By Renata Rubnikowicz

Celebrating Rubens in Belgium – and France

From March 6, Belgium will celebrate the work and life of the Flemish painter Rubens. Antwerp , the painter's adopted city, is home to some of his major masterpieces, including his "Descent from the Cross" in Antwerp 's cathedral. However, just as Rubens did not confine himself to painting, becoming an illustrator of books and diplomat, so too must any celebration of his art also extend beyond Ruben's adopted city. In fact, the main Rubens exhibition will be across the French border at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille from March 6 to June 14. The exhibition is part of the events of Lille 's European City of Culture 2004. There will also be a complementary exhibition in nearby Arras , called the "Conflict of Colouring," which will examine the revolutionary aspects of Ruben's work. Visitors wanting to experience the streets where the master trod can take a guided walk through Antwerp and even see the house.

From March 6 to June 13 visitors to the Rubens house can view much of his own art collection, including masterpieces by Titian, Brueghel and Van Dyck. For details, telephone + 32 (0) 70 233 799 or visit the website at www.rubens2004.be

Endure extreme golf on frozen fjord

Rather than bunkers, the professional golfers and celebrities invited to the 2004 Drambuie World Ice Golf Championship will have to face the hazard of losing a ball in the Arctic Sea . This extreme golfing event – scheduled for April 1 to 3 - is being held over a course chosen by polar explorer Pen Hadow in the Advent fjord near the town of Longyearbyen . For those who like maps, that's in the Svalbard archipelago, midway between Norway and the North Pole. As well as trying to avoid hitting one of the 5,000 polar bears who roam through the area, competitors in the two-day, 36-hole, stroke-play competition will no doubt be trying to not to catch frostbite in temperatures which can reach 30 degrees below zero. Unlucky participants may face snow-blindness or even fall into a seal hole as they pitch for white "greens" with orange balls. For more information, contact Svalbard Wildlife Services on info@wildlife.no, telephone +47 79 02 56 60 or look up the tournament on the Drambuie website at: www.drambuie.com

Cherry blossoms captivate Japan

In much of the northern hemisphere, the first signs of spring are appearing, and few places are they welcomed more enthusiastically than in Japan . "I long for cherry blossoms,/ In serene mountains,/ Away from daily life," wrote Basho, the celebrated travelling poet of the 17th century. The month of March will see the whole country engaged - as it has been for centuries at this time of year - in watching for the first petals of the cherry blossom. The blooms arrive in the warmer south first and then slowly spread up the country, reaching Tokyo by the beginning of April. Known as the "sakura" in Japanese, the cherry blossom is the national flower of Japan ; "ohanami," cherry blossom viewing, goes on all over Japan as people take picnics out to sit under the pink and white trees, singing and drinking sake as they enjoy the short-lived spectacle. For details, see: www.seejapan.co.uk

Spring into the season in Budapest

Hungary 's capital, Budapest , rejoices in its Spring Festival between March 19 and April 4 with music, dance and plays throughout the city. Highlights include the Budapest Festival Orchestra, which will perform Beethoven's second, third and fourth piano concertos with soloist and conductor András Schiff on April 2 and 3. The festival will also feature Janácek's "Jenufa" at the Hungarian State Opera House on April 1. Dance is strongly represented with visits by the young dancers of the Nederlands Dans Theater II at Thália Theatre on April 2 and 3 and by the Bordeaux National Opera Ballet Ensemble, who will perform "Picasso and Dance" at the Erkel Theatre on March 30, featuring costumes and sets by the modern master. The Chamber Opera House Madlenianum from Belgrade will celebrate Nijinski with Konstantin Kostjukov portraying the great dancer at Thália Theatre on March 22. The Ernst Museum will feature "Painted Dreams: Tale, Fantasy, Dream in Hungarian Art 1903-1918" from March 19 to April 25. For more information and tickets see the festival website at www.festivalcity.hu

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New and improved St. Patrick's Day in Dublin

From elsewhere in the world it may seem as if America celebrates St Patrick's Day with more dedication than the Irish. However, since 1995, the Irish government has tried to claim back its festival, and it's getting bigger and better every year. This year's festival has been 18 months in the planning. In 2004, Dublin's St Patrick's Festival stretches to six days of music, dance and celebration, beginning on Friday, March 12 and reaching a climax on Wednesday, March 17 (St. Patrick's Day) with a huge parade in the city centre. The parade, which begins at noon from St. Patrick Street (naturally), will include 3,500 performers. At the conclusion of the parade, the festival has planned world's biggest céilí of traditional song and dance. Thousands of dancers, mostly ordinary people and visitors, will crowd the traffic out of the city centre and show how well they've learned the lessons of Riverdance. For more information see the festival website on www.stpatricksday.ie

Set sights for way out food way down under

New Zealand 's Wildfoods Festival started innocently enough in 1990 in the seaside town of Hokitika . Claire Bryant had a cellar full of her home-made gorse-flower wine and rose-petal brew. Why not hold a festival to celebrate the local produce of the west coast of the South Island , she reasoned. But she had not taken the humour of her neighbours into account - or their pioneering spirit. As the festival grew each year, the menu got wilder and wilder, until last year when 22,500 visitors swelled the town's 3,500 population to try some of the wildest foods yet. The offer of a free site for the stallholder introducing the most unique and innovative new food acts as further encouragement. Those wanting a real challenge on March 13, this year's festival day, should make for the Mad Cow Syndicate stall to try bull semen, the Cock-a-Leckie stall for bull's penis, or search out Fiona Brocket's grasshoppers, the Hokitika Hockey Club's huhu grubs, or the Startled Worm Cafe's worm products. For information and tickets see: www.wildfoods.co.nz

Flower festival blooms in Holland

Its name means "kitchen garden", reflecting its original function. Since 1949, however, Keukenhof, a town in the middle of the bulbfields that stretch between Amsterdam and the Hague , has been the site of a permanent, open-air annual flower exhibition. Keukenhof not only has tulips by the field, but also daffodils, hyacinths, and many others on its 32-hectare spread. In a busy year, the park has up to 900,000 visitors, who come to see the spectacle created by the 90 bulb-growers who contribute their flowers to the park. And visitors can buy affordable bulbs to take home - a far cry from the early days of tulip mania in Holland when the some of the rarer tulips were so expensive that a single bulb would be worth more than its weight in gold. Open March 25 to May 20. For more information and tickets see: www.keukenhof.nl

Gay Sydney celebrates Fat Tuesday

Bigger, longer, more notorious – and later than anyone else's Carnival - Australia's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras will culminate on March 6 with its ever-more outrageous parade of gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual culture. The month of celebrations kicks off on February 6 with a party in Hyde Park North. More than 100 events will include wider straight community across the city in an umbrella festival of arts and even sports. The March 6 parade, promises what its promoters call "cutting-edge satire and political comment matched only by the parade's capacity for outrageous celebration." An estimated 600,000 people are expected to line the parade route at sunset to cheer on the throng of "dressed for excess" revelers. For information and party tickets, see www.mardigras.org.au

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