Every year, thousands of recent college graduates, or similar free-wheeling idealists, descend on Europe to roam from city to city with a Eurail pass and an overstuffed backpack. The paths they trace are well worn, and often overly touristed. Thankfully, the World Party Guide provides a perfect plan for a re-mix of this trip.

There are scores of summer festivals scattered throughout Europe, and it would be impossible to hit them all. I’ll just run down a brief time line here for a trip that would take you to some of the biggest and best parties, and still leave you time to nurse your hang over and visit some of the more traditional stops along the way.

June:

1: Krakow Poland for the Lajkonik Festival. Is a fun way to start things off, reliving a bit of history – celebrating the defeat of the Mongols – then drinking delicious Polish beer. Then you have a chance to explore some of Central Europe, cruising down through Slovakia to Budapest, then back up to Vienna, and finally Prague before catching a cheap flight to Stockholm.

19-21: Stockholm for the midsummer celebrations. The longest days of the year all blend together at the top of the world, and I hear that the party lasts longer than the sunlight. You have a couple of days to recover before hoping on a plane to London and heading out to the biggest music festival in Europe.

24 – 28: Glastonbury for…Glastonbury. It means skipping over to the UK, but this wouldn’t be a summer party tour if you missed the biggest one. You rock for a couple of days and get covered in mud in the process

July:

You’ve got the last couple of days to enjoy England, and then skip on over to Spain.

6 – 11: Encierro Pamplona. The running of the bulls is more than the 4 run. There are massive festivities to be had for a solid week. Though you won’t be able to stay until the end as you’ll have to head west to Nava.

11 – 12: Nava Cider Festival. You’ll arrive on the second day of the cider festival. And yes, this really is a giant party to celebrate alcohol. You’ll have to dash off before the end again, however, as you’ll need the 13 July to travel to Paris for…

14: Bastille Day in Paris. Hopefully you actually arrive on the evening of the 13 for the party the night before. Then on the day itself, you can catch the parade, fireworks, and keep on partying. You’ve got the rest of the week to cut through France and Belgium to get to Essen.

18 – 19: Love Parade in Bochum, just outside of Essen. This massive electronica dance party has gotten to big for one city, so now it moves around Germany. Expect well over a million people to be there dancing non-stop the whole time. Things start to slow down a bit at this point, and you have a week to wind your way through Germany to Kulmbach.

25 – 26: Kulmbach Bierfest. Name says it all: beer festival, and in one of the best places for god beer to boot. The festival is actually 9 days, but I reckon that a couple of days should do the trick.

August:

You then cruise south to Salzburg for the Salzburg Festival, which runs the length of the month. You have a bit of time to cut South through the Alps all the way to Sienna.

16: Il Palio horse race in Sienna. As seen in the Quantum of Solace, this is high stakes horse race in downtown Sienna. Of course there is plenty of partying, booze, and delicious food to be had after the race. You’ve then got a week and a bit to use as you see fit to make it to Buñol, Spain.

27: La Tomatina, the world’s biggest food fight in Buñol. It’ll be nuts. You throw tomatoes at people for an hour, and in the process, get repeatedly pelted yourself. It sounds perfectly fantastic if you ask me.

29 – 30: Notting Hill Carnival is your last party as you prepare to head home. The streets of this otherwise prim and proper neighborhood are packed for the weekend with non-stop dancing, deafening music, delicious Caribbean food, and if you’re luck, you might just see the actual carnival too.

After that, summer’s over and it’s time to return to real life. Note, that it is possible to pack more parties in if you are willing to catch a few more flights and sacrifice downtime/recovery time. For example, in that break between Glastonbury and Pamplona, you could go to the Roskilde Festival in Denmark. This is also likely to be a bit of a pricier trip than your average summer backpacking Europe, but it certainly will be a significantly more adventuresome one. Have fun detoxing and catching up on sleep in September.