Atlantica - 01.10.2006, Qupperneq 12

World Party
10 AT L A N T I CA
Four continents celebrate. Compiled by Krista Mahr.
International Mariachi and Charreria Festival
Guadalajara, Mexico.
August 30 – September 10, 2006.
You’ve heard the trademark trumpets and
guitars of Mexico’s famous mariachi bands,
and if you haven’t, go to the official home page
of the International Mariachi and Charreria
Festival, mariachi-jalisco.com.mx, and you will.
For a week in the state of Jalisco in southwest
Mexico, mariachi bands from all over the world
(Japanese mariachi was big a few years back,
evidently) flock to the mariachi capital of the
world to parade and party together as sum-
mer fades away. The Mexican rodeo cowboys
– charros – also get a piece of the action.

Phuket Vegetarian Festival
Phuket, Thailand. October 22 - October 30, 2006.
The vegetarian festival on the southern Thai
island of Phuket has a fascinating founding
myth. In the 19th century, the island’s main
town was moved to a new part of the island
where a population of migrant Chinese work-
ers was employed in tin mines. A traveling
opera company came from China to perform
for the miners and, as the area was still cov-
ered in jungle back then, caught a nasty bug
that kept its members bedridden. To cure
themselves, they adopted a vegetarian diet
to honor their own gods, and started to con-
valesce. The Thai were fascinated, and a local
tradition of keeping vegetarian at that time
of year was born to bring luck to the people
of Phuket. Today, the celebration starts when
poles are erected outside temples, inviting
the gods to climb down from heaven and
join their human hosts. A series of parades
and ceremonies – including firewalking and
extreme body piercing – follow, until the gods
bid adieu at the festival’s end. Ten rules accom-
pany the festival, some of which sound easier
to follow then others, and include keeping a
clean body and clean kitchen utensils, wearing
white, behaving “physically and mentally,” no
meat-eating, no sex, and no drinking.
San Sebastian International
Film Festival
San Sebastian, Spain.
September 21-30, 2006.
This year the San Sebastian International Film
festival, a prestigious player on the interna-
tional film festival circuit, honors the theme
of migration with its retrospective theme for
the year: Emigrantes. The festival will show-
case about 30 movies that address the global
movement of human beings from old home-
land to new. Directors Barbet Schroeder and
Ernst Lubitsch will also be honored in the 54th
year of this glamorfest by the sea. Go to www.
sansebastianfestival.com for details on tickets
and events.
Folsom Street Fair
San Francisco, California, USA.
September 24, 2006.
Short but sweet, Folsom Street Fair is a truly
one-of-a-kind day that fits right in with San
Francisco’s free-wheeling, live-and-let-live
reputation as a place where people of all
walks of life come to roost. The fair, held on
the vernal equinox, was founded in 1984,
at a historical moment when San Francisco’s
gay community was reeling from AIDS, not
only as a disease but as a powerful cultural
stigma. Held in the city’s SoMA – or South of
Market – neighborhood, the festival began to
reaffirm the area, including Folsom Street, as a
home for the city’s gay and lesbian and leather
communities, and has grown into what its
organizers claim is the “world’s largest leather
event.” Where to begin to explain the world of
daddies and leather culture? Best to just take a
look at the festival site, www.folsomstreetfair.
com. My personal favorite FSF anecdote? One
year a friend of mine who grew up in San
Francisco bumped into her mother there, who
was volunteering at a booth and gently whip-
ping a man on the back with a cat-o-nine tails.
“Hi, Honey!” her mom said, and went on with
her demonstration. a
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