The Portuguese island of Madeira is well known the world over for its culinary delights especially its fortified Madeira wines which can be had both as an aperitif or as a wrap up to end a meal. This small island along with its neighboring island of Porto Santo is a popular holiday destination as these two islands, are the only inhabited islands in the archipelago which is classified as a Portuguese autonomous region.
The island of Madeira is also well known for the celebration of various festivals which are held all throughout the year in and around its capital city of Funchal. One such festival is the Madeira Flower Festival (Festival da Flor) which is traditionally held every year on a weekend two weeks after Easter. This year Madeira’s famed Flower Festival will be held over the weekend of the 25th and 26th of April and will ensure that the streets of Funchal will be filled with colorful and fragrant blooms. As these flowers are used to adorn creative and artistic displays and floats. Each year the Flower Festival has a central theme and this year, the theme of the festival which celebrates the arrival of spring will be “O Principezinho” (The Little Prince).
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The large American state of Texas enjoys a reputation of being ‘big’ in many ways. Texas which is also known as the Lone Star state is in fact the second biggest state in the US in terms of size and population. Keep this in mind it seems appropriate that one of its biggest cities, San Antonio holds the mother of all festivals in April each year. This grand fest is called the Fiesta San Antonia and it is held every year to celebrate the state’s rich and diverse heritage and culture.
This year Fiesta San Antonio which celebrates its 118th anniversary is to be held over eleven days from the 16th of April to the 26th of April. This grand festival has a jam packed schedule which features more than 108 events all of which will be funded by local non-profit and military organizations who are all members of the Fiesta San Antonio Commission which is the governing body behind this grand cultural extravaganza. It is estimated that nearly 3.5 million people will attend the Fiesta San Antonio this year. read more
If you are a jazz music aficionado and follow global Jazz festivals then you have a brand new Jazz festival to look forward to in the form of the Oxford Jazz Festival which is to be held in the renowned University City of Oxford over the Easter weekend from Thursday, the 9th to Sunday, the 12th of April.
The festival has been created and produced by three Oxford City residents, Max Mason, a local restaurateur who owns the restaurant Big Bang which enthusiastically promotes the locavore movement and is reputed to serve the best ‘bangers and mash’(sausages) in Oxford City, Paul Jeffries, a musician, and Alissa Robinson a freelance web and print designer. The trio conceptualized and created the festival with an eye to encourage tourism to the City of Oxford and the surrounding scenic county of Oxfordshire.
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The natural marvel of the Dead Sea which is also known as the ‘Sea of Salt’ is a body of water which has one of the highest levels of salinity in the world. The Dead Sea is located between Israel and Jordan in a rift valley of the River Jordan. The Sea was so named because no flora or fauna can survive within its waters due to their extremely high levels of salinity. This immensely salty lake has been a well known tourist attraction from times immemorial as the abundant minerals salts found in its waters are believed to have curative properties.
Every year however on the second Friday in the month of April, both professional and amateur runners gather in Jordan’s enchanting capital Amman not to indulge in the various delights of the Dead Sea but to take part in the challenging Dead Sea Ultra Marathon which is an extremely demanding race that is conducted over 52 kilometers in the desert of Southern Jordan. This year this endurance testing race will be conducted on the 10th April from 6.30 am onwards.
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