Festivals, the Europeans love to be festive and the reasons don't much matter.

One of the many things I love about the European people are their many and varied festivals. Celebrated throughout the continent and throughout the year these festivals can be very large,(think Oktoberfest) or less known ones like the one celebrating all things white truffles in Italy. I have visited a few over the years and can tell you that the experience is grand and that there is almost always food, drink, music and a warm and welcoming crowd to celebrate the event.

Most of these festivals will have their own web sites or be listed on a things to do tourist website for the area that you are visiting. We have had the very fortunate timing of arriving in the middle of one of Italys biggest when it stopped for the night in Pharma, an auto race of sorts called the "Mille Maglia" where we saw hundreds of vintage European sports cars racing through the streets. Others we have sought out like the aforementioned Tartufo Festival in Alba near Turin. If you're a chocolate lover you must visit Perugia during that cities annual celebration of chocolate.

Also look for wine festivals both formal and informal in many of the famous wine areas of France and Italy during the wine harvest time. And of course there is Oktoberfest which is decidedly famous for its size and attendance by a large international audience but there is also another very large but more local focused beer festival in Stuttgart called Cannstatter Volksfest which I found to be equal to if not better than Oktoberfest. Enjoy the photos from some the Travelin Bears favorite festivals and let me help you find one to attend during your trip to Europe.

Oktoberfest in Munich:

Chocolate Festival Perugia:

Truffle Festival Alba, Italy:

Stuttgart Beer Festival:

#oktoberfest #cannstattervolksfest #internationalchocolatefestival #albatrufflefair #travelinbear