Europe in focus
Our list of the top 10 celebrations and latest happenings in the Old World

by Paul French
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Europe loves to throw a party. The calendar is full of events that bring out millions to sip, celebrate and share in the fun of festivals, sporting events and concerts.

On top of the annual attractions that help define a destination - think of Holland's tulips, Edinburgh's Fringe Festival and Prague's busy music season - special events also come along when destinations go all out and ramp up the excitement.

If you're heading to Europe this year but can't decide where to go, we've compiled a list of one-of-a-kind events that are going to be big draws, as well as updated improvements to getting around that will be worth checking out in their own right.

British culture burg
The European Cultural Capital program shines the spotlight on a particular city (or two) and provides an opportunity for the locals to show us what they've got going on. Some years are duds and quickly forgotten while others elevate a burg to newfound respect, as was the case with Glasgow some years ago. For 2008, another once-grim UK city takes its star turn: Liverpool (www.liverpool08.com).

The city will showcase international talent from Turner Prize-winning artists to blockbuster exhibits, and it will also explore its rich musical heritage, including, of course, the Beatles.

The Liverpool Sound concert at Anfield Stadium on June 1 with Paul McCartney will be a highlight. The World Museum hosts The Beat Goes On (July 12 to November 1), paying tribute to bands right up to today's the Coral and the Zutons, which have played a major part in creating the Merseyside sound.

The Tate Liverpool, Britain's largest modern art gallery outside London, exhibits the flamboyant work of Niki de Saint Phalle through May and a retrospective of Gustav Klimt from May 31 to August 31. Festivals, Tall Ships, street performers and fireworks will round out a calendar chock full of events.

Footie Fest
Alpine neighbours Switzerland and Austria join forces in June to host the biggest sporting event on the continent. The month-long mayhem that is UEFA 2008 European Cup Soccer (www.euro2008.uefa.com) kicks off in Basel June 7, and the tension builds through 31 matches to the championship in Vienna on June 29. Tickets are scarce but host cities are well prepared to welcome the overflow.

Sixteen Swiss towns and cities will have a giant video wall, covered seating and freestanding places. Austria will also have video feeds to main city squares.

And it's not all soccer in June. There are festivals to coincide with the footie. Vienna's Schönbrunn Palace will host concerts by the Vienna Philharmonic from June 27 to 28. The Greenfield Festival takes over the Interlaken airfield (June 13 to 15) with rock, hip-hop and alt music acts as well as free camping under the Alpine sky.

Hoist sails for Rouen
Every five years, the inland city of Rouen, France (a little over an hour outside of Paris) bristles with the masts of Tall Ships from around the world. They sail up the River Seine with thousands of onlookers lining the banks. This year the boats will pass under the huge arch of the stunning new Pont Gustave Flaubert, Europe's tallest vertical lifting bridge, before docking along seven kilometres of quays.

The Rouen Armada (www.armada.org) takes place from July 5 to 14 and is a free event. There are concerts, nightly fireworks, parades and the crowning of Miss Armada. The Grand Mess is a whimsical river parade of UFOs (unidentified floating objects).

On Bastille Day, the Tall Ships depart for the 120-kilometre procession to rejoin the sea where the pageantry turns competitive and the big ships set sail in a race for Liverpool. The last edition of the Armada attracted upwards of seven million people.

 
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Comics and the atomic age
Belgians love their comic strips, and the country has produced some of the best-known illustrated characters of all time, including Tintin, created by the artist known as Hergé. With such a passion, it's no surprise Brussels (www.visitbelgium.com) is home to a comic book museum set in a marvelous Art Nouveau structure, a former department store, that lends an amusing respectability to what's been called the 9th art.

This year, the Belgian Centre for Comic Strip Art has something to celebrate: the 50th anniversary of the Smurfs. The blue and white characters, created by Peyo, that stand "three apples tall" will be featured in a major retrospective from June 10 to November 16.

Another 50th anniversary in Brussels is the first post-war World's Fair. Expo 58, Between Utopia & Reality (April to October), looks back at the optimism of the Atomic Age in the last remaining pavilion from that era, the bizarre molecule-shaped Atomium.

Cars, beer and art
Germany is revving up for a birthday bash in Munich (www.cometogermany.com). Turning 850, the relatively youngish Bavarian capital, with its Wi-Fi beer gardens and lederhosen-wearing hipsters, will be in a celebrating mood. The Long Night of Music on May 31 does for music venues what Toronto's and Montreal's Nuit Blanche does for all-night art.

The Old Town Ring Road Festival (July 19 to 20) turns the car-loving centre into a pedestrian party, and the Isar Bridge Festival (August 1 to 3) features art installations, light shows and music centered on this historic bridge around which the city first grew.

There's a new Jewish Museum opening this year, and BMW unveils its refurbished museum this summer next to the new auto showcase, BMW Welt. Car lovers will want to speed down the autobahn to Stuttgart for the opening of the dazzling, cantilevered Porsche Museum, slated to open this fall.
 
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