Ever wondered what was going on this week? This book is a surefire way to infuse your home-bound life with bitter jealousy as you see the colourful and strange ways people are celebrating around the world. And they’re doing it today.

A Year of Festivals is part of a recently released range of Lonely Planet books which also includes A Year of Sport Travel and A Year of Adventures. Organised in a similar fashion, each double-page spread covers approximately one week of the year and highlights well-known and offbeat festivals with photography and short descriptions including background and practical information.

The contents page near the start of the book allows you to quickly find things by week and month, while the indices at the end give an alphabetical listing of events as well as breaking things down by country. Several short articles, also near the end of the book, give some context for the pageantry. Mardi Gras is explored in more depth and the links between festivals, religion and food are covered too.

As one would expect, writing and photography are well matched and high quality throughout the 224 pages. Editorial choices balance the new (like Womad or Sundance film festival) with traditional favourites like Mardi Gras, Gion Matsuri and Thaipusam. The absurd sits alongside
the riotous and the stately: this book illustrates just how imaginative and varied the world can be. Along with professional photographers, highlighted images come “from the traveller” which hints at citizen journalism and crowd-sourced images without actually going there.

I enjoy flicking through this kind of book, looking for images that catch my eye. I can lazily meander through the content, glass of wine in hand, and exclaim with delight or pain, depending on whether I see vibrant dancers or self-inflicted wounds. If I had one critique, it would be the sometimes confusing layout as one struggles to match a photo with an event. Sometimes it takes some flicking backwards and forwards to discover that the picture — and what seems to be the lead sentence — actually relate to an article started on the previous page.

This book would best suit people dreaming of travel or looking for inspiration rather than actively planning a trip. It might be the perfect gift for a friend or partner whose idea of travel is visiting the next town.

A Year of Festivals is published by Lonely Planet (2008). It is available from Amazon.com.

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This article was written by Craig Martin

Podcaster and writer Craig Martin has been living on the road since leaving Auckland, New Zealand in February 2006. With a degree in Media Studies and English plus a penchant for Coleridge, he's still travelling. Craig podcasts at the Indie Travel Podcast and has penned several travel books for Indie Travel Media Ltd.