Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
AUGUST
Liverpool's
International Beatle Week
cele-
brates the music and lives of one of the
most innovative, inspirational, and influential
pop groups of all time: The Beatles.
Although the band broke up decades ago,
they're still proudly celebrated in Liverpool,
and fans can rest assured the week's con-
ventions, tours, and music performances are
all top quality. www.beatlesfestival.co.uk.
Around a million people throng the pastel-
hued streets of west London for the
Not-
ting Hill Carnival,
Europe's biggest
carnival. Fabulous floats make a colorful
circuit of the area and sound systems blast
out music all day. Sample delicious Carib-
bean jerk chicken as you savor a
soundtrack of calypso, soul, funk, and reg-
gae. www.nottinghill-carnival.co.uk.
Manchester stages one of the biggest
Pride
events in Europe, offering a host of parties,
parades, and celebrations as the city sways
in a fiesta of fun. The program varies
immensely but is reliably colorful, chaotic,
and endearingly cheeky—much like Man-
chester itself. www.manchesterpride.com.
SEPTEMBER
It's absolutely vital to get your quiff and
sideburns just right at the annual
Porth-
cawl Elvis Festival
in Wales, the largest
Elvis event in Europe. Revel in Elvis-themed
activities around Porthcawl among like-
minded fans of the King of Rock 'n' Roll.
www.elvies.co.uk.
Gentle giants fill the sky over Ashton Court
Estate every year for Bristol's
International
Kite Festival.
The aerial extravaganza is the
U.K.'s leading showcase for designers,
operators, and manufacturers of inflata-
bles, play structures, and air sculptures.
www.kite-festival.org.uk.
The U.K.'s largest festival of contemporary
art takes place not in London but in Liver-
pool. Held for the seventh time in 2012, the
Liverpool Biennial
is getting more eclectic
and ambitious with every incarnation. Ven-
ues throughout the city are transformed
into impromptu creative spaces for its
duration, with seemingly every other street
the setting for an artistic extravaganza.
www.biennial.com.
Peek inside some 700 of the English capi-
tal's most famous buildings and best-kept
architectural secrets at the
London Open
House Weekend.
Explore the Foreign
Office, the Bank of England, and other
landmark buildings that are normally
obscured from public view. www.london
openhouse.org.
OCTOBER
Exemplifying just how provocative and pre-
cocious the British art world can be, the
Turner Prize
is awarded to a British artist
under 50 and can be relied upon to court
controversy and collect commendations year
after year. Previous winners have included
Chris Ofili and Martin Creed. The works of this
year's nominees are displayed at London's
Tate Britain gallery. www.tate.org.uk.
NOVEMBER
Foiled in his attempt to blow up London's
Houses of Parliament and murder King
James I on November 5, 1605, Guy Fawkes
was executed and the safety of the king
celebrated with the lighting of bonfires
throughout the country. The tradition con-
tinues to this day with towns throughout
the country celebrating
Bonfire Night
around November 5. As darkness descends
families gather around a blazing pyre, with
a smouldering effigy of Fawkes its center-
piece. Children are distracted from the
more macabre connotations of the cere-
mony by sugary candyfloss (cotton candy)
and toffee apples, and the huge fireworks
display that ends the evening.
DECEMBER
The
New Year's
celebrations in the village
of Allendale are more adrenaline-fuelled
than most. In the approach to midnight,
costumed men balance flaming whisky
barrels filled with hot tar—and weighing
up to 15kg (33 lb)—on their heads and
then toss them onto an unlit bonfire. The
bonfire explodes into flames, and at the
stroke of midnight everyone joins to dance
around the fire and sing Auld Lang Syne.
www.visitnorthumberland.com.
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