The summer festival season can make us all a little crazy and not just because of the sunshine or the beers!

You may have heard about the British rolling cheese or the Spanish chucking tomatoes and jumping over babies, but that’s nothing compared to these wacky worldwide summer festivals we’ve discovered…

Mike the Headless Chicken Festival, Colorado

The place to do your best funky chicken. Way back in 1945, farmers still regularly killed their own dinner and Lloyd Olsen was no exception. Mike the Chicken was on the menu one night, but Lloyd was a little off with his axe and ended up leaving Mike’s left ear and brain stem in tact. Turned out that Mike could still eat and crow, even without most of his head and this sent him and Lloyd on a regional tour to show off the world’s first headless bird. No one has ever forgotten Lloyd and Mike and every year their home town of Fruita in Colorado honours them both with an annual festival. Events include a Chicken Dance Contest, a Chicken Recipe Contest and a “Run Like a Headless Chicken” race. Mike would have been proud.

Fiesta of Near Death Experiences, Galicia

To be a participant in this festival, held in Las Nieves near the Portuguese border, you will need to have had a near death experience. And want to talk about it. Participants attend church in a coffin, held up high by their families and then tell their stories to the thousands of people who come to watch. This rather sombre event is then perked up with a display of fireworks and a lively street festival filled with good food and laughter. There is one catch though – if you have no family, apparently you have to carry your own coffin. If anyone has ever been, please let us know how that works!

Dead Goose Day, AKA Antzar Eguna, Spain

Taking place during the San Antolin festival in Spain, Antzar Eguna or Geese’s Day doesn’t really have a traceable history. The basic idea is for contestants to hang onto a dead goose while being dipped into the ocean on a long rope. You have to hold on for as long as possible while being thrashed about, or be the first to decapitate your goose and be declared the festival winner. While Geese Day is no longer common in Spain due to concerns over animal rights, the Basque population, Europe’s oldest culture, still celebrate annually to reflect on the demanding physical tasks that everyday life held for their early ancestors.

Have you been to a festival that is even stranger than these? Please crack open a beer and share…

Image courtesy of Supercon Conventions.