For nearly ten years, the original Frieze Art Fair has been exhibiting and peddling art from 170 international galleries at a fully immersive event in London's Regent's Park, complete with seminars, workshops and specially commissioned projects. Now the organisers are hopping the pond for the very first Frieze Art Fair in New York, setting up camp in Randall's Island Park on the East River and launching Friday, May 4th.

Visitors can expect to see works by some 1,000 leading visual artists, including Ai Weiwei, Charles Atlas and Isa Genzken, as well as take in stimulating debates, panel discussions and lectures. A brand new programme of "sound works" is also debuting, comprised of three audio art pieces created for the fair. If the London version is any indication, this will be an occasion to mingle with talented artists and moneyed collectors and feel a part of the global creative community.

Though it's a relatively sedate month compared to some of the more flamboyant events that have adorned this list over previous months, what May does promise is a few healthy opportunities to soak up local culture and fill your belly with delectable foods.

Want to sample some of the world's finest and rarest whiskeys? Head to Tokyo. Have the itch to put your salsa shoes on? Then Sofia in Bulgaria is your port of call. Looking to charter a yacht this season? Marmaris Yacht Charter Show in Turkey will sort your yachting needs with the added bonus of lively cocktail parties.

Wives murdering husbands, parents abandoning newborn babies and teenagers falling helplessly in love against their family’s wishes. With such arresting, universal themes it is no wonder William Shakespeare – the bard from middle England – has made such an impact all over the world. So confident in his identity, the writer is capable of transporting and transforming himself through time and space with the ability to stay fresh and true.

The British council estimates that over half the world’s school children study the bard’s plays, and Iraq is another far-flung destination where they are oft read. Fusing the country’s rich traditions of poetry, music and ritual with the playwright’s famous text, Baghdad’s Iraqi Theatre Company brings a refreshingly different version of Romeo and Juliet to Shakespeare’s hometown of Stratford.

But they're just one troupe bringing the bard's works to life with a cultural twist. From April 23rd to September 9th in venues all over the UK – including the original Globe Theatre on the south bank of the River Thames – The World Shakespeare Festival will see companies from 35 countries performing Shakespeare's works in 37 languages. These include Henry IV, Part Two in Argentine Spanish, Antony and Cleopatra in Turkish and Coriolanus in Japanese.