With only 12 months in a year (which for the average employee only grants four weeks of vacation time) how can you utilize your free time to its maximum capacity and enjoy the best things life has to offer? Regardless of age, budget, or individual tastes, we have composed 10 of the ‘must attend’ events.

1. New Orleans Mardi Gras - One of the most sought after International Mardi Gras locations. New Orleans offers locals and tourists alike a week long session of street parties, colorful parades and local festivities, the perfect location to release all your inner inhibitions.

2. Carnival in Salvador, Brazil. Although many believe Rio de Janeiro is the place to soak up a true Brazilian carnival, the pulse of the party actually lies within the heart of Salvador. Tourists and Brazilians alike flock to Salvador for the official week long festivities (an unknown reality is the carnival in Salvador commences New Years Eve and is not over until April). Experience the Bahian beauty, hospitality, love and overall jest for life in an unforgettable carnival experience.

3. Chinese New Year - Beijing. China, otherwise referred to as Lunar New Year, traditionally commences on the first day of the new lunar cycle each year. The New Year celebrations in Beijing usually last around 3 days, however the weeks preceding the celebrations are also well renowned for partying.

4. Oktoberfest - One of the largest international public parties, Oktoberfest can be found celebrated in various countries throughout the world. The beer drinking festival is held over the last week in September and the first week in October. The most famous location for partaking in this fun filled holiday is in Munich, Germany.

5. New Years Eve - Sydney harbor bridge. The fireworks display held over Sydney Harbour Bridge on New Years Eve never fails to satisfy spectators. Be sure to arrive at a viewing spot early as it tends to get fairly crowded towards the late evening.

6. St Patrick’s Day in Dublin - Whether you are American, English, Australian, regardless of nationality the chances that there is a small percentage of ‘an Irishman’ running through your blood is very high. The Emerald isle is renowned internationally for its hospitality, warm heartedness, its love for the arts, oh and March the 17th, St Patrick’s Day, where young and old come together in unity to celebrate the joyousness related to being a proud Irishman. The Guinness Factory even has imprinted on their walls in Dublin that “everyone is Irish on March 17th”. Dublin holds day long celebrations generally starting with a parade through the city. However, the true Irish are known for celebrating St Patrick’s Day for more than a week long period.

7. The Henley Royal Regatta - This highly regarded regatta attracts the finest rowing enthusiasts from around the globe. Originally held in 1839 it has remained a yearly event (exemption during World War 1 and 2) and guarantees to provide a fun filled experience for participants and spectators alike.

8. The Cannes Film Festival - This international film festival held in France is known as the most important event within the world of the motion picture industry. A trip to Cannes during Film festival season allows for a spectacular tourist experience, from sunbathing to celebrity spotting. The large screens situated upon the beach even allow visitors to watch the up and coming movies being held within the festival.

9. Edinburgh International Festival - One of the largest international arts festivals in the world, the Edinburgh international festival has something to offer everyone, from classical compositions to recent rock and roll stars. The festival runs for a duration of three weeks and usually commences during the middle of August.

10. Tour de France - The most famous bike ride within the world, the Tour de France has propelled names such as Miguel Ángel Indurain Larraya (Big Mig in English) and Lance Armstrong into international stardom. The 23 day bike race takes in some of the most famous sights within France such as ‘The Champs-Élysees’ and the breathtaking Alps. The world hosts a large array of parties and events to indulge in on a continual basis.

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As we circled the globe looking for the best of jazz, I admit, I was surprised to find a trend fostered by the French language; it seems that most romantic language lends itself to this passionate music. From New Orleans, LA in the United States to Marciac, France, here are the best of the best:

Coming in at, perhaps, the most popular and best known is the New Orleans Jazz Festival in Louisiana which this past year featured such superstars as The Neville Brothers, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Jimmy Buffett, Tim McGraw, and Santana. The best of the U.S. can arguably be summed up with the New York Jazz (running now) and San Francisco Jazz Festivals, creating a cross-continent tour to keep you entertained. Usually mid-October through November 30, the forthcoming San Francisco Jazz Festival brings the best and brightest to the beautiful Golden Gate setting for epic and intimate concerts at venues throughout the city.

Head north from your U.S. tour to Montreal then south to Havana (as you can’t get there from the U.S.) to finish a North America tour including Canada’s Montreal Jazz Festival starting June 26 at the Place des Arts, and The Havana International Jazz Festival. Design by Cubans and… Canadians (apparently, yes really), first time and returning visitors to the Havana Festival get to know Cuban culture while experiencing the best of Latin and international jazz; be sure to bring some of that Montreal experience with you and you’ll fit right in.

From the U.S. to Europe, the Montreux Jazz Festival kicks off in early July starting you at the foot of the Alps on the banks of Lake Geneva in Switzerland, in a region known for its unique climate and quality of life as “The Swiss Riviera”. Wrap up Europe with time in France at the Jazz in Marciac summer festival which has just tapped Wynton Marsalis with his Septet, Quintet and friend Richard Galliano. From Marciac to Paris for the ongoing Paris Jazz Festival in beautiful Parc Floral.

Not found in a specific place so much as being throughout the Caribbean, the annual Jazz Party at Sea is a Week long Jazz Cruise featuring the likes of the Cyrus Chestnut Trio and Harry Allen Quartet. With 30 top musicians playing in various combinations on different nights, you get to know them personally in intimate settings granting the possibility of joining an amateur jam

I’d be remiss without adding a local favorite; the Fillmore Jazz Festival in San Francisco, CA this Independence Day weekend. Say hello to Brooks for me.

Not enough? Find your local jazz festival with Zvents or any one of our local partners. For more Jazz news and music, give Jazziz a read or visit All about Jazz.

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Google, today, released MyMaps, a feature that allows users to personalize a map with content from 3rd party applications such as local weather, cheap gas prices, photos from Yahoo! Flickr, or videos from YouTube.

While using Maps, we thought you might enjoy seeing things going on in your neighborhood and getting a birds of view of what to do. Add Zvents’ local event search to Google Maps to discover things to do near you or where ever you might be traveling. With Zvents, your map dynamically updates with popular events from our millions of fairs, festivals, activities, concerts, classes, and shows. The application supports our natural language search engine enabling you to define what and/or the time frame of events that should be displayed and by simply dragging the map, you can literally browse your options.

I centered on Seattle, Washington and found a Hairspray Movie Premiere at 5th Avenue Theatre on Monday, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast playing at the Tacoma Musical Playhouse, and a Shakespeare Festival on the water at Luther Burbank Park. Moving the map south though I find Kelly Clarkson playing Rose Garden Arena just down the road in Portland, Oregon. Sure, she’s coming up to Seattle in a couple days anyway but I’m anxious to see her

You might say we’ve put event search on the map.

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With Summer well on its way fairs and festivals from Boston to San Jose, we’ve partnered with Google to release schedules of summer events through Google Calendar.

A wonderful scheduling and organization platform, Google Calendar helps you keep track of life’s important events. With the launch of a new Calendar Gallery yesterday, Google has made available to you various schedules and things to do, in particular, Summer events. Leveraging Zvents’ events in Chicago as well as those available through our partners in San Jose, Detroit, and Orange County California, we have your summer stocked with art fairs, music festivals, celebrations and block parties to keep you entertained.

From the start, we wanted our Google Calendar™ web-based calendar service to take all the work out of “managing your calendar,” and a key piece of that was making it easy to search among public calendars for interesting events – whether it’s a local children’s story hour or the San Antonio Spurs schedule – and add them to your personal calendar with one click.

Beyond the themed event calendars available through Google’s gallery, hundreds of unique events and schedules are already, readily accessible and easily added to your Calendar with the click of a button. Whether you want the summer planned or prefer to pick and choose what’s right for you, Google Calendar will organize your life, and we’ll be here, helping you discover things to do.

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We’ve had our heads down for weeks; prepping what I think is the best Movie experience online. As your search engine for things to do, it was obvious to us that while discovering festivals, concerts, and dance and cooking classes satiates most of your desires, we all take time out to catch a movie at the local Cineplex. So, building on the experience you’ve come to love from Zvents, we rolled out a tremendous cinema database promoting almost a million movie show times at more than 7,000 theaters throughout the United States and Canada.

Theaters are automatically sorted by distance from you, ensuring relevant options as you search for movies by genre, actor, rating, or city. We’ve left no film uncovered, with the latest in action and animation to more selective tastes for fans of the classics. So find your films, become a critic, and Discover Movies.

Oh, by the way, make an event of that night at the movies. We’ve added restaurant recommendations near your favorite theaters leaving you no excuse but dinner and drinks on that date!

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