Festivals and Fringe Trip Planning & Itineraries

Melbourne Film Festival - Melbourne, Australia

One of the oldest film festivals in the world, the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) is arguably Australia's most significant winter festival. Taking place at a variety of city venues over 17 days, MIFF gives locals and visitors a great excuse to beat the chilly weather and settle in for some cinematic goodness.

Get in quick - 2009's festival runs from July 24 to August 9, and popular films sell out fast.

The Reading Festival - Reading, England

The contemporary Reading Festival kicked off as an annual jazz festival organized by the British National Jazz Federation. The first festival was held at the Richmond Athletic Ground in August 1961, but by the middle '60s jazz was declining in popularity while rhythm and blues and rock and roll were on the rise. Over the next few years the National Jazz and Blues Festival, as it became known, was moved to Windsor Racecourse, to Kempton Park and to Plumpton before the Reading Council allowed the festival to be held on the Thames riverbank as part of the town's Festival of Arts in 1971.

In 1999 the festival responded to increased demand, adding a Leeds Festival leg. The Reading Fringe Festival, a showcase for local talent, was added in 2005. The 2009 Reading and Leeds Festival takes place August 28-30.

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival - Edinburgh, Scotland

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival began in 1947 as an alternative offshoot to the first Edinburgh International Festival, the original official event of classical theater, opera, music and dance. The 'Edinburgh Festival' collective term actually refers to the group of events in August and September of each year that includes the above as well as the Military Tattoo, the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival, the People's Festival and the Edinburgh Annuale, among others. However, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival has long outgrown its parent and is now the largest arts festival in the world.

The frenzy of activity includes theater, arts, music and children's shows, but is perhaps most famous as the one of the premier comedy events in the world. Unlike many more formal festivals, performers are not invited or vetted, making it the perfect venue for experimental performances. The organizing committee provides advice, prints the program and arranges ticket sales. Now in its 62nd year, the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Festival runs August 7-31 and will host over 1800 shows in 260 venues.

Burning Man 2009 - Black Rock, Nevada, USA

Back in 1986 Larry Harvey and a few friends burnt an eight-foot wooden effigy of a man at sunset on San Francisco's Baker Beach - the scene of previous art events - to celebrate the summer solstice. Harvey described it as a spontaneous act of self-expression, and around 20 beach-goers gathered around to bear witness.

From little things big things grow: despite the neo-hippy art extravaganza being moved to the desert in 1990 following a police ban on burning on the beach, nearly 40,000 people attended the Burning Man Festival in 2008. They saw an 80-foot-high man go up in smoke. Held annually the week leading up to the US Labor Day weekend, August 31 to September 7, in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, the 2009 event, Evolution celebrates Darwin's bicentennial and promises to be bigger, brighter and hotter than ever.

Big Day Out - Sydney, Australia

Rock festivals are thick on the ground in the Antipodes over the southern summer months, but the king of them all is the Big Day Out. The event started as a Sydney-only rock music festival in 1992. The first BDO, at the Sydney Showgrounds, was headlined by Nirvana and the Violent Femmes, and featured two dozen seminal Australian bands, including the Cosmic Psychos, You Am I and the Beasts of Bourbon (15 years on only the Beast of Bourbon are still active). This was the beginning of an Australian and New Zealand rock institution that now tours Auckland, the Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth annually in late January and early February.

Hot weather, multiple stages, and a wide variety of popular music styles keep the crowds flocking year after year. The 2009 lineup featured Neil Young, Arctic Monkeys, TV on the Radio, the Ting Tings and My Morning Jacket.