8 Bizarre Festivals From Around The World You Need To Know About.

People be cray.

1. Lopburi Monkey Banquet Festival

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What do you do when ever-hungry monkeys are the primary source of tourism to your town? In Lopburi, Thailand the answer is to throw them a once-a-year all-you-can-eat buffet bonanza.

2. Tunarama

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Though it was meant to promote Australia’s tuna industry, the festival is mostly known and celebrated for one thing: the tuna toss.

3. Las Fallas

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A Spanish fiesta where the whole of Valencia is literally set ablaze. The 5-day fire festival ends with the destruction of huge paper-maché statues. With the crowds chanting at midnight, all but one of the effigies is burnt – with the favourite surviving in the Fallero Museum for posterity.

4. Songkran

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Every April, to celebrate New Year, the world’s largest water gun fight takes place in Thailand. And no, it’s not just some small isolated village. We’re talking about an entire country drowning itself with water pistols. The fun isn’t limited to water guns – some people prefer to use buckets or even let elephants take part.

5. Konaki Sumo

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For 400 years, in Tokyo, the most fearsome sumo wrestlers have faced-off against each other and… waited to see whose baby cries first.

6. Cheese Rolling at Cooper's Hill

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Every year hundreds of people gather to chase a wheel of cheese down a 295-foot hill in the English countryside. Dating back to a pagan fertility ritual, few years go by without at least one participant ending up in hospital.

7. Swedish Midsummer

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The frog dance is a traditional Swedish dance performed at midsummer around the maypole. Weirdly enough, however, the dance serves to highlight body parts that frogs lack – like ears and tails.

8. Wife-carrying Championship

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One year in Sonkajärvi, Finland, having a race just seemed too… normal. As a result, since 1992, it has played host to the Wife Carrying World Championships – a contest to see who can traverse an obstacle course in the shortest time – all whilst carrying their female teammate.