In late September the spectacular World Nomad Games comes to İznik in western Turkey, offering the chance to watch traditional nomad sports such as horseback archery, wrestling, and hunting with eagles. Shortly after, Oct. 5–9, mountain bike fans descend on Cairns, Australia, for the latest installment of Crankworx World Tour. After starting as an annual event in Whistler, Canada, the organizers took the show on the road in recent years, allowing people around the world to watch and compete in mountain bike races.

Argentina might be best known for tango and steak, but it also hosts the world’s most famous polo competition, the Argentine Open Polo Championship, welcoming top players to Buenos Aires to play in front of a glamorous crowd in November. Sports fans who want to travel in December can fly to Dubai for the Al Dhafra Festival to watch dromedaries controlled by robotic jockeys compete in races across the desert sands.

If you fancy getting away in the new year, you could find your sporting fix at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne in mid-January, but the National Penny Farthing Championship looks far more interesting. Not only will you travel to the island of Tasmania, off the south coast of mainland Australia, but you’ll also get to watch riders race Victorian-era bicycles with a large front wheel.

In April it’s time for Nakizumo Festival in Tokyo, Japan, in which sumo wrestlers compete to make babies cry; alternatively, catch the end of the European snow season at the Snowbombing sport and music festival in Austria. Then, in July, the Festival of San Fermín, also known as the Running of the Bulls, lets brave — or foolish — members of the public try to avoid the sharp horns of six Spanish fighting bulls on the streets of Pamplona. If audience participation doesn’t appeal, you might prefer Naadam Festival in Mongolia, where people travel from across the country to compete in the traditional sports of horse racing, archery and wrestling.