Where to go for the big parties this year

501 Must See Events
Bounty Books/Octopus/Hachette
RRP $39.95

There are an increasing number of books which are intended to help you in your travels. Books which tell you about the 1000 places you need to see before you die are a bit confusing and make it hard to decide where to travel to. They have a way of making places which seemed boring, dangerous or inhospitable, really interesting places to go and there keep being more of them.

The 501 series which so far cover Must Visit Destinations, Cities, Natural Wonders, Islands, Journeys and Great Days Out in the UK and Ireland, have now come out with 501 Must See Events.

It is a mixture of really important events for the international jetsetter like the Dubai Shopping Festival through to the once in a decade events such as performances of the Passion Play at Oberammergau (on this year).

The book covers a full range of events; sports religious, musical, literary, artistic, cultural and silly.

There are the generally impressive events such as the Bastille Day Parade in Paris, Venice Carnival and the Shandur Polo Tournament high in the Hindu Kush.

Then there are the vaguely dangerous events such as Las Tomatina in Valencia where you can pelt people with new seasons tomatoes or the rather silly English ones such as the Coopers Hill Cheese Rolling competition or the World Bog Snorkelling Championships in Wales.

For the aficionados there is Dublin’s Bloomsday where the city of Joyce's Leopold Bloom is highlighted, Bayreuth’s Wagner Festival or the National Voodoo Day in Benin which is on this weekend (January 10th)

There is there Rio Carnival with its spectacular samba competitions or the Tinku festival in Bolivia where the local have a tradition of hand to hand fighting between men, women and communities. It was originally a way of settling disputes and apparently still ends in the occasional death.

There are the genuine sporting events such as the Great Wall of China Marathon, the Kings Cup Elephant Polo Tournament in Thailand and the Calgary Stampede.

There are some which you need to be fairly dedicated to see such as the Equinox at the Chichen Itza pyramid in Yucatan Peninsula where you can get to see a serpentine shadow which slithers down the side of the structure twice a year March 20 and September 20).

Events such as this highlight one of the books faults in not suggesting how you get to the place or the problems associated with being there.

New Zealand manages to get a stack of entries but it does show us up in the cultural department when compared with a few other countries. Apparently you need to come to NZ to see; Waitangi Day celebrations, the Wellington Sevens, the Te Mutating Kapa Hake Festival, the Marlborough Wine festival, the Lion Red Snapper Classic, the Golden Shears competition, The Queenstown Winter Festival, World of Wearable Art awards, the Jetsprint Championships, New Zealand Cup and Show Week in Christchurch and the Jamis Day-Night Thriller which is the largest mountain-bike endurance event at Taupo.