Bucket hats and bucket lists: the summer of the sesh

By Will Holmes, Travel Digital Editor

The third and final article in our series featuring unique travel activities for you to tick off, we list the top spots for the 'sesh' abroad this summer.

Did you get fed up of revising during exam season? With the only thing truly motivating you being the thought of a phat sesh? Look no further than the third and final part of our series, Bucket Lists and Bucket Hats, as we turn our attention to finding the best locations abroad to match your best Bristol nights and give you that sesh you will never forget.

With 72.8 million outbound passengers holidaying abroad from the UK, destinations are offering more and more quirky and adventurous activities to add to your holiday bucket list. In Part 1 - The Summer of Love, we looked at some alternative romantic destinations and in Part 2 - Adrenaline adventures, we considered some of the most extreme destinations abroad. This final article in the series will offer a bucket list of locations that will truly leave you with the question: go hard or go home?

FULL MOON PARTY, Thailand


Beach, buckets of booze and fiery festivities

The fluorescent paint worn by the 30,000 partygoers at the Full Moon Party has made it a must-go event for lovers of the sesh. Each month, at the completion of a lunar cycle, Haad Rin Beach offers music genres from R&B, to drum & bass and house, with different sets being played all along the beach. The flamboyant colours and music are paired with flaming limbos and rope jumps that add to the intense atmosphere and often result in minor burns when someone has drunk too much of their bucket of randomly mixed alcohols from the locals.

And this party doesn’t stop. The Full Moon Party runs from around 8pm till 11am the following day, so if you can avoid ending up in an ambulance, you might even earn yourself the title of 'Full Moon Warrior' for surviving the entirety of the festivities.

SNOWBOMBING, Austria


Après at the next level

If you enjoyed the Uni ski trip (especially the après-element) then Snowbombing is the way to take that to whole new level. The festival started in 2000 and developed into an indie-rock music festival that combines epic snowboarding and some of the biggest names in recent years (like Darkzy, Andy C, Bicep DJ and Kurupt FM). The wide variety of locations, from an igloo village to on-piste performances, combine with some whacky outfits makes for a five-day festival you will not forget.

DISTORTION, Copenhagen

The free party that dominates the streets of Denmark’s capital

Having started as an illegal party, Distortion has now developed into one of the largest annual festivals in Europe with around 100,000 sesh-seekers attending each day of the festival.

For five days, the sesh dominates the streets of Nørrebo and Vesterbro in Copenhagen with a huge range of music genres. The multitude of small stages that pop up across the two districts during the day disappear at night when the festival centres around Distortion Club. If you make it to the weekend, Distortion morphs into an open-air festival on a hill by the harbour.

EXIT, Serbia


A student protest that became an award-winning festival

This festival was born out of a student protest in Serbia and the Balkans for freedom and democracy in 1998. Following the establishment of the Universities Act (which abolished the autonomy of rebellious Serbian universities that troubled the state) president of the Students Union at Novi Sad decided to party the oppression away.

The festival was subsequently moved from the university campus to the riverside Petrovaradin Fortress, where it has been filled to its capacity of 35,000 ever since. It is a two-time winner at the EU Festive awards, and with its roots in student activism should certainly be on more our festival bucket lists.

FOAM N’ GLOW, United States


Bubble bubble, toil and lots of trouble!

In 2011, foam n’ glow parties burst onto the scene and are now held in over 50 cities across the United States. The idea is that foam adds to the 'ground shaking bass' in electronic dance events, blurring 'the line between fantasy and reality' - according to the Foam N’ Glow official website. Whilst the reality may be more of a soapy mess with flashing strobe lights, hundreds of thousands of people continue the trend of attending Foam n’ Glow parties every year.

Feature image: Field Day, Sydney; Credit: Unsplash / Danny Howe


What got you through the summer exam period? A so-called phat sesh, or something else? Let us know!