101 Things to Do Before You Die: Nightlife and Festivals by The TI Review Team
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Kasbah Tamadot
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Watch the Papua New Guinea Highland Show by Isabella Tree
The Papua New Guinea: The Highland Show is an annual event held in July/August and alternating between Mt Hagen and Goroka. A fantastic, fiesty display of traditional tribal finery and modern innovation (the ‘black and white’ dancers paint themselves half white with Johnson’s Baby Powder and half black with the grease from burnt tyres). There’s a fiercely contested award for best-dressed tribe, and with hundreds of entries from all over the Highlands, including traditional enemies, it can often turn into a genuine battle. Be prepared to be tear-gassed!
Attend the Djemma al Fna by Rose Baring
Spend the whole night before the Feast of the Throne in the Djemma al Fna in Marrakech. The soul of Africa migrates here for the celebration, and her Saharan heart beats in time with the hypnotic Gnaoua musicians.
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Attend the Fiesta de San Fermin by Mark Eveleigh
At noon on the sixth of July the chupinazo (rocket) explodes above Pamplona’s baroque town hall, heralding the start of Las Fiestas de San Fermin. Every year a million revellers storm this normally sleepy Northern Spanish city for nine days and nine nights of non-stop mayhem, converting it into what has been called ‘the hell-raising capital of the world.
Attend The Stinky Food Festival by AA Gill
The Stinky Food Festival, Reykjavik. You can marvel over smoked sheep’s head, stuffed cod liver, raw puffin, pickled seal flipper and the simply extraordinary and repellent buried shark. Besides which, Reykjavik is a great place. You may never get to the food fair - the Blonde says it’s a guy place. Well, if it is a bloke-burg, how come there are so many amazing-looking girls here?
Get a Drink at Shinjuku Station by Caroline Major
Drink cocktails on the top floor bar above Shinjuku station at peak hour, marvelling at the volume of passing people. On foot, in trains and cars, it’s a quickly moving river flowing through the light show of flashing neon.
Have A Lost Night in Amsterdam by Sally Howard
Ideally involving befriending a large posse of friendly locals, dancing through the ear-bleed output of at least three superclubs and remaining confused for two weeks afterwards.
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Drink a Peach Vodka at the Kube Ice Bar in Paris by Gillian Ivory
You’ll be offered a parka coat and gloves outside the door to this stylish refrigerator where even the glasses are made of ice. Spend 30 minutes sampling the vodka and run gasping back to the warmth through a decompression-like chamber.
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Visit the Moon Bar at the Banyan Tree Hotel by Belinda Jackson
Thailand, Bangkok: Have a cocktail in the rooftop Moon Bar at the Banyan Tree hotel.
Attend the Carnival in Port of Spain by Sean Thomas
Experience carnival in the Port of Spain, Trinidad, in late February/early March. Less touristy than Rio, less commercialised than New Orleans, more wild and abandoned than either, Trinidad hosts one of the world’s greatest, must-see, must-dance carnivals every spring. Particularly groovy is the pre-dawn Bacchanal of Jouvert, when semi-naked voodoo-esque figures patrol the streets throwing mud and blood at onlookers.
Attend a Feast in the Thar Desert by Sue Carpenter
Have a feast in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan under the stars, organised by the Jawahar Niwas hotel, Jaisalmer, the former private guest house of the Maharawal of Jaisalmer. Magical, as long as there's not a sandstorm. Also, sitting on any rooftop in Jaisalmer Fort at and after sunset is another perfect moment when a feeling of deep calm washes over you.
Spend a Mortifying Hour on Stage in a Comedy Club In London or Cape Town by Binyavanga Wainaina
Find out for sure whether I think I am funny because my friends laugh at my jokes when they are pissed.
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Attend a Concert at the Sydney Opera House by Anthony Toole
The total experience includes the post-concert ambience of the most spectacular setting of any such venue in the world.
Would you rather just get away from it all? Check out 101 Things to Do Before You Die: Camping