Festivals under palms: a year of events in warm places

A festival turns a beach holiday into a memory with a date on it. Most of the ones below happen every year in the same season; a few move with a lunar calendar. The full list, with every destination’s events sortable by month, lives on the events page. These are the ones I would plan a trip around.

January and February: carnival season

The Caribbean and the Canaries go into carnival mode from January until the start of Lent. Santa Cruz de Tenerife stages the second biggest carnival on earth after Rio; Aruba and Curaçao parade for weeks; Nice fills the promenade with flower battles. Dubai runs its shopping festival with nightly drone shows, and Zanzibar hosts Sauti za Busara, East Africa’s best music festival, in the old fort in February.

March: silence and water

Bali’s Nyepi, the day of silence, is unlike anything else: after a night of monster parades the whole island goes dark, the airport closes and the stars come out over Canggu. Two weeks later Thailand’s Songkran, on 13 to 15 April, is a national water fight; on Koh Lanta it lasts a happy afternoon. Málaga’s film festival, Miami’s Ultra and Cartagena’s film festival all land in March too.

April to June: Easter, flowers and midsummer

Orthodox Easter on Crete is fireworks at midnight and lamb the next day. Madeira’s flower festival carpets Funchal in May, and Cannes closes the Croisette for its film festival. In June the Spanish coast lights bonfires for Sant Joan on the night of the 23rd, from Alicante’s giant burning sculptures to the beaches of Mallorca.

July and August: heat and drums

Tahiti’s Heiva fills July with dance and canoe races, Zanzibar’s film festival screens on the beach and in the fort, and Sri Lanka’s Kandy Perahera walks elephants through the streets by torchlight. Palermo celebrates Santa Rosalia with fireworks on 14 July, and Curaçao hosts North Sea Jazz at the end of August.

September to November: harvest and light

Nit de l’Art opens Palma’s galleries on one September night, and San Vito Lo Capo holds a couscous competition. The Seychelles’ Creole festival takes October, and Mauritius lights up for Divali in the autumn. November brings Loy Krathong candles on Thai water, the Day of the Dead on the Riviera Maya and Marrakech’s film festival.

December: the tropics at full brightness

Art Basel takes over Miami in the first week, Goa closes the year with Sunburn, and Funchal’s New Year fireworks over the bay are watched from cruise ships anchored for the purpose. On the beaches from the Maldives to Costa Rica, Christmas dinner is a barbecue under a palm, which is my favourite kind.