Here at camp Joobili we believe a good festival or unique event can improve any travel experience, even a beach holiday. So we’ve collected a list of Super Summer Seaside Festivals where you can have sun and fun in one tidy package. Whether it’s admiring classical music on the Amalfi Coast, rocking out in St. Malo, or enjoying seaside theater in Ostend, we’ve got you covered.

What’s that? You still haven’t decided where to go this summer. Just give us a date and we’ll take care of the inspiration.

Summer means its European music festival season.  We’ve all seen local jaws drop when travelers enter a crowded space speaking in voices that … carry. An unspoken rule easily broken in Europe, it seems, is speaking quietly. So European music festivals are the perfect antidote to these hush-hush sneers and glares.

To help you decide where to go when, we’ve created a top 10 list of our favorite European music festivals for July and August where noise *is* approved.

From the famous Glastonbury music festival to the renegade Exit festival in Serbia, to the low-key, free three-week music marathon in Florence, Italy, Europe literally has hundreds of summer music festivals.

Our top 10 list will give you a jump start on how you’ll be screaming with your new European friends in some of Europe’s top cities like Krakow, Poland, Salzberg, Austria and even Reykjavik, Iceland (BTW- Joobili has 11 reasons to unhate Iceland in case you’re still upset about the volcano).

Just remember, your ticket to noise expires once you leave the festival gates. So why not keep the noisemakers going? No one said you can’t do two summer festivals in Europe in one trip, right?

Most Nudity: Las Palmas Carnival

Second only to Rio, and like nothing else this side of the Atlantic, get ready for weeks of non-stop Latin rhythms and drunken revelry. Costumes are intricate works of art fitted to expose maximum skin. The highlight of the carnival is the crowing of the carnival queens, both drag and beauty. The drag queen competition is so competitive judges have to pre-screen contestants prior to the carnival and select only the top competitors. The things these people can do in 30 inch platform shoes is astounding. The carnival ends with the ceremonial Burial of the Sardine at sea.

Most Mysterious: Venice Carnival

An intoxicating cocktail of tradition, spectacle, history and transgression all hidden behind an intricate mask. The masked carnival is code for adopting an alter ego so this is your chance to be the daring, darling, mysterious, sexy, forward hero you are, and strangers will gasp with glee. There’s something going on 24-hours a day during the season, including acrobats, magicians and ballroom dancing.

Best Floats: Putignano Carnival

Towering papier-mache floats up to 20 meters high weighing upwards of 40 tons transform the village of Putignano into carnival central. The carnival has a medieval pedigree, but you’d never guess it by the 21st century political and social themes represented in the floats. From Barack Obama to Madonna, you can never predict who will be immortalized in the over-sized procession.

Most Gay: Sitges Carnival

Gays from the four corners of the world descend on Sitges, sometimes numbering more than 300,000 party-goers. The ensuing parties make the peak months of July and August look boring. The Gay Carnival takes place four days prior to the main Sitges Carnival but gay-themed events abound throughout. From underground parties to “bitch-battling” drag performers, Sitges Carnival is among the wildest parties on earth.

Most Pagan: Buso Winter Carnival

Village men knows as “Buso” dress in sheepskin costumes and frightening horned wooden masks are tasked with scarring away the winter cold. They usually carry large wooden noisemakers or cowbells to assist in their work.  But it’s not just about the cold weather. The Buso and young boys jankele also chase and harass the village women in a tradition with ties to ancient fertility rites.  The celebrations wind down at nightfall with a huge bonfire in the main square.

Most Drunken: Dusseldorf Carnival

A Rhineland specialty, the “fifth season” in Germany transforms Düsseldorf from a buzzing economic epicenter into a beer-soaked fool’s paradise during Carnival. The tradition of Altweiberfastnacht entails women running all over the city on their way they steal sips off  beer from men until they receive a kiss. Afterward, men parade in woman’s clothing during the Tutenlauf. And all this occurs before people get really tipsy during the barhopping and dancing later that night at parties that last well into Fat Tuesday.

Most Undiscovered: Rijeka Carnival

About a century ago, Rijeka hosted Austrian and Hungarian aristocrats, Russian princesses, German barons, earls and countesses from all over Europe. The rebirth of the Rijeka Carnival started in 1982 and the concerts, exhibitions, parties, and performances have grown each year.  Hundreds of floats, thousands of masks and streets crowded with over 100,000 spectators make the Rijeka Carnival one of the biggest (and least known) in Europe.

Most Anti-Catholic: Basel Fasnacht

The festivities start on the Monday after Mardi Gras, leading some to say this is a Protestant tongue-in-cheek snub of the Catholics for doing something as silly as Lent. Basel’s Carnival has also been called the only Protestant carnival in the world. It features three days of dancing, singing, drinking and dressing up like a clown that go on while many in Europe have already renounced chocolate and alcohol for a month over. Keep an eye out for rebellious Catholics who couldn’t bear the depravity of Lent.

Icarus Cup Flight Festival

September 16 – 19, 2009, France, Saint-Hilaire du Touvet. Watch or participate in the oldest “free flight” festival in the world. Everything to do with flying without an engine. From paper airplane contests, flying art exhibits, falconry displays, to speed gliding, parachuting, wingsuits, sail planes, light helicopters, kites, boomerangs, and anything else that will free-fly.

Waiter Race

September 18 – 19, 2009 Belgium, Brussels. Food markets, bands, and wine tasting kiosks. And then the race: apron-wearing waiters run neck in neck with each other with a bottle of Pineau des Charentes liquor and three full glasses hoisted high on a tray. The first to cross the finish line with the drinks intact wins.

National Ploughing Championships

September 21 – 23, 2009 Ireland, Athy. Not just for the ploughing or machinery enthusiast, the Ploughing Championships will have Livestock Exhibitions, Hunt Chase, Fashion Shows, Food Halls, and more. Ireland’s largest outdoor event attracting up to 150,000 people over 3 days.

Great Gorilla Run

September 25 – 25, 2009 England, London. Thousands of people, all dressed up as gorillas and going ape for a day! By taking part you’ll be playing a crucial role in helping save the remaining 700 mountain gorillas left in the wild.

Oktoberfest

September 18 – October 3, 2009 Germany, Munich. Did you really think we would forget the most popular Autumn celebration? Nearly 7 million people will flock in to cure their Autumn blues at the world’s largest public festival.

Matchmaking Festival

September 3 – October 3, 2009 Lisdoonvarna, Ireland. A whole month of parties, events, concerts and more. The purpose? Find a match! Although people nowadays come just for fun.

Tubingen Duck Race

October 9 – 9, 2009 Germany, Tubingen. Seven thousand ducks yellow rubber ducks, almost a third of the city’s population, bob along the tree-lined river. The competition starts at midday and anyone with a rubber duck can participate; and if you left yours at home in the bathtub, ducks can be rented before the race.

Didn’t find the perfect event for you? Let Joobili inspire you!

Aside from a solid line-up of bands, the real reason I want to go to the Leeds Festival is to ‘bottle off’ a performer who sucks. It’s a tradition of the festival to rain the stage with plastic bottles until the performer quits playing. Check out rapper 50 Cent getting bottled off in 2004 at Reading Festival:

50 Cent Bottled Off

Notice how I just swapped Reading Festival and Leeds Festival. At first I had a tough time figuring out the relationship here, but it is actually the same festival happening in two locations. All performers just rotate between the two locations. If you plan on heading to Leeds Festival tomorrow I highly recommend you check out this Survival Guide from the MyLifeInLeeds blog. BTW, it’s worth checking out the rest of the blog as well for insider tips on your stay in Leeds.

Harrods is the world’s  most luxurious shopping destination and not where you would normally come to find a bargin. But Joobili is not about ‘normal’ so we’re here to remind you there is just one week left in the annual Harrods Summer Sale. Every premium fashion brand with an Italian name (and even those without) is discounted up to 50% during this special sale. The opening day of the sale is more anticipated than Christmas for fashonistas looking to grab high fashions at low prices. Store hours are extended during the annual Summer Sale to accomodate the extra traffic. If you’re serious about fashion it’s worth the trip to London. Otherwise, you can still find a limited stock of sale items that can be purchased through Harrods online. Happy shopping!

I not much of what you’d call a “greenthumb” but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a good garden when I see one. So it shouldn’t come as a total shock that this week’s ‘where I’d rather be’ post is Dublin’s Bloom Day. Actually it’s not one day, it’s five days of blooming beauty ending on Monday. Hosted by Bord Bia, Bloom is taking place this year May 28th – June 1st in the Phoenix Park and is set to attract over 50,000 visitors. There will be something for everyone with wonderful gardens, floral displays, farmers market, entertainment stages, family fun zone and so much more. Bloom 2009 will feature more than 20 superb show gardens from Ireland’s top horticultural talent. The show gardens will be complemented by a spectacular floral pavilion featuring the best of Irish plants and flowers. Bloom organizers boast of getting to meet with “Ireland’s top celebrity gardeners”. I’m curious to know what a celebrity gardener is like. I’m not expecting a swarm of paparazzi, but is it the type of person you’d ask an autograph from? Maybe they’ll sign your garden shovel!

More Dublin info

Queens Day competes for the title of biggest street party in Europe. Koninginnedag is 24-hours of partying that started as a celebration hosted by the now deceased former Queen Julianna. Lucky for everyone, her daughter Beatrix kept the festivities alive, and even encourages them by visiting various towns throughout the Netherlands. Amsterdam is the epicenter of the celebrations with every street tightly packed with swelling seas of orange clad revelers. But it’s not just about the color orange since Queen’s Day is also about wearing wild get-up. Stuff so wild it might put you to shame if you weren’t drinking enough beer to care. And that’s not hard since lagers flow freely on Queen’s Day (though not free). It’s easy to find something to wear, because one of the main features of Queens day is Freemarket, a chance for anyone to sell anything anywhere and not pay any taxes or permits. You’ll find plenty of second-hand outfits as well as trinkets and random attic finds (a banana shaped telephone, anyone?). Prices go down with the falling of the sun. Parties continue in open air venues and thumping discos throughout the city. So go arm-in-arm with a pensioner sporting a pair of orange 3D specs. Then lay on a barge scooting under a bridge brimming with teenagers swaying to house music and you’ll be right on track to celebrating this national holiday in style.