No one really needs an excuse to travel to the UK. There are so many interesting cities and beautiful places that lists of tourism opportunities practically create themselves. But it still never hurts to single out a few events you might enjoy while you’re travelling, so in this post, we’ll take a look at some of the popular festivals that occur each year throughout the country.

Glastonbury Music Festival

Glastonbury is right up there with Isle Of Wight as the most well-known music festivals in the UK. However, an article giving an overview of the nation’s best musical events made sure to point out that this is the nation’s most popular festival. It’s a five-day party that takes place each June in Somerset and hosts all kinds of fun, artistic attractions. Chief among them, however, is a big-time music lineup that usually includes some of the biggest stars of the day. For instance, the 2017 group included Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Katy Perry, and Ed Sheeran, to name just a few of the highlights.

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England’s Medieval Festival

Particularly to foreigners, the UK is known largely for its rich history, and perhaps most of all for the medieval time period. This period has been fictionalized and romanticized over the years by everything from Hollywood films and video games to costumes and kids’ colouring books. Nevertheless, there’s some truth to the romantic version of the medieval era, and that’s largely what’s celebrated at England’s Medieval Festival – the biggest and best of several events of its kind. It’s not just a look at jousting or archery (though those are both part of the fun). Rather, the festival seeks to give visitors a glimpse into the everyday life and times of the fifteenth century, with craftspeople, traders, reenactment professionals, and visitors making up a large, fun-loving crowd.

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Cheltenham Festival

This is one of many different horse racing competitions that take place in England throughout the year, and in some ways, it’s the first. There are smaller races before the mid-March Cheltenham Festival, but this is the first big, multi-day event that attracts a real crowd. It features four days of racing, occurs at a sprawling facility complete with bars and restaurants, and is scheduled just in time to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day (which as you might imagine can be a pretty big deal in the UK). The main appeal is certainly to fans of horse racing, but to think of this merely as a sporting event is a mistake. The Cheltenham Festival is about as well known for fashion, drinking, and general revelry as it is for its races.

Photo Credit: IB Times UK

Craft Beer Calling

As with music festivals, you can pick any number of beer festivals to enjoy throughout the UK in any given year. To some extent, it depends on what you like, as different occasions will showcase different types of beers, etc. But Craft Beer Calling may be the most fun of the bunch. Boasting some of the world’s leading craft breweries under one roof, in addition to music, a wine cellar, and a “gin palace,” it’s got a little something for everyone. It also happens to take place in Newcastle, which is a fun city to explore. You may even catch a soccer match at St. James’ Park, which is one of the coolest stadiums in the Premier League!

Photo Credit: Eat Drink Seek