Questions & answers
Where does the data come from?
Every festival comes from Wikidata, the free structured database behind Wikipedia — 17,509 festivals with a location, in 167 countries. Descriptions are the opening paragraph of the matching Wikipedia article. Town and region names come from GeoNames, country borders from Natural Earth, the map background from OpenStreetMap via OpenFreeMap. We do not scrape ticket portals: Songkick, Resident Advisor and Eventbrite forbid automated extraction, so they are not a source here.
Why is there no date for most festivals?
Because Wikidata does not record one. Only 1,052 of 17,509 festivals carry a next date. Where we do have something, the page says exactly what kind it is: a day (📅), only a month (🗓️), or a value estimated from the recurrence (≈). We never turn an estimate into a date. Always check with the organiser before you travel.
Where does the month come from if there is no date?
From three places, in this order: an explicit “month of the year” statement; the month of a recorded start or point-in-time; or the month of the last known edition (an annual festival usually keeps its slot). The detail page says which. Dates whose precision is only the year are ignored here — otherwise every one of them would land in January.
The pin is in the middle of the city, not at the festival ground.
Correct, and the page says so. Only about a fifth of the festivals have their own coordinate; for the rest we use the coordinate of the venue or of the town. Each detail page states which of the three it is under “How precise?”.
What does “unclear” mean under status?
That we have no sign of life from the last few years — no recorded edition, no end date. It does not mean the festival takes place, and not that it is gone. Festivals recorded as discontinued are hidden from the map and lists by default; you can switch them back on.
Why are film festivals so over-represented?
Because Wikidata is: 45 % of all festival items are film festivals, while street festivals, funfairs and Christmas markets are barely modelled at all. We do not hide that. Categories with few entries are thin because the source is thin, not because we filtered.
Can I add a festival?
Yes — in Wikidata itself. Everything you add there (dates, coordinates, recurrence, website) shows up here with the next data run, and it helps everyone using Wikidata, not just this site. Each detail page links to “View on Wikidata”.
How much does fiesta.earth cost?
Nothing. No account, no ads, no tracking. Saved festivals live only in your browser. The site is run by schimanski IT in Wobbenbüll, Northern Germany, alongside lido.earth (swim spots) and ludo.earth (playgrounds).