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Global Calendar: The Top 5 Events In August
Summer is far from over: keep the carefree vibes coming at these open-air festivals and events around the world this month
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Edinburgh, Scotland
1-25 August 2025
Three weeks. Hundreds of venues. Thousands of performances. Millions of spectators. This is the world’s largest festival of the arts, encompassing everything from ballet to improv, opera to street art, theatrical performances to musical concerts – all staged by established artists and emerging talents from across the globe.
[Photos © David Monteith Hodge]
As you might expect from an arts event of this size and scope, the Fringe truly offers something for everyone. You’ve got your street performers – musicians, living statues, portrait artists – taking over the Royal Mile and the Mound Precinct. You’ve got exhibitions – photography, paintings, crafts and other visual arts – hosted in galleries and museums across the city. And you’ve got performances – cabaret, theatre, dance, comedy, musicals, orchestras, children’s shows and more – setting up shop in just about every theatre, concert hall and basement bar in town. You’ll want to take it all in, but you can’t. It’s simply impossible. What you can do is plan your Fringe experience in the EdFringe app, which lets you search for, share and save shows to your own personal planner, as well as find performances near you starting soon – or even get random show suggestions – so you can make the most of this massive celebration of creative freedom.
Medellín Flower Fair
Medellín, Colombia
1-10 August 2025
For a blossom bonanza with Latin flair, look no further than Medellín’s annual flower fair. This ten-day festival is the city’s most iconic and anticipated event of the year – a fete thrown not only in honour of the region’s beautiful flowers, but also its vibrant culture and traditions.
This year, more than 110 free public concerts, activities and side programmes will take place during the fair, including a classic car show, a community dog walk, a bicycle parade, a street art display, food and craft markets, folk music and dance performances, and orchestral events. The central attraction, however, is undoubtedly the Desfile de Silleteros, or Parade of the Silleteros. A now-defunct way of transporting people and goods in the region’s mountains, traditional silletas were big wooden seats with handles that farmers carried on their backs. This eventually became a common method for transporting flowers to market in Medellín, and by the early 20th century, silletero came to refer to someone who sold flowers in the streets. Today, silletas and their carriers make an appearance in this impressive parade – officially recognised as part of the cultural heritage of Colombia – featuring hundreds of men, women and children processing through the streets wearing silletas decorated with stunning, elaborate flower arrangements, as well as scenes and messages made of flowers.
Positivus
Riga, Latvia
8-9 August 2025
At Positivus, the largest popular music and culture event in the Baltics, get ready to jam to the tunes of such varied and creative artists as Rag’n’Bone Man, Milky Chance and Mura Masa – along with a strong presence of regional funk, pop and electro – in one of Europe’s coolest yet quaintest capitals.
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For its 18th edition, the festival will be taking over Lucavsala island in the middle of the Daugava River, south of the Riga city centre, enveloping festival-goers in a natural oasis just a stone’s throw from the restaurants, bars and cultural attractions of the capital. Spend the day bopping away to your favourite musical acts and enjoying the Positivus Bazaar with its food stalls and festival merch. Come nightfall, watch street dance battles at the Red Bull Stage, catch underground artists at the Q-SPACE zone, hop aboard the double-decker dance party bus, or let loose at the silent disco, where two DJs spin simultaneously while dancers toggle between them on their headphones. If you’re here for the day programme, don’t forget to bring the whole clan: youngsters 10 and under attend for free.
Outside Lands
San Francisco, California, USA
8-10 August 2025
Party all day (and all night) by the Golden Gate Bridge? Don’t mind if we do! When great music, world-class food and local art take over Golden Gate Park for three days of eating, drinking and making merry, you won’t want to miss it.
Outside Lands has been rocking San Francisco since 2008, and has become a summer institution for the more than 200,000 people who attend each year. And we don’t blame them. Where else can you take in bold-name acts (like Ludacris, Hozier, Doja Cat, Vampire Weekend and Tyler, The Creator), chow down on quirky San Fran foodie creations (think BBQ oysters, truffle grilled cheese, or porcini mushroom donuts), sample the best from California’s beer-brewers and winemakers, take in pop-up street art installations, and explore a cannabis marketplace featuring the state’s most high-quality dispensaries, complete with music and munchies? Nothing comes to mind, so might as well come here.
PNE Fair
Vancouver, Canada
16 August – 1 September 2025
Technically, PNE stands for ‘Pacific National Exhibition’, but if you ask us, they should change it to ‘Packed with Non-stop Excitement’.
[Photos © Isaac Wray]
Incorporating and expanding upon Vancouver’s Playland, the PNE Fair is a carnival, amusement park and live open-air entertainment venue all rolled into one. Ride the roller coasters, cheer on the street parades, catch a SuperDogs canine magic show, watch the Flying Fools perform death-defying high dives, ooh and aah over incredible creations at the sand sculpture showcase, play a round of your favourite sport at the free Big Backyard zone, take the kids to the discovery farm, and refuel with all kinds of delicious local eats. When the sun goes down, the party heats up over at the Pacific Coliseum, which hosts the fair’s Summer Night Concerts series and its formidable line-up that numbers Lynyrd Skynyrd, Flo Rida, Sean Paul, Meghan Trainor and Counting Crows among its many main acts.
[Photo at top: Edinburgh Fringe © David Monteith Hodge]
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