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Global Calendar: The Top 5 Events In June
Seeking inspiration? With music, art and cultural celebrations, these festivals have it in spades
Luminato Festival
Toronto, Canada
4-22 June 2025
Move over TIFF: for a Toronto festival that covers all the bases, Luminato is it. Part arts and culture event, part food fest and part discussion forum, Luminato takes over the city’s parks, theatres and public spaces for an all-out celebration of creativity across three weeks in summer.
Expect everything from literary readings to culinary workshops, film screenings, visual art installations and performances galore, taking place in venues across Toronto and attracting huge names, many of whom have been known to create original works just for the occasion. The festival frequently hosts world premieres of films, operas, plays, artworks and the like, making it an absolute must for fans of the performing arts. And the icing on the cake: many of the enlightening and entertaining events on offer are entirely free.
Dark Mofo
Hobart, Tasmania
5-21 June 2025
As winter descends upon Hobart, the city’s world-renowned museum for deliciously subversive contemporary art (think lots of sex and death) gears up for the cold-weather version of its flagship MONA FOMA festival: Dark Mofo.
Expect theatre performances, musical sets, light shows, screenings of classic films, an outdoor market, and late-night openings of the MONA museum – all with a slightly twisted smirk. Lose yourself in the Night Mass after-dark playground of music, art and dance. Watch your fears go up in flames at the annual Ogoh-Ogoh Burning. Catch live performances from some of Australia’s most sought-after artists, and join the Winter Feast to get a taste of Tasmania. Feeling cheeky? Bare it all for an early morning winter solstice nude swim, an annual tradition that sees hundreds of visitors strip down and take a dip in the chilly Derwent River.
Tollwood Summer Festival
19 June – 20 July 2025
Munich, Germany
This summer, head to the Bavarian capital for the annual Tollwood Summer Festival, a month-long event that promotes art, culture, music, gastronomy and a strong commitment to humanity and nature.
[Photos: Alexander Scharf]
Lighting up Olympiapark with concerts, activities and performances, Tollwood attracts an incredible roster of international talent across a number of genres, from dance to acrobatics, music to miming. This year’s line-up includes big names like Patti Smith, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Iggy Pop and Ronan Keating. Come for the major (and mostly free) shows, stay for the salsa dancing, arcade games, kids’ programming, and massive marketplace showcasing artworks, handicrafts and delicious dishes from across the globe.
Rainforest World Music Festival
Kuching, Malaysia
20-22 June 2025
In an infinitely cooler twist on the ubiquitous cultural fair concept, world and folk music enthusiasts trek to the jungles of Sarawak for a three-day jamfest featuring performers from across the globe.
Dozens of performers will take the stage throughout the festivities, showcasing soulful vocals and rocking age-old instruments, from lutes and sitars to didgeridoos, with a few electronic-based tunes thrown in. Should you make it to this year’s proceedings, be prepared to feast on kolo mee (sautéed wild fern), check out workshops for face time with the musicians, and browse the craft market full of items handmade by locals. But whatever you do, don’t miss the blowout concert on the festival’s final evening.
Inti Raymi
24 June, 2017
Cusco, Peru
It’s the winter solstice in South America – right about the time when the Incas would have been fervently worshipping the sun god, offering prayer and sacrifice so that the sun’s life-giving light would return. Today, modern Cuzqueños and visitors honour the ancient tradition by reenacting Incan rituals, with actors representing figures from Incan royalty and mythology.
[Photo at left: Nyall & Maryanne/Flickr. At right: Agencia de Noticias ANDES/Wikimedia Commons]
The celebrations begin with a grand procession that marches through the streets, starting at the remains of the sun temple Qorikancha. With music playing, dancers dancing and broom-wielding ladies sweeping away evil spirits, the parade winds its way up to the Sacsayhuamán fortress overlooking the city, where the Sapa Inca (Sun King) delivers a speech and a white llama is (only symbolically) sacrificed to the Mother Earth goddess, before a dance ritual is held around a great bonfire. The tone of the day is celebratory but reverent, with the week prior to the ritual day marked by more lighthearted festivities such as street fairs, concerts and folk dancing.
[Photo at top: Lucia Herrero]
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