FESTIVALS IN TURKEY
Istanbul is the capital of country’s festivals, with events dedicated to a wide variety of musical styles, films, and performing arts. Many of the biggest and most popular performances are put on by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV).Counting the annual (April) Istanbul Film Festival, (June) Istanbul Music Festival, and (July) Istanbul Jazz Festival, as well as the half-yearly Istanbul Biennial (to be kept next in September and October 2016).
The summer periods are busy with rock music festivals while film festivals tend to pick up in the fall, winter, and spring.
Festivals in other towns don’t tend to draw as many big names but often feature shows in stunning settings such as the ancient theaters in Antalya (Aspendos Global Opera and Ballet Festival) and Side (Side Culture and Art Festival). Many smaller municipalities and towns have festivals celebrating local crops and arts, such as the Kiraz Festival (Cherry Festival) in Tekirdag each June or the Karagöz Festival held every November in Bursa, where regular shadow puppets are believed to have originated.
To feel Turkey's unique take on wrestling, check out the country’s top oil wrestlers battling for the oil wrestling championship each summer (typically late June or beginning July) just outside Edirne, where the oily sport have been invented by Ottoman soldiers back in 1361. Camel wrestling is also very popular, with competitions held every winter during the animals’ mating season, and originally along the Aegean, with the largest performance in Selçuk, near Ephesus. Watching the massive creatures heave themselves into each other is only part of the attraction—camel wrestling bouts are festive events with picnicking families, roving musicians, and rakı-drinking men cheering their favored animals on from the sidelines.
Another event that’s a big draw for tourists is the Mevlâna Festival, held each December in Konya to point the death of Mevlâna, or Rumi, the 13th-century Sufi saint whose members are often known as whirling dervishes.
The summer periods are busy with rock music festivals while film festivals tend to pick up in the fall, winter, and spring.
Festivals in other towns don’t tend to draw as many big names but often feature shows in stunning settings such as the ancient theaters in Antalya (Aspendos Global Opera and Ballet Festival) and Side (Side Culture and Art Festival). Many smaller municipalities and towns have festivals celebrating local crops and arts, such as the Kiraz Festival (Cherry Festival) in Tekirdag each June or the Karagöz Festival held every November in Bursa, where regular shadow puppets are believed to have originated.
To feel Turkey's unique take on wrestling, check out the country’s top oil wrestlers battling for the oil wrestling championship each summer (typically late June or beginning July) just outside Edirne, where the oily sport have been invented by Ottoman soldiers back in 1361. Camel wrestling is also very popular, with competitions held every winter during the animals’ mating season, and originally along the Aegean, with the largest performance in Selçuk, near Ephesus. Watching the massive creatures heave themselves into each other is only part of the attraction—camel wrestling bouts are festive events with picnicking families, roving musicians, and rakı-drinking men cheering their favored animals on from the sidelines.
Another event that’s a big draw for tourists is the Mevlâna Festival, held each December in Konya to point the death of Mevlâna, or Rumi, the 13th-century Sufi saint whose members are often known as whirling dervishes.