The article analyzes festivals as an original form of intercultural relations. The authors pay attention to the development of the concept of “festival”, offer the author's typology of modern festivals. Special attention in the article is paid to specialized festivals, the program of which is devoted to ecology and human rights. The authors note the special role of festivals in contemporary intercultural relations and the solution of acute humanitarian problems of our time. The paper also points out the problems of modern festivals research, which reflect the processes of globalization and democratization of modern cultural exchange.