NOVEMBER FESTIVALS
Fill your November full of festivals and be back by Thanksgiving
While I wouldn’t recommend going on a sailing trip off the coast of Venezuela this month, November does herald a bunch of alternatives in the way of festivals, all over the world. A whole variety, all designed to make you forget whatever else is going on, anywhere else.
Bravo. Think positive.
Festivals this month include comedy in New York (we all need that), race cars in Macau, camels in India, music all over, pirating in the Cayman Islands (far from Venezuela), and it ends with Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade and banqueting monkeys in Thailand, if you can make it. Feed the animals.
WONDERLUST has your back.
Pushkar Camel Fair
Pushkar, Rajasthan, India
October 30 – November 5, 2025
It’s a camel festival in India for 12 days. All hail the camel.
There’s a camel beauty contest, a camel race, snake charmers, dancers, musicians, fortune tellers, magicians and holy men coming together under the auspicious autumn full moon. The first five days feature trading of goats, horses, cows, sheep and camels – but it’s mainly about camels. In case there was a shred of doubt. Market stalls appear in a surreal dystopian county-fair dusty atmosphere. A wonderful earthy aroma of dung, waves of incense and music hang in the air.
More than 30,000 camels are traded during the fair. I have mixed feelings about this.
If you bathe in Pushkar Lake at dawn you’re supposed to be absolved of your sins. Suchlike, it’s a spiritual experience worth having.
Fly into Kishangarh which is closest, or Jaipur, or Delhi and take a train for eight hours. Indian trains are something else. Worth the trip on their own…
Yi Peng, and Loy Krathong Lantern Festival
Chiang Mai, Thailand
November 5 and 6, 2025
Yi Peng is the festival of lights which overlaps with Loy Krathong, the lantern festival also held on the full moon. They are both magnificent celebrations of light, colorful parades, music, dance, delicious Thai food, lantern making contests, and fireworks displays. You can give thanks and release your fears, negativity or regrets via a candle on a banana leaf sailing down the river (Loy Krathong), or a lantern sent up into the sky (Yi Peng). Buddhists also make a wish.
It’s very easy to get to Chiang Mai, you can fly directly there these days. No more rickety buses with uncomfortable wooden seats on dodgy roads traveling for a day from Bangkok. But there is always that option. I mean, you know, you live once…
Iceland Airwaves
Reykjavik, Iceland
November 6 – 8, 2025
It’s all about grassroots, funk and hip hop, evolving from an aircraft hangar party over 20 years ago and now for in the know festival fans, also hosting an industry conference. It’s not so much about huge headliners but finding a new favorite band or enjoying art or fashion events. Downtown Reykjavik is taken over by industry gunslingers. There are many free off-site shows. Everything’s indoors, and walkable. And it’s Reykjavik.
Acts this year include Retro Stefson, Tunde Adebimpe (of TV on the Radio), JFDR and a collaboration between Mugison and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra.
If you’re lucky enough to see snow in Reykjavik, it’s fairytale magical.
There are hotel, air, transfer and rental car packages available from many U.S. cities on Icelandair through the festival website, including trips to the famed Blue Lagoon around 30 miles away.
New York Comedy Festival
New York City
November 7 – 16, 2025
In its 21st year and with the crackdown on free speech and comedy under the current administration, who as I write is literally bulldozing a part of the White House, this year’s New York Comedy Festival, you know, will be especially juicy.
Over ten days and five boroughs, there are more than 100 shows featuring over 200 comedians from Carnegie Hall to the Beacon Theater, from Town Hall to Madison Square Garden, and smaller venues in between. It’s an immersive experience with stand-up and sketch shows, live podcast tapings, film premieres, panel discussions and much more. The festival supports Stand-Up for Heroes, an organization dedicated to ensuring successful futures for veterans, service members, and their families.
This year features Stephen Colbert, Amy Sedaris, Margaret Cho, Todd Glass, Nurse John, Alex Edelman, Chris Fleming, Pete Holmes, Hannah Berner, Michael Blackson, Trevor Wallace, Ryan Long, Louis C.K., The Basement Yard, and many others too long to list.
Here is the massive schedule (You can also book a hotel through the site)
Pirates Week Festival
George Town, Cayman Islands
November 8 – 22, 2025
Far enough away from the Venezuelan coast and in celebration of your inner pirate you can spend two weeks dressed as one whilst dancing around on white sand beaches, eating fabulous food, and watching a full scale pirate invasion with three full-scale pirate ships. There are parades, fireworks and dancing. Aye aye, me beauty! Or is it me booty…?
Macau Grand Prix
Macau, China
November 13 – 16, 2025
The 72nd edition of the Macau Grand Prix features seven races from November 13th to 16th. A tight twisted course through expanding casinos. You could almost be in Vegas. The big race is on Sunday the 16th. Fly into Hong Kong where Chinese five spice permeates the air, sweet and sour and barbeque. The city of a thousand smells. Listed as one of the safest in the world. There is free transportation to Macau provided by the Hong Kong Government. Or you can helicopter in. Show off!
Hyde Park Winter Wonderland
Hyde Park, London
November 14 – January 1, 2026
In its 18th year now, Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland is one of the best family-friendliest festivals to put you all in the mood. Running for six weeks, and open from 10 am to 10pm daily in the heart of London.
There’s the obligatory mulled wine for the grown ups, and hot chocolate for the kids, or you can drink Bavarian beer in the Bavarian Village, there’s a fun fair with rollercoasters (“Amusement Park” to Americans), an Ice Kingdom with sculptures, live music, circus performances, and magical Christmas markets. Or you can skate on the Winter Wonderland ice rink, the largest open-air rink in the UK.
The Festival International Bach Montreal
Montreal, Canada
November 15 – December 7, 2025
Over 20,000 festival goers come together for maybe A little Air on the G String…? The Montreal Bach Festival celebrates one of history’s greatest composers, Johann Sebastian Bach. Choirs, ensembles, orchestras and solo musicians come from all over the world for this elegant event. Take a wrap, there may be snow, and prepare to be moved — no maybe about that.
The Off-Bach program is held alongside the festival and is free of charge offering everyone an opportunity to experience the music, with pop up performances, conferences and recitals. Running Nov 27 – December 4th, 2025.
Eastside Culture Crawl
Vancouver, Canada
November 20 – 23, 2025
The 29th annual visual arts, design and craft fest showcasing artists, some internationally recognized, on Vancouver’s Eastside, who open their studios for this four-day visual arts feast, showcasing their work at various venues from Columbia Street to the waterfront. Over 500 artisans include potters, weavers, jewelers, painters, photographers, glass blowers, wood workers and furniture makers.
Strawberry Fields
Tocumwal, New South Wales, Australia
November 21 – 23, 2025
Now in its 17th year, approximately 150 miles from Melbourne, out in the bush on indigenous lands next to the Murray River, is an annual celebration of art, multi-genre music, dance and creative expression.
Strawberry Fields is about revitalizing your body and soul, while exploring worldly traditions and culture. From Moroccan Bedouin lounges, indulgent Bush Spa treatments to educational talks, and funky markets, they mean business… Over the three days, there are over 80 artists, including 49 DJ’s and 25 bands. There’s an art gallery, open air installations, or join a yoga session as the sun sets. Swim in the Murray River if you get too hot. And you will.
Purposely kept small so as to keep a sense of community. And Zen. Goa vibes.
Amsterdam Light Festival
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Nov 27 – January 18, 2026
Christmas isn’t a big thing in Amsterdam, but its Light Festival beginning at the end of November and running over several weeks is hugely popular. Now in its fourteenth year and featuring twenty seven light sculptures crafted by internationally recognized artists. The canals are transformed with magical lights. This year has the theme ‘Legacy’. The event’s installations can be experienced via a heated boat on a canal cruise for around 21 euro.
Or rent a bicycle, or simply stroll around on foot. The festival is free of charge.
Thanksgiving Day Parade
New York, USA
Thursday, November 27, 2025
The Thanksgiving Day Macy’s Parade has been a New York tradition since 1924. Making it 101 this year. Taking us over the centennial mark it’s a gloriously soothing event to experience, seeing your favorite gigantic cartoon characters blown up into huge balloons, fighting with the gusts of wind whilst being anchored by brave volunteers.
Top marching bands from across the country are invited to represent their states, along with live musical performances by popular artists, brightly colored floats, dancers and giant balloons.
Insider tip: Get there the night before when they’re blowing up the giant balloons in Central Park…
But if you can’t make it, you can watch it live on TV.
Lopburi Monkey Banquet
Lopburi, Thailand
November 29, 2025
On the last Sunday of November, among the ruins of the Phra Prang Sam Yot Temple in Lopburi, a bountiful banquet awaits the guests of honor, none of whom are human.
Held annually where the Lopburi macaques (monkeys) reside, at the ancient Khmer temple Phra Prang Sam Yot, built in the early 13th century, and a day trip from Bangkok. Around 3,000 macaques feast on a banquet of two tons of fruits, vegetables and rice, which is set out by chefs, villagers and onlookers. The Governor of Lopburi himself presides.
Once the food is out, forget it! The place is overrun with monkeys. Hold on to food at your own peril and hide your sunglasses. Monkeys love them. It’s not just ex-boyfriends.
It costs about $2 to get in, which, helpfully, comes with a stick should you need it.
