The festivals and events worth planning a trip around. Dates follow their traditional pattern; confirm the exact days before booking travel.
Mardi Gras is New Orleans' defining season: weeks of parades by the krewes (Rex, Zulu, Bacchus, Endymion), balcony beads, king cake, and the Fat Tuesday climax in the French Quarter.
The parades run on published routes; the big krewes roll the weekend before Fat Tuesday. Book hotels a year ahead for the final weekend.
SXSW is the Austin-born festival of tech, film and music: a week of conferences, showcases and parties that takes over downtown. The music portion brings thousands of bands to every venue in the city.
Badges are expensive; the free day parties on Sixth Street and Rainey are the budget way in.
Coachella is America's defining music festival: two identical weekends in the desert at the Empire Polo Club, with the biggest headliners in music and the famous ferris wheel.
Tickets sell out in minutes; the resale market is the reality. The desert heat is serious even in April.
Burning Man is the week-long desert gathering in the Black Rock Desert: 70,000+ people, giant art installations, and the burning of the Man and the Temple. It runs on radical self-reliance and gifting.
Tickets are allocated by lottery; the dust, heat and cold nights demand serious preparation.
Jazz Fest is the great American music festival: seven days across the Fair Grounds with jazz, brass bands, Cajun, zydeco, gospel and the biggest names in music, plus the food (crawfish Monica, cochon de lait po'boys).
It draws 400,000+ people; the second weekend is the bigger one.
The Macy's parade has run since 1924: the giant character balloons, the floats, the marching bands, from Central Park West to Macy's Herald Square, watched by 3.5 million on the street.
Arrive before 6 a.m. for a curbside spot, or watch the balloon inflation the day before near the Museum of Natural History.
The Balloon Fiesta is the world's largest hot-air-balloon event: 500+ balloons in the mass ascension, the dawn patrol, and the evening balloon glows, all in the desert light of the Rio Grande valley.
The mass ascension at dawn is the essential morning; the glow is the essential evening.
The Kentucky Derby is the most famous two minutes in sports: the Run for the Roses at Churchill Downs, mint juleps, and the hats. It has run every year since 1875.
General admission infield tickets are the affordable way in; the museum is excellent year-round.
The Indy 500 is the greatest spectacle in racing: 200 laps, 500 miles around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's 2.5-mile oval, in front of the largest single-day sporting crowd on earth. It has run since 1911.
Race-day attendance tops 300,000; the pagoda, the yard of bricks at the start-finish line, and the milk in Victory Lane are the rituals.
Sundance is where American independent film gets discovered: founded by Robert Redford in 1978, it premieres the year's breakout films in Park City's mountain theaters.
The town fills with filmmakers and deal-makers; Main Street screenings and the Egyptian Theatre premieres are the heart of it.
The Rose Parade has opened the new year since 1890: flower-covered floats, marching bands and equestrian units rolling down Colorado Boulevard, followed by the Rose Bowl game.
Floats are decorated entirely with flowers, seeds and other plant material; the post-parade float viewing is the insider move.
The Boston Marathon is the world's oldest annual marathon, run since 1897: 42 km from Hopkinton to Boylston Street, with the Newton Hills and Heartbreak Hill breaking runners in the middle.
Entry requires a qualifying time, which makes the field fast and the crowds enormous: a million spectators line the course.
The Masters is golf's most tradition-bound major: one course, Augusta National, every April, with the azaleas in bloom, the green jacket for the winner, and the Champions Dinner.
Tickets are allocated by lottery and badges are among the hardest in sports; the practice rounds are the accessible way in.
Bonnaroo is the great American camping festival: four days on the Farm in Manchester, Tennessee, with 150+ acts across rock, hip-hop, electronic and Americana, plus the famous late-night sets.
The campgrounds are half the experience; the Centeroo main grounds run nearly around the clock.
CMA Fest is country music's biggest fan festival: four days of stadium shows at Nissan Stadium, free riverfront stages, and fan-club parties across downtown Nashville.
It has run since 1972 and now draws 90,000+ fans a day; the nightly stadium shows are the centerpiece.
Austin City Limits is two October weekends at Zilker Park: 100+ acts across eight stages, named for the long-running PBS music show taped in the city.
The festival is the bookend to Austin's festival season; the park setting with the downtown skyline is the signature view.
Comic-Con is pop culture's biggest gathering: 130,000+ fans take over the San Diego Convention Center for comics, film and TV panels, cosplay and the famous Hall H announcements.
Badges sell out within an hour; the Gaslamp Quarter's offsite activations are the free alternative.
Lollapalooza is Chicago's four-day downtown festival: eight stages across Grant Park with the skyline behind, spanning rock, hip-hop, pop and electronic.
It began as Perry Farrell's 1991 touring festival and has been a Chicago fixture since 2005.
The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is the largest motorcycle gathering in the world: half a million riders descend on a Black Hills town of 7,000 for ten days of rides, concerts and bike culture. It has run since 1938.
The rides through the Black Hills (Needles Highway, Iron Mountain Road) are the real draw; Main Street is the spectacle.
Cheyenne Frontier Days calls itself the Daddy of 'em All: the world's largest outdoor rodeo and western celebration, running since 1897, with ten days of rodeo, concerts, parades and pancake breakfasts.
The final Sunday's championship round decides the rodeo season's big titles.
The Iditarod is the last great race on earth: mushers and their dog teams run roughly 1,600 km from Anchorage to Nome across the Alaska Range, the Yukon River and the Bering Sea coast.
The ceremonial start in downtown Anchorage is the spectator event; the restart and the wilderness beyond are the race.
The Merrie Monarch is the Olympics of hula: a week-long festival in Hilo honoring King Kalakaua, the Merrie Monarch, culminating in the hula competition at the Edith Kanakaole Stadium.
It has run since the 1960s and is the most prestigious hula event in the world; tickets sell out far in advance.
The National Cherry Blossom Festival celebrates the 1912 gift of 3,000 cherry trees from Tokyo: three weeks of blossoms around the Tidal Basin, with the parade, the kite festival and the fireworks.
Peak bloom usually lands in late March or early April; the festival dates shift with the forecast each year.
The US Open is tennis's final Grand Slam: two weeks at Flushing Meadows, with night sessions under the lights at Arthur Ashe Stadium, the largest tennis stadium in the world.
The outer courts in the first week are the value play: see top players up close for a fraction of the stadium price.
The New York City Marathon is the world's largest marathon: 50,000+ runners cross the Verrazzano Bridge and run through all five boroughs to Central Park.
Entry is by lottery, qualifying time or charity; the first-avenue crowds in Manhattan are the loudest in running.
The Daytona 500 is NASCAR's biggest race, the Great American Race: 200 laps around the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway tri-oval to open the season.
Speedweeks build up to it for two weeks; the infield and the pre-race concerts are part of the ritual.
Art Basel Miami Beach is America's premier art fair: 250+ galleries at the Convention Center, with the whole of Miami Beach turning into a week of satellite fairs, parties and installations.
Early December is also Miami's best weather; the beach and the fair are the combination.
Summerfest is the world's largest music festival: 800+ acts across three weekends on Milwaukee's lakefront, from headliners at the American Family Insurance Amphitheater to a dozen free stages.
The lakefront setting on Lake Michigan is the draw; the headliner nights sell out.
The Minnesota State Fair is the Great Minnesota Get-Together: twelve days ending on Labor Day, the second-largest state fair in the country, famous for its food-on-a-stick culture.
Two million visitors come for the crop art, the butter sculptures and the new foods list; the Grandstand concerts anchor the nights.
The Iowa State Fair is the classic American state fair: eleven days in Des Moines with the butter cow, 1.2 million visitors, and the Grandstand concert series.
The fairgrounds' food (pork tenderloin sandwiches, corn dogs) and the agricultural competitions are the heart of it.
Spoleto Festival USA is America's premier performing-arts festival: 17 days of opera, theater, dance and music in Charleston's historic venues, running since 1977.
The Dock Street Theatre and the Charleston Gaillard Center host the headline productions; the late-night jazz is the insider pick.
MerleFest is the home of traditional-plus music: four days on the Wilkes Community College campus honoring Doc Watson and his son Merle, spanning bluegrass, folk, country and roots rock.
The nature trail jam sessions and the midnight mandolin traditions are the festival's soul.
The Preakness Stakes is the second jewel of horse racing's Triple Crown: 1 3/16 miles at Pimlico Race Course, run since 1873, with the Black-Eyed Susan as the official drink.
The infield is the party; the grandstand is for the racing purists.
Groundhog Day is America's quirkiest tradition: since 1887, Punxsutawney Phil has emerged at Gobbler's Knob to predict six more weeks of winter or an early spring.
Tens of thousands gather before dawn in the cold; the Inner Circle's top hats and the Proclamation are the ceremony.
The Telluride Bluegrass Festival is bluegrass in a box canyon: four days at 2,660 meters with the San Juan Mountains as the backdrop, running since the 1970s.
The tarp run for front-row spots and the NightGrass late shows are the traditions.
The National Finals Rodeo is the Super Bowl of rodeo: ten December nights at the Thomas & Mack Center deciding the world championships in seven events.
Downtown Las Vegas fills with cowboy Christmas shopping and watch parties; the whole city goes western for the week.
The Maine Lobster Festival is five days of the state's signature crustacean: 20,000+ pounds of lobster served on the Rockland waterfront, with the crate race, the parade and the sea goddess coronation.
The lobster rolls and the waterfront setting are the draw; the whole midcoast turns out.
The Head of the Charles is the world's largest three-day rowing event: 11,000+ athletes racing 4.8 km upstream on the Charles River between Boston and Cambridge.
The bridges (especially the Eliot Bridge turn) are the spectator spots; the fall foliage is the backdrop.
The Newport Folk Festival is where folk history was made: running since 1959 at Fort Adams State Park, it is where Dylan went electric in 1965.
The harbor setting and the unannounced guest sets are the magic; tickets sell out in minutes.
The Detroit Auto Show is North America's premier auto show: the industry's new-model reveals at Huntington Place, in the city that invented the industry.
The public days follow the press reveals; the charity preview gala opens the show.