Music: Glastonbury
Is it a farm? Is it a mudbath? Or is it a hippy convention? It's sometimes hard to tell at Glastonbury, where Michael Eavis opens up the fields of his Somerset farm each year for over 170 000 revellers to get down (and dirty) to some of the world's top musicians.

Tickets for the festival are notoriously hard to come by, so if you want to attend Glastonbury 2009 from 26-28 June you'd better pre-register on http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk.

Drink: Oktoberfest
Getting drunk in public has never been so much fun! Die-hard festinos will know that the Oktoberfest started out as a wedding party for Prince Ludwig, but today draws beer-drinkers from across the globe.

Munich's mayor will pull the first pint on 19 September 2009, and over the next 16 days millions of pints of top-notch Marzen lager will be downed by happy punters. Remember though that the beer is usually five percent or stronger, so make sure you don't end up as a bierleichen ("beer corpse"). Visit www.oktoberfest.de.

Offbeat: Cheese-Rolling
The Brits evidently have too much time on their hands. And cheese, it would seem. The Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling and Wake is an annual event held in Gloucestershire, and the rules are quite simple: a wheel of Double Gloucester is rolled down the hill and competitors race after it. The first person over the finish line at the bottom of the hill wins the cheese. Broken bones and dented cheese are common. Sound like fun? Sign up for 2009's event at www.cheese-rolling.co.uk.

Classics: Il Palio
Spain's Running of the Bulls is for drunk teenagers on a gap year. Travellers in the know head for Siena in Tuscany; home to the historic Il Palio horse race. It's a two-minute death-defying charge around the city?s famous Piazza del Campo by riders from the city's various districts. City-wide fame and bragging rights for the year await the winner. Visit www.ilpalio.org/palioenglish.htm.

Creepy: The Day of the Dead
It's more chilling when you say it in Spanish: Dia de los Muertos. Brrr... feel the shivers down the spine.

The Day of the Dead is perhaps Mexico's most famous festival, and although the day is in honour of the dead it's actually all about the living. Families gather in cemeteries on the 1st and 2nd of November to communicate with the souls of the departed and to pray for friends and relatives who have died. Private altars to the dead feature sugar skulls and the departed's favourite foods, while locals parade through the streets wearing skeleton masks to honour the dead. Creepy.

Arty: Burning Man
So, it turns out there's more to the US state of Nevada than Las Vegas. Toss the chips, turn off the neon and head for the desert town of Black Rock, Nevada... home to the annual Burning Man Festival.

Organisers say that "explaining Burning Man to someone who has never been to the event is a bit like trying to explain what a particular color looks like to someone who is blind," but in a nutshell it is a week-long festival of art, community and alternative living.

It takes its name from the ritual burning of a large wooden effigy on the Saturday evening, but throughout the week you can expect art installations, performance, dance and music. The festival attracts everyone from hairy hippies to the founders of Google. Visit www.burningman.com.

Closer to home, the Afrika Burns project is run along similar lines in the Tankwa Karoo. Visit www.afrikaburns.com.

Party-time: Mardi Gras & Rio Carnaval
Go on, admit it... you like to get dressed up for a party! If that's the case, then we've got two razzles for you.

Mardi Gras is celebrated in cities across the globe, but New Orleans is without doubt the most famous venue to celebrate ''Fat Tuesday'. Hurricane Katrina has taken the shine off the party the last few years, but the 'krewes' of the city still keep the party alive on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. Visit www.mardigrasneworleans.com to find out more.

Further south than the deep south, in South America, is perhaps the world's best street party. Brazilians are uniformly gorgeous and, boy, do they like to dance. The Rio Carnaval is also held in the days leading up to Ash Wednesday; the day that marks the beginning of Lent when Catholics are meant to abstain from bodily pleasures. So they squeeze it all into four days of floats, parties, samba, drinking and dancing. Talk about partying like there's no tomorrow! Visit www.carnaval.com.

Been to any of these? Post your comments below