The Goods
Books
80 Joyce Carol Oates
Games
"t ‘ - 84 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Comics
Video/DVD
85 Dogtown and Z-Boys
Food
90 M&S’s Indian food
GO THERE THIS YEAR
FESTIVALS
Pack your bags now. If you time it right. you could spend the whole of the year going from one arts festival to the next with nary a thought of Celtic Connections. trypTic. the Edinburgh Fringe and the rest. So here to help plan your itinerary are 12 ot the more intriguing global jamborees.
JANUARY
Name The Festival in the Desert
Place Essakane. near Timbuktu. Mali, 6—8 January
Description A celebration of the Culture of the Touareg people of the Sahara desert. featuring musicians from all over Mali. guests including Robert Plant and a 'half—hour interruption for prayers'.
Airfares from £1549
FEBRUARY
Name Fantasporto 2003
Place Porto. Portugal. 21 February—1 March Description The 23rd Opono International Film Festival shows 200 new feature films on three screens. plus music videos and retrospectives. Airfares from £143
MARCH
Name Melbourne Comedy Festival
Place MerOurne. Australia, 27 March—2O April Description Last year 229,467 people paid to see 2.1 16 performances and another 1 13.307 attended free events. Ross Noble picked up a couple of awards. as he does.
Airfares from 2892
APRIL
Name World Stage Festival
Place Toronto, Canada, 3 April—4 May Description Another chance to see theatre babel's Medea. the Traverse's Outlying Islands and Theatre de Quat'Sous' Novecento — all great shows. but the Lithuanian Hamlet by Eimuntas Nekrosius is worth the airfare alone.
Airfares from 9325
MAY
Name Festival de Cannes
Place Cannes. France. 14—25 May
Description Twenty films compete for the Palme (l'()r. pornographers gather on the beach and only the privileged few get into any of the hundreds of movies. but it's a star spotter's paradise.
Airfares from 5‘123
JUNE
Name Venice Biennale
Place Venice. Italy. 15 June-2 November Description The theme of this 50th international art exhibition is “Dreams and Conflicts: The Viewer‘s Dictatorship'. Francis McKee and Kay Pallister are Curating Scotland's contribution, which will return home in the winter.
Airfares from 9143
JULY
Name Just for Laughs
Place Montreal. Canada, 10—20 July
Description Nearly 2000 artists perform before 1 .5 million spectators in this 20-year-old chucklefest ~ the one that all the comics have been to just before the Edinburgh Fringe.
Airfares from $51 1
AUGUST
Name El Festival lnteriiacional de Benicassiiii Place Benicz‘issim. Spain. 8—10 August Description A staggering weekend musical line-up — last year there was everyone from Belle and Sebastian to Radiohead. The headliners play around midnight. but the acts keep coming until 6am.
Airfares from £7105
SEPETMBER
Name Festival Mondial dos Theatres de Marionnettes
Place CharleViIIe Me/iei'es. France. 10 28 September
Description The 13th Worldwide Festival of Puppet Theatres is the big one on the puppet calendar. featuring hundreds of puppeteeis in the official and unofficial programme.
Airfares from $08
OCTOBER
Name WOMEX
Place Essen. Geimany. 23- 26 Octobei Description The wandering World Music Expo is dedicated to world. roots, folk. ethnic. traditional and local music of all kinds. last year it hosted 3:30
B. Krigstein, Daredevil Bullseye
“COO Excellent 0... Recommended Good .0 Flawed
O Poor
Records
83 Erasure, Andy Partridge
TV
86 Steven Spielberg
Trave
92 Romantic Scotland
Theatre babel’s Medea
artists in 40 showcases from places .is fit Burkina Faso. Afghanistan and Sit-mat. Airfares from 5‘1 14
NOVEMBER
Name Chicago Humanities l esti\.;i'
Place Chicago. USA. Start of Ni>\.eii‘.i>-.-' Description A ten-day “28108110? itiias i ' ' together novelists. scholais. Ililltlufuil‘fl. archaeolt)gists. historians. artists. tltflit""‘:"‘- playwrights. theologians. poets anti .ii;'\ 3» ' Airfares from S‘s-if
DECEMBER
Name Edinburgh's l i()§]lll{llltl\.
Place Edinburgh. 20 [)eceiiibc' t .l.ii‘...:". Description l we hands. sticct twain; " snogging in the sheet . can compete.
Airfares from the price of .i liiit; niita (Maik l ishen
ll(>\‘.ilt?lt‘t‘it~i‘ "
THE LIST 79