Here is a glimpse of things to do around the world in 2009:
February
2nd: Butterflies in Mexico
One of the great wildlife migrations reaches its climax, with up to 600 million Monarch butterflies gathering in a few pockets of forest in the province of Michoacán. Tree branches have been known to break under the butterflies' weight.
24th: Carnival in Salvador
It's Mardi Gras, and stuff will be shaken and bottles emptied from Rio to New Orleans to Venice. The most full-on event, though, will be at Salvador, in north-east Brazil, which lays claim to the biggest street party on earth: mile after mile of bloco bands, sound systems, outlandish costumes and feverish dancing.
27th: Butterfly in New York
Anyone who saw Anthony Minghella's production of Madama Butterfly will know that he wasn't just a film director; he had a sublime way with opera, too. The production is being revived for the first time since his death, with Patricia Racette reprising the title role at the Metropolitan Opera. Tickets cost from €12 to €300. See www.metoperafamily.org.
March
16th: Las Fallas in Valencia
The citizens of Valencia are a feisty bunch, but they're creative with it. You'll see the results during this festival, which is based around 700 ninots -- huge papier-mâché caricatures of public figures that are lampooned, ridiculed, stuffed with fireworks and ceremonially burnt on March 19. It's shockingly loud so bring your earplugs.
29th: Snowbombing in Austria
Mayrhofen's Snowbombing is the best bash in the Alps; a riotous dance and rock festival at 2,000ft, running until April 4. The bill speaks for itself: Dizzee Rascal headlines and Fatboy Slim plays a set deep in the forest. Don't miss the Arctic disco held in a custom-built igloo high on a glacier. Cool.
April
5th: Semana Santa in Granada
We all know that the Spanish can party, but they have a serene, reflective side, too, and you'll see it here during Holy Week. A succession of solemn but strangely uplifting torchlit processions fills the streets around the Alhambra, with hooded marchers, images of Christ strewn with jewels and flamenco devotional songs.
18th: Rockets in Greece
One for the pyromaniacs. The exact reason that two rival churches in Vrontados, on the island of Chios, bombard each other with rockets every Easter is lost in the mists of time, but they do it with gusto. They'll be firing off about 60,000 between 8pm on April 18 and midday the following day. Thousands turn out to join the party and watch the spectacular salvos.
30th: Go orange in Holland
Queen's Day isn't much known over here, but it's a huge shindig for the locals, especially in Amsterdam, where an all-ages crowd of 700,000 gathers on the evening of April 30 to dance along with the passing party boats that tour the canals.
May
17th: Run wild in San Francisco It's not the most prestigious road race, but the Bay to Breakers -- a city-wide excuse to let loose -- is surely the most fun. How many others have a dedicated troop who run the course in the nude every year? Or centipedes, who run tethered together, or salmon, who wear fishy hats while going the wrong way, against the flow?
25th: Art in Provence
The exhibition Picasso, Cézanne should be one of the art events of the year: around 100 works gathered from public and private collections in France, Britain, America and beyond, will explore the relationship between the two artists. It runs until September 27 at the Musée Granet, in Aix-en-Provence. For more details, check out the website www.museegranet-aixenprovence.fr.
26th: Kids' theatre in Edinburgh
Britain's largest performing arts festival for children, Imaginate, gets underway today. It stages more than a dozen productions. Around 10,000 people came in 2008 for what was often their first taste of live theatre, to see anything from endearingly daft toddler pleasers to challenging murder mysteries for teens. For more details, visit www.imaginate.org.uk
June
1st: Magic in St Petersburg
The White Nights arts festival officially runs from May to July, but June is the best month as the city is at its most romantic, bathed in a surreal twilight into the small hours. While the streets glow, the performers shine. The full schedule will be announced next month, but opera at the Mariinsky Theatre should be a highlight.
21st: Music in Paris
The Fête de la Musique is celebrated across France, but the capital does it best. You can see some big names for free, but it's more in the spirit of the occasion to wander the back streets and hear the locals doing it for themselves -- anything from accordion-fuelled chanson to thrash metal.
27th: Lions in South Africa
The Irish and British Lions, that is. June sees the cream of the home nations take on the world rugby champions on their own turf.
July
3rd: Drama in Finland
If you fancy a refreshingly natural break in the Finnish lakeland -- and it's worth it -- base it around the Savonlinna Opera Festival. Held in the dramatic 15th-century St Olaf's Castle until August 1, it includes works by Puccini, Donizetti and Boito.
3rd: Divas in New Mexico
Our pick of the opera must-sees, however, is a little further afield -- in Santa Fe, to be precise. Against a magical desert backdrop, this year's festival, running until August 29, has the French diva Natalie Dessay singing her first Traviata, and the world premiere of The Letter, based on the Bette Davis film. Visit www.santafeopera.org.
9th: Rocking out in Serbia
So you reckon Oxegen is a bit past it? Look east -- the Exit festival just keeps getting better. Held by the Danube at the Petrovaradin Fortress, Novi Sad, what started as a protest against Slobodan Milosevic is now the liveliest, most engaging bash in Europe, with 190,000 bright-eyed partygoers attending. Tickets cost about €80 from the website www.exitfest.org, where you'll also find details of the camp site and of buses from Belgrade.
August
1st: Sharks in South Africa
All month, hundreds of ragged-tooth sharks congregate at Aliwal Shoal, off the coast of KwaZulu-Natal. They look fearsome -- 9ft of killing machine, with razor-sharp fangs all too evident at the business end -- but they're docile at this time of year, and safe to swim with.
11th: Fireworks in Plymouth
Flash, bang, wallop, what a contest: the British Firework Championships set the evening sky ablaze above the Hoe. Expect pulsating pyrotechnics as professionals battle it out. For details, visit www.britishfireworks.co.uk -- and leave the dog at home.
September
1st: Gorging bears in Canada
All this month, the grizzlies of Knight Inlet, on Canada's Pacific coast, concentrate on one thing: eating. The annual pink salmon run, when thousands of fish battle upriver to reach their spawning grounds, is a wildlife phenomenon in its own right, full of desperate drama -- but when groups of up to a dozen grizzlies are chasing them through the shallows amid showers of spray, it's spellbinding.
5th: Bargains in Lille
The city centre transforms into the biggest flea market in Europe for the Braderie, with literally miles of clothing, bric-a-brac and antique stalls, and upwards of a million visitors combing them. Start early on Saturday for the best finds and haggle for all you're worth.
October
4th: Wine in Lazio
A couple of months ago, something miraculous happened in Marino, in Italy's Alban Hills: water was turned into wine, as householders found the local white pouring from their taps. Closer inspection showed it wasn't divine intervention, but a plumbing error. By the time the 2009 Sagra dell'Uva takes place, the booze should have been redirected to its proper place, the Quattro Mori fountain. It flows free all day -- drink your fill -- and the decorated streets see parades, porchetta stalls, fireworks, dancing and frascati-fuelled revelry.
15th: Arias in Wexford
Our finest feast of music, the Wexford Festival Opera made a bold move by demolishing its old Theatre Royal home, but last year's inaugural concerts at the new opera house were hailed as a triumph. This augurs well for the 2009 event, which will run until November 1. The bill will include a version of The Ghosts of Versailles specially revised by composer John Corigliano. For more details, visit the website www.wexfordopera.com.
30th: Camels in Rajasthan
Hundreds of thousands of tribesmen and animals gather for the camel fair in Pushkar. A vast tented city springs up in the desert for the biggest livestock trading event on the planet -- strong adults usually cost about €800, if you're in the market -- and all manner of jugglers, storytellers, magicians, musicians and mystics come along for the ride. The sheer energy of the event is astounding.
November
9th: History in Berlin
All of eastern Europe will be celebrating the anniversary of the fall of communism, but Berlin -- where the wall fell 20 years ago today -- will do it the biggest (see main picture, p38). The centrepiece will be a huge multimedia show at the Brandenburg Gate, involving hundreds of decorated five-foot stones toppling domino-style, to symbolise... something. Yes, sounds odd to us too, but knowing the way Berliners party, the music, booze and sense of occasion should be unbeatable, whether the dominoes work or not.
December
10th: Dervishes in Turkey
You won't find a greater contrast to the endless ho, ho, ho back home. Devotees descend on Konya for the eight-day Mevlana dervish festival, 100 miles inland from Turkey's Turquoise Coast, to witness hundreds of Sufi mystics perform one of the world's strangest religious ceremonies, whirling themselves into a trance under the city walls. Unlike the tourist shows in Istanbul, this is the real thing.
25th: A Christmas swim
A Christmas Day dip makes a refreshing change from all that stuffing, and if you can't bear to plunge in, one of these events is great fun to watch -- which must be why so many draw increasing crowds. They take place all around the coast, from the Forty Foot in Dublin's Sandycove to Tramore, Galway, Cork and Donegal.
