I think I should do this every year because it really brings out the culture of where I live.

Every year on the second week of September a 30ft marionette called Zozobra ("old man Gloom") is put up on a giant pole in front of a large park where thousands of people from our city gather to watch them BURN IT TO THE GROUND.

Zozobra represents all the sadness and worry from the previous year and every year you watch your worries and troubles go down in flames. Its lots of fun to go and they always do loads and loads of fireworks inside and outside the puppet. you can hear him moaning and yelling in pain and fear as they burn him. Its always packed and everybody's usually high or drunk but its lots of fun.

This is a video I took of the event. Its low quality and shaky. we arrived at 6:30 and I got home at 11:30. The actual burning takes about 5 minutes. but its the 3-4 hour buildup is totally worth it.
Zozobra has become a kind of infamous event in my city because of the amount of drunkards afterward. Last year I believe someone died because of a drunk brawl and there are always rumors of gangs coming to shoot up the event. Security is Tight, you have to buy a ticket and last year my friend got shoved up against a wall and fully patted down because of the way he was dressed. I saw someone getting patted down this year too. It usually ends well though. You have to have a lot of stamina to go to Zozobra, you wait for hours in crowds and afterward walk for ages after you've been standing for hours. Some say its not worth it.
I say its all up to who your with and other factors.