Fifa World Cup, Abba digitally live, Beijing Winter Olympics, Rio Carnival – 2022 events around the world to put on your calendar
- The Beijing Winter Olympics and Fifa World Cup in Qatar head the 2022 sporting calendar, while for spectacle not much beats the Rio Carnival
- Abba avatars take the stage for a string of concerts in London, and autumn means it’s Oktoberfest time, followed by Mongolia’s Golden Eagle Festival
One day, in a future pub quiz, there may be posed the trick question: “In which year did the 2020 Summer Olympics and 2020 World Expo take place?”
The answer, of course, is “2021”, both events – in Tokyo and Dubai, respectively – having been delayed a year by the Covid-19 pandemic, and both having to go ahead with fewer visitors in attendance as a result.
As the new year begins, it remains unclear how much disruption Covid-19 will continue to wreak on the cultural, music and sporting events that would normally attract huge numbers of visitors from around the world.
However, here’s a run-down of some of those that could still draw big crowds.
January 5 – February 28: Although its famed sculptures have been accessible to the public since December 25, the 38th Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival officially opens on January 5.
The world’s largest ice and snow festival attracts between 10 million and 15 million people (some reports claim 18 million) each year. Few, if any, international tourists will be able to reach Harbin, in Heilongjiang, northern China, in the coming weeks given Covid-19 restrictions, but since the vast majority of visitors each year are domestic, the numbers viewing the spectacle should still be impressive.