Festival Fever
Rough Guides have long been my go-to sources of no-nonsense travel wisdom—and they put out some decent international music compilations as well. So I'm a little surprised it took me so long to stumble across World Party: The Rough Guide to the World's Best Festivals, which came out in December. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Music and food are the best reasons to travel. And the world's most festive celebrations tend to focus on either one or the other, or, as in the case of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, both. (Add the Galway International Oyster Festival; Mendoza, Argentina's wine-centric Vendimia Festival; and Porto, Portugal's fishy Festa do São João to my list.)
As for music, you could construct a lifetime travel itinerary from festivals constructed to celebrate local and international sounds. You may not be up for England's often-muddy Glastonbury Festival ("quite simply the finest music festival in the world") or the all-night debauchery of Ibiza, Spain's closing parties ("These end-of-season events tend to attract an older clubbing crowd, who prefer to hop over to Ibiza for a long weekend [a 'cheeky one' in clubber speak] in the relative sanity of September"). But there's no reason to put off visiting either the Olinda or Recife carnivals ("the Brazilian carnivals that haven't sold out"); the reportedly life-changing Festival in the Desert near Essakane, Mali; Jamaica's vigorously laid-back Reggae Sumfest; or the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music, which I recently attended.
And if you want to start making plans this minute, the book's website will start you on your festive way.