Islands do small festivals well. With a finite number of beds, one road in and a ferry timetable to obey, a village fête becomes something closer to a house party, and the visitor who turns up is treated as a guest rather than a customer. The catch is that the same geography makes these events brutally hard to book for. Arrive in Lerwick without a plan in the last week of January and you will be sleeping in a car park. Here is a month-by-month look at island festivals worth building a trip around, with notes on when to book each one.

January to March: the winter fixtures

Shetland's Up Helly Aa takes over Lerwick on the last Tuesday of January. Hundreds of torch-carrying guizers drag a replica longship through the streets and set it alight, and the whole town stays up until dawn. Lerwick's guesthouses are booked out roughly a year ahead, so if you are serious about going, watch for the date announcement and reserve immediately. Otherwise base yourself in a neighbouring area, hire a car, and accept that you will be driving back in the dark.

Sicily wakes up in February. Catania's Festa di Sant'Agata pulls enormous crowds through the baroque streets behind a silver reliquary, and Agrigento's Almond Blossom Festival brings folk groups from across the Mediterranean to a valley in bloom. Carnival lands in the same window on Malta and Gozo, where the village of Nadur runs a looser, stranger affair than the formal parades in Valletta, and in Trinidad and Tobago, whose carnival falls on the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.

Almost every date in this slot moves with Easter or the lunar calendar. Confirm the current year's dates before you book anything non-refundable.

April and May: processions, petals and whisky

Corfu's Orthodox Easter is the island's biggest event. On Holy Saturday morning, residents throw clay pots from their balconies in Corfu Town, a tradition with Venetian roots, while the island's philharmonic bands parade through the streets. Book a room with a balcony view several months out, or accept standing room in serious crowds. Sardinia's Sant'Efisio on 1 May is one of the Mediterranean's longest religious processions, winding out of Cagliari towards Nora with participants in traditional dress from villages across the island.

Sicily's Infiorata di Noto carpets Via Nicolaci in flower-petal pictures, usually over the third weekend of May, with a fresh design each year. Late May brings Fèis Ìle on Islay, a week of distillery open days and Gaelic music, and Guernsey's Liberation Day on 9 May, when the island marks the end of the Occupation with parades and street parties. The Isle of Man TT runs from late May into early June; homestays open their books about a year ahead and fill within days.

June and July: long light, packed calendars

The Faroe Islands' Ólavsøka, held on 28 and 29 July, is Tórshavn's national holiday: boat races in the harbour, a midnight singing session in the square, and the largest gathering of Faroese anywhere. Flights and ferries sell out for that week, so secure transport before you chase accommodation. Elsewhere in these two months:

• Malta: L-Imnarja on 28–29 June at Buskett Gardens, with folk singing, horse racing and rabbit stew, followed by the Malta Jazz Festival in Valletta in July.
• The Azores: the São João festivities on Terceira in late June, and Ponta Delgada's Santo Cristo procession earlier in the spring.
• Scotland: HebCelt in Stornoway in July, a four-day run of Gaelic-language and Celtic music on Lewis.
• Hawaii: the Merrie Monarch hula festival in Hilo, usually around Easter, with tickets allocated by lottery rather than sold on a first-come basis.

August and September: peak everything

The first weekend of August is the busiest on the island calendar. Iceland's Westman Islands stage Þjóðhátíð, a three-day camping festival in a volcanic crater on Heimaey, where the crowd is measured in thousands and the ferry from Landeyjahöfn is the only way in for foot passengers. Read the campsite rules carefully before you commit; this is a festival you attend properly or not at all.

Closer to home, Jersey's Battle of Flowers fills St Helier with floats in August, Cowes Week takes over the Solent in early August, and Bermuda's Cup Match cricket fixture falls across a two-day public holiday in late July or early August, depending on the year. In the Azores, Santa Maria hosts the music festival Maré de Agosto, and Madeira's wine harvest celebrations run through late summer. Tobago's Heritage Festival stretches across late July and August with village-based performances.

September is the quiet reward: warm water, cheaper rooms, and the same islands without the queues.

October to December: short days, big bangs

Valletta's Notte Bianca in early October opens museums and palaces until the small hours, and Sicily's Ottobrata fills Zafferana Etnea's Sundays with honey, mushrooms and chestnuts. Réunion's 20 December commemorations mark the abolition of slavery with processions and music, and Cuba's Las Parrandas de Remedios brings December fireworks, floats and rival neighbourhoods trying to outdo each other.

For a New Year trip, Funchal's fireworks display in Madeira is the headline

Photo: picsbyjameslee / Pixabay