Forget Carnival – the Olympic Torch Relay this week and next is in northeastern Brazil, festa junina country. Across this region throughout the month of June, country towns are taken over by giant street parties that celebrate the rural way of life, the coming of rain and the traditions of St John's Day (24 June).

Although the festivities take place across Brazil, it is in the north east of the country that the festas juninas are at their strongest. The month of June is played out against a backdrop of forró music and the traditional sounds of the accordion and the triangle; children dress up as country bumpkins and paint freckles on their faces; the night is given over to bonfires, folk dancing and fireworks; and merry-making nordestinos indulge in mulled wine, beer and rustic snacks of corn, porridge and cake.

Kids love dressing up in traditional costumers for all the fun of the fair (Photo: Rio 2016/Marcos de Paula)

Many towns here vie with their neighbours to put on the biggest and brightest celebrations in the district. Nowhere is there a more closely contested duel than that between Caruaru in the state of Pernambuco and Campina Grande, two hours to the north in Paraíba. Whereas Caruaru claims the title of the world's best festa junina, Campina Grande says its party is the biggest. The Olympic Torch Relay, which is visiting Caruaru (on 30 May) and Campina Grande (on June 2), is guaranteed a rapturous welcome in both towns as the festive season gets underway.

Caruaru expects to welcome some 1.5 million people in total for the festivities, which this year run from 4 to 29 June. The town's main venue, named after northeastern music legend Luíz Gonzaga, has capacity for 100,000 people and is home to two acclaimed museums dedicated to northeastern culture. Caruaru also builds a giant 16-metre high bonfire which is lit every year on 28 June, the night before St Peter's Day.

Caruaru claims to put on Brazil's best festa junina (Photo: City of Caruaru)

Across the border in the state of Paraíba, the festa junina in Campina Grande will begin on 3 June and last for an entire month. The town expects around two million people to visit for the occasion this year. As well managing the largest of all festas juninas, organisers here also put on the biggest square dancing event in the world, consisting of 12 groups of 60 couples each.

While both towns' festivals are on a scale that matches the Carnivals of Rio de Janeiro and Salvador, the merry-making is not packed into just four or five days and takes place at a more leisurely and family-friendly pace.

As the winter nights draw in, the mulled wine begins to flow and the musicians start to play, it is hard to think of a more welcoming place to be than here in northeastern Brazil in June.

Luiz Gonzaga, accompanied at the end by son Gonzaguinha, sings the original version of the official song of the Olympic Torch Relay – a northeastern classic