The Naked Man Festival, by Brian Thacker

It was only a degree above zero and the rain was coming down in sheets, yet here I was about to run around in nothing more than a nappy. I was pretty sure it was going to be the silliest thing I’d ever done.

How many wierd and silly festivals can one man attend in six months? Not a question many would have ever considered, but Brian Thacker did, so he set out to find the answer. In six months he attended as many festivals as time and money would allow.

With a festival of some kind being celebrated somewhere in the world on any given day of the eyar, Thacker decided to focus on Australia, the United States and Japan, with brief forays into Vietnam and Scotland, just for a bit of variety.

Visiting such varied festivals as the Bean Throwing Festival and the Naked Man Festival in Japan and the UFO and Tomato Festivals in the United States, Thacker shares his own humorous insight into the events and recounts his experiences with a good blend of genuine information and healthy imagination.

This is a book for travellers looking for something different, for armchair travellers and for those who just like a dose of something different.

The Naked Man festival (and other excuses to fly around the world), by Brian Thacker
Allen & Unwin, 2004