Francisco, U.S.A.

Tokyo, Japan

Lerwick, Scotland

The list is almost endless: the Montreal International Jazz Festival, Les Francofolies, Montréal en Lumiere, Osheaga, and so on. Although the weather in the summertime can be very hot and humid, it’s well worth braving it while you’re out at one of this Canadian city’s world-class festivals. Another of the city’s biggest draws is the Just for Laughs festival, where many of today’s most famous comedy stars got early exposure. In short, festivals can’t be done [much] better than they are in La Belle Province.

Do you agree with our list? What do you think is the best festival city in the world? With entertaining top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.