Discover Unbelievable Festivals Around the World – From Rolling Cheese to Epic Tomato Battles!
Written by Kaelie Piscitello
If you think your local street fair is wild, wait until you hear about the festivals where people dive headfirst into the mud, carve radishes into intricate masterpieces, and hurl themselves down a steep hill in pursuit of cheese. Around the world, communities have turned ordinary traditions into extraordinary celebrations.
These events bring together locals and travelers alike for unforgettable experiences. Celebrants will tomatoes in Spain or watch masked “devils” leap over babies in a centuries-old ritual to get a feel for these cultures. The variety in festival customs proves sometimes, the best way to embrace a culture is to jump right into its quirkiest traditions.
Boryeong Mud Festival, South Korea
Boryeong City created the Mud Festival in 1997. Few people used to visit Boryeong Beach because people thought of it as “dirty” due to the mud. Then, Boryeong’s mayor, Mayor Park Sang-don, found a study examining the mud’s healing powers and used that to attract tourists.
The articles said the mud from the sand and water of Boryeong Daecheon Beach has great anti-ageing/skincare qualities. The study said it also promotes skin regeneration and blood circulation. Many people in Korea buy skin care products made from it today.
The city began promoting the beach to vacationers as a “mud experience center.” It brought in many tourists and later developed into the modern grand ceremony, and many now know it as the most prominent festival foreigners attend in South Korea.
This year, the festival will occur from July 21 to August 10. The festival has many free experiences, including mud massages and well-being activities. Attendants can also swim in mud pools and experience mud slides, mud prisons, and mud skiing competitions. They can also purchase mud cosmetics at the festival entrance.
Visitors can reach Boryeong Beach by easily public transportation, including a two hour bus from Seoul. Purchase tickets online here.
The Night of the Radishes Mexico
The Night of the Radishes, or La Noche de Rabanos, began more than 100 years ago when people viewed the radish as an essential crop in Oaxaca, Mexico. During this festival, people carve these vegetables to honor their Oaxaca culture and depict their lives through cultural and food symbols. Many families have competed in this contest for decades.
La Noche de Rabanos started as people decorating their fruit/vegetable stands, and it later morphed into the contest that people know today. In 2024, record numbers of thousands of people visited Oaxaca for the festival. The city has a whole plot of land where they grow radishes for the celebration.’
Oaxaca celebrates this festival in Zocala, the main square in the city center, starting at 3 pm on December 23. The city announces winners that evening at 9 pm. During the competition, merchants sell their radish carvings to people attending.
Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling UK
In Gloucester, young people roll cheese and themselves down a hill every year. That’s right, the participants throw themselves down Cooper’s Hill (a steep, 180-meter drop) after a wheel of double Gloucester cheese.
During this odd, 600-year-old festival, the cheese rolls down the hill at up to 70 miles per hour, and few contestants can run down the hill after it. So, many end up rolling. The first participant to reach the bottom of the hill wins.
If you’re wondering if people get injured, yes, they do. Luckily, no one has died, but many people break bones, and one person got zapped by lightning during the roll one year.
This year, the cheese rolling will take place on May 26. Participants must be 18 to roll down the hill and don’t need to pre-register to join the race. Many show up and roll at their own risk.
El Colacho in Spain
As a blend of Catholic and pagan rituals, El Colacho in Spain shows the triumph of good over evil through a parade where “devils” jump over babies. This festival dates back to the 1620s and happens on the Sunday after the feast of Corpus Christi.
El Colacho starts with a parade where red and masked people dressed as devils insult people. Then, the pious men come out to begin the flight of the devil. People lay out their babies born within the last year, and the devils run through the streets and jump over them to “absorb their sins.”
The Spanish believe the ritual protects the babies from diseases and other future struggles. Other people watch this ceremony to have good luck for the following year. Many liken the practice to a baptism ceremony,
La Tomatina Spain
Every year, Spain has a massive food fight with tomatoes. At noon on August 27, trucks dump hundreds of tomatoes into Plaza del Pueblo, a square in Valencia. The festival does not start until someone climbs up a greasy wooden pole and grabs a ham at the top of it. This battle lasts for an hour until people cannot throw the tomatoes any more. Then fire trucks spray the streets and wash the tomatoes down the drain.
Before 2013, 40,000-50,000 people joined the fight each year, but since then, the official ticketing has limited sales to 20,000. Francisco Franco also banned it for several years because it did not have religious significance. However, it returned in 1970 when he died.
The official Tomatina website recommends wearing closed-toed shoes, which participants can throw away after the fight to avoid getting stepped on or losing them. They also ask that people do not bring hard objects to the site to prevent harming others. The fight is all in good fun.
No one knows how it started, but some say it could have started as a joke on a bad musician or a local food fight between friends. Whatever the reason, people still love to throw tomatoes at each other today.
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