Festival 250 2018

Page 1



& PRESENT

Welcome to the third edition of the Festival 250, the annual project from Festival Insights that ranks the world’s top festivals in terms of size and commercial success. The data used to determine the rankings was sourced and analysed by the business intelligence consultancy CGA during the 2017 season, and was based closely on previously used methodologies to include such metrics as duration of the event, ticket revenue, capacity, and sponsorship estimates. The analysis has also been supplemented by application data from the UK and European Festival Awards. Each entry on the list is accompanied with a short bio, and I hope that you enjoy reading through and gaining a little insight into some of the history and unique characteristics of these events. As always, please feel free to contact us to provide any feedback that you think will help to refine and improve the initiative in future. Cheers, Michael Baker Editor, Festival Insights


250-200

4


250-200

Brighton Pride | 250 Brighton, UK

215 | Wychwood Festival Cheltenham, UK

249 | Bristol Harbour Festival Bristol, UK

Freedom Festival | 232 Hull, UK

Chant du Gros | 214 Le Noirmont, Switzerland

ONBlackheath | 248 London, UK

231 | Eastern Electrics Festival Merton, UK

213 | Worldwide Festival Leysin Leysin, Switzerland

247 | Lovefest Vrnjačka Banja, Serbia

Audioriver | 230 Plock, Poland

Beat-Herder | 212 Sawley, UK

Brussels Summer Festival | 246 Brussels, Belgium

229 | Shambala Northampton, UK

211 | Reload Festival Sulingen, German

245 | Reeperbahn Festival Hamburg, Germany

Das Fest | 228 Karlsruhe, Germany

Down The Rabbit Hole | 210 Ewijk, Netherlands

WECANDANCE | 244 Bruges, Belgium

227 | Lokerse Feesten Lokeren, Belgium

209 | WOMAD Chile Recoleta, Chile

243 | Love International Tisno, Croatia

Beautiful Days | 226 Devon, UK

Positivus Festival | 208 Salacgrīva, Latvia

A Summer’s Tale | 242 Luhmühlen, Germany

225 | Pulp Summer Slam Quezon City, Philippines

207 | Colours of Ostrava Ostrava, Czech Republic

241 | We Love Green Paris, France

Nature One | 224 Kastellaun, Germany

Pitchfork Music Festival | 206 Chicago (IL), USA

Utopia Island Festival | 240 Moosburg, Germany

223 | Solar Weekend Roermond, Netherlands

205 | NXNE Toronto, Canada

239 | NASS Somerset, UK

Ilosaarirock | 222 Joensuu, Finland

Worldwide Festival | 204 Séte, France

MS Dockville Festival | 238 Hamburg, Germany

221 | Lakefest Ledbury, UK

203 | Oppikoppi Limpopo Province, South Africa

237 | Les Ardentes Festival Liège, Belgium

Body & Soul | 220 Westmeath, Ireland

The Levitate Music & Arts Festival | 202 Marshfield (MA), USA

South West Four | 236 London, UK

219 | Falls Festival Various, Australia

201 | Awakenings Amsterdam, Netherlands

235 | La Route du Rock Saint-Malo, France

Love Supreme Jazz Festival | 218 Brighton, UK

Reggae Sun Ska Festival | 200 Bordeaux, France

Dance Valley | 234 Amsterdam, Netherlands

217 | Digital Dreams Toronto, Canada

233 | Main Square Festival Arras, France

Sundown | 216 Norwich, UK


Brighton Pride | 250 Brighton, UK Widely acknowledged as the UK’s most popular Pride event, the Brighton & Hove Pride Festival has steadily grown into the South East’s biggest tourist attraction, with over 400,000 people attending Pride events over the weekend and generating at least £20.5m for the local economy. Taking place on the first weekend of August each year, the event features one the UK’s largest free outdoor events, the LGBTQ+ Community Parade, and a two-day festival in Preston Park that attracts over 80,000 people with live performances, community activations, cabaret and dance tents. Over recent years the main festival stage has hosted some of the world’s biggest global music stars, including Britney Spears, Kylie, Grace Jones, Pet Shop Boys, Years & Years, Clean Bandit, Jessie J, Dua Lipa and Anne Marie. 2019 sees the event celebrate its 29th anniversary.

249 | Bristol Harbour Festival Bristol, UK The largest event to take place within the eponymous city, Bristol Harbour Festival turns 47 in 2019, promising to gather 250,000 people for another free-to-all affair replete with music, maritime history, naval gazing, sports, family activities, spoken word, markets, street food, performance art, and community spirit. With the former passenger steamship, the SS Great Britain as itsa centrepiece, the festival unsurprisingly celebrates Bristol’s harbour – once a vital part of the city’s economy, and still a veritable hive of activity.

6


ONBlackheath | 248 London, UK Launched in 2014 by veteran rock promoter Harvey Goldsmith – in conjunction with the high-end department store John Lewis – OnBlackheath couples an eclectic music line-up with immersive food experiences and family entertainment. Headlined by Jamiroquai and Grace Jones – and with a supporting cast comprised of The Roots, Rag n’ Bone Man, Jacob Collier, Morcheeba, James Morrison, and UB40 – 2019’s edition has achieved perhaps the event’s strongest bill to date. Moreover, attendees can expect a plethora of culinary delights courtesy of London luminaries Street Feast, complemented with an array of live cooking demonstrations from eminent chefs.

247 | Lovefest Vrnjačka Banja, Serbia Soundtracked by only the finest practitioners of house and techno, Lovefest is a three-day, secluded woodland gathering set beside Vrnjačka Banja’s City Park Lake. Complemented with fringe activities that span film screenings and workshops, the festival’s central programme plays out across five areas, dubbed the Fire, Energy, H20, Live, and 99 stages. Lovefest’s 13th edition will return this August, with sets from four-to-the-floor masters Jamie Jones, Seth Troxler, Ben UFO, Richie Hawtin, Joseph Capriati, and Marco Carola.

7


Brussels Summer Festival | 246 Brussels, Belgium This August, the 18th edition of Brussels Summer Festival will take place alongside the opulent Place des Palais and Mont des Arts. Christine and the Queens, Manic Street Preachers, MØ, Tove Lo, Son Lux, Rudimental, and Booba are all set to perform across the festival’s five days and three stages. The Summer Festival’s eclecticism of music and food, as well as its accessibility and inclusivity, have all come to define what is now one of the Belgian capital’s biggest blowouts.

245 | Reeperbahn Festival Hamburg, Germany Situated in the legendary street of the same name – home to The Beatles in their formative years as well as Hamburg’s red light district – Reeperbahn Festival was initially conceived strictly as a music festival, but since 2009 the event has expanded to integrate what is now one of the industry’s principal business conferences. Thanks to its incisive discussions and innovative performances from the headliners of tomorrow, the conference attracts a significant crowd of managers, agents, A&R folk, label heads and more. In 2018, the industry programme and shows welcomed over 4,000 delegates and 40,000 festivalgoers.

8


WeCanDance | 244 Bruges, Belgium WeCanDance is built upon the four cornerstones of music, food, fashion, and philanthropy. The latter two aspects of the festival are guided by the respective edition’s annual theme, which in 2019 is ‘Safari Nomads’. While festivalgoers will be encouraged to deck themselves in belted jackets, leopard print and excessive khaki, the event’s organisers will utilise their platform to raise awareness around the preservation of Africa’s wildlife and reserves. Additionally,a WeCanDance has thrown its support behind African Parks, a non-profit conservation project that assumes direct responsibility for the rehabilitation and long-term management of protected areas. In tandem with this, the festival has recently made adjustments to the event’s ecology – prohibiting the use of straws; encouraging its food partners to use biodegradable materials and serve vegan options; and particularly focusing on the proper disposal of cigarette butts.

243 | Love International Tisno, Croatia Love International is one of a few festivals to have recently taken up residence in Croatia’s famed venue, The Garden. Formerly a holiday camp for the Croatian military, the site sits adjacent to the small fishing village of Tisno, renowned for its Italianate architecture and nearby natural wonders. Following increasingly successful outings over the last three years, Love International will return to The Garden this July for another weeklong wingding, equipped with three coastline stages and an armada of boats for further, seafaring shindigs. What’s more, the festival’s relatively unique claim of having a nightclub onsite – the legendary Barbarellas – means that festivities extend from dusk till dawn. Revellers in search of respite after a night of incessant shape throwing can do so in the blissful shade of the Olive Grove, where acoustic & ambient musicians soundtrack the sunrise with decidedly gentler sets to soothe those frayed nerves.

9


A Summer’s Tale | 242 Luhmühlen, Germany Owned by the European powerhouse promoter FKP Scorpio, A Summer’s Tale is nonetheless governed by distinctly indie sensibilities, this year staging performances from Elbow, Suede, Kate Nash, Maximo Park, Michael Kiwanuka, The Charlatans, and Whitney. Its relatively unique musical programme is just one part of the story, however, as A Summer’s Tale also hosts an artisanal design market, slam poetry, bingo, literary readings, karate for kids, all manner of yoga classes, lectures, drum circles, and workshops centred on everything from Thai massage to woodworking. Diversity and beauty are the operative words in the event’s ethos, imbuing each aspect of itself with equal meaning and empowering its attendees to craft their own narratives within its bucolic surroundings.

241 | We Love Green Paris, France If you’ve ever left a festival and found yourself disgusted with the level of waste we humans tend to leave in our wake, We Love Green is here to alleviate your guilt a little.Only three years in, the festival has already pioneered a number of eco-friendly initiatives: repurposing set pieces, offering site-wide waterfree toilets, implementing strategies for organic site restoration, building an onsite recycling centre, and most impressive of all – powering itself entirely through renewables. Hopefully the success of these policies will serve as proof of concept for other festivals to follow suit. Ideally within the next five to 10 years though, please. We Love Green’s innovations extend beyond the ecological too, with its fantastically curated music programme this year hosting Tame Impala, FKA Twigs, Rosalía, Erykah Badu, Christine and the Queens, Kali Uchis, Yves Tumor, Tierra Whack, and Idles.

10


Utopia Island Festival | 240 Moosburg, Germany The festival formerly known as Havana Nights, which ran from 2003 to 2011, returned two years later at its present aquamarine home of Moosburg, and with a new name: Utopia Island Festival. Named after, and ideologically influenced by, the satirical Thomas Moore novel ‘Utopia’, the festival is specially designed to foster equality, hosting young regional talent adjacent to established artists – giving the new and the old guard the opportunity to learn from, and grow with, each other. Once the electronic scene’s best kept secret, always priding itself on quality over quantity, Utopia has seen organic growth year on year and now hosts 15,000 people a day. Its reputation as a labour of love that champions advancement of the culture over any individual artist remains core to its appeal, and ethics.

239 | NASS Somerset, UK Aside from its music programme – which incorporates everything from drum ‘n’ bass to hip-hop, grime, and techno – NASS most interestingly centres much of its entertainment on high-octane sports. In addition to hosting the International BMX Freestyle Federation World Championships again last year, the event also feaatured more participatory elements such as skateboarding, freestyle mountain biking, and rollerblading. Beyond that, a wider sense of hiphop culture is represented through street art, DJ & MC workshops, and B-boy dancing. This year’s line-up includes Giggs, Rudimental, Cypress Hill, Loyle Carner, Tom Misch, Yxng Bane, Pendulum, Hannah Wants, and Grandmaster Flash.

11


MS Dockville Festival | 238 Hamburg, Germany Established in 2007, MS Dockville – which is not a dockyard simulation game for PC – is in fact a music & arts festival situated on Europe’s largest river island, Hamburg’s district of Wilhelmsburg. The festival largely specialises in artists’ artists – critically acclaimed, culturally relevant, and innovative. Impeccable taste is guaranteed year on year, and 2019’s edition of the festival features Billie Eilish, Jon Hopkins, Yves Tumor, Channel Tres, and Boy Pablo, to name a few.

237 | Les Ardentes Festival Liege, Belgium Les Ardentes’ name is a French plural noun meaning ‘The Burning’, a referral to the nickname of host city Liège, La Ville Ardente (‘The Burning City’). The last couple of years have seen the hip-hop demigod Kendrick Lamar and the preternaturally sensual D’Angelo bring their idiosyncratic brands of Afrocentric protest music to Belgium, along with Brainfeeder boss and LA beat scene progenitor Flying Lotus, as well as Pharrell Williams, Mark Ronson and Cat Power. The upcoming edition emphasises hip-hop more than ever, welcoming Black Eyed Peas, Lil Uzi Vert, Kodak Black, Young Thug, Pusha T, Rich the Kid, and Ski Mask the Slump God.

SW4 | 236 London, UK For 15 years, SW4 has welcomed the world’s very best DJs and live electronic acts to Clapham Common, evolving into one of Europe’s most respected music festivals in the process and achieving sold-out success in 2018. Catering to a wide range of electronic music lovers, SW4 invites world-renowned artists from the realms of house, drum and bass, pop, bass, trance and grime. Nearly 100 acts performed across the two-day event’s five stages last year, and 2019’s edition will mark its most ambitious extravaganza to date, with headliners Martin Garrix, Craig David, Pendulum, Chase & Status, Sigala, Noisia, and Wiley.

12


235 | La Route du Rock Saint-Malo, France La Route du Rock is a biannual music festival that takes place in August and February, entering its 29th year in 2019. The summer edition is held on the idyllic coast of Brittany, both on Saint-Malo’s beach and the historical Fort de Saint-Père. In winter, the festival is hosted within Rennes’ renowned Conservatory, the National Theatre of Brittany, and the Antipode. The festival presents all manner of eccentric artists across the genres of post-rock, neoclassical, dream pop, noise, lo-fi, electronic, experimental, folk, shoegaze, indie, garage rock, psych, and ambient. From Tame Impala and Nils Frahm to Sun Kil Moon and Hot Chip, the forthcoming editions once again overfloweth with both critical darlings and festival favourites.

Dance Valley | 234 Amsterdam, Netherlands The self-professed ‘Woodstock of Dance’, the Netherlands’ Dance Valley made a name for itself in the mid-90s by avoiding a reliance on its host nation’s most prominent sub-genre: trance. By diversifying into styles such as electro, hardstyle, experimental, techno, tech-house and more, it has remained a staple of the Dutch festival calendar and will welcome 50,000 visitors for its 25th anniversary in August.

233 | Main Square Festival Arras, France The first edition of Main Square Festival took place in 2004 in a bid to bolster the region’s industry and tourism, opening with headliner Placebo for 10,000 people, and later being assimilated into Live Nation. The festival takes place in the UNESCO World Heritage Site Citadelle d-Arras, a star shaped fortress constructed in 1668, which might prove useful given its rivalry with Eurockéennes, which takes place on the same date in nearby Belfort. This year the festival will play host to Bring Me The Horizon, John Butler Trio, Maggie Rogers, DJ Snake, Editors, Cypress Hill, Lizzo, and more during its three-day run.

13


Freedom Festival | 232 Hull, UK Hull’s flagship arts festival, Freedom, was founded in 2007 to commemorate anti-slavery pioneer William Wilberforce. The three-day event illuminates the streets with theatre, music, dance, and spoken word, with this year’s core programme including Postcards from the Edge – a project that commemorates National Writing Day with a literary exploration of identity, place, and the human quest for home. Possessing community credentials like few other festivals in the world, Freedom welcomes over 100,000 attendees for its diverse family-friendly programme, which includes renowned international musicians, local talent, comedy, and even some aerial acrobatics.

231 | Eastern Electrics Festival Merton, UK Having grown out of a warehouse party 11 years ago, Eastern Electrics has been something of a nomad since, shuffling from imaginative venue to imaginative venue as a roaming vanguard of house and techno. Its past territories include Hatfield House and Knebworth House, two decadent stately homes in the middle of Hertfordshire, and for 2017 the all-dayer moved to the 20,000-capacity Morden Park, where it has remained since. Running from 11am-10pm, Eastern Electrics spreads outs its high profile acts to minimise clashes, and with a line-up this tightly considered those conflicts of interest are a definite possibility. With all the face cards of club culture royalty in its deck – by way of partnerships with Ministry of Sound, Defected, and Rinse FM – it’s clear Eastern Electrics knows what it’s doing.

14


Audioriver | 230 Plock, Poland Hosted on the beach of the Vistula River, Audioriver is predominantly an electronic festival for those looking to two-step to some house and techno, with pockets of hip-hop, pop, and rock to shake it up a little. The festival was originally situated in Plock’s Old Town market square, but after its move to the beach in 2010, the market site was transformed into the associated Independent Market project – a free trade space for music vendors, event organisers, artists, record labels, musicians, schools, and workshops to set up in promotion of Poland’s music scene. Audioriver’s Independent Market has seen participation from the late, great Red Bull Music Academy in the past, where some of the festival’s headliners conducted a workshop to demonstrate their creative and / or technical processes for attendees.

229 | Shambala Northampton, UK Over its 20-year history, Shambala has been a vanguard for sustainability, introducing numerous trailblazing initiatives such as becoming 100% renewably powered and eliminating all disposable plastics onsite. Going meat and fishfree for the first time in 2016 is arguably its most ambitious decision to date and yet has received huge support, with 77% of attendees voting to keep it that way the following year and into the future. As a compromise for the remainder though, Shambala introduced sustainable meat options, consisting of non-native, invasive species that threaten certain habitats’ biodiversity. All in all, the festival has reduced its carbon footprint by 80% in the last five years. Proving that conscientious organisations needn’t be at odds with financial success, Shambala sold out well in advance last year.

15


Das Fest | 228 Karlsruhe, Germany Das Fest plucks its artists from the regional scene and further afield in equal measure, and since 1991 has hosted a separate stage for theatre, a children’s playground, and a youth-focused hip-hop and techno stage. Interestingly, the festival is split up into free access and premium zones – the Main Stage and Café Stage are the parts you pay for, which play host to the biggest acts the festival has to offer, while the Theatre Stage, DJ Stage, and Field Stage all remain freely available. The festival’s casual and friendly atmosphere, all-ages appeal and consistently spectacular production capture the imagination of over 250,000 visitors over its three-day span every year.

227 | Lokerse Feesten Lokeren, Belgium Lokerse Feesten is organised by the independent non-profit organisation Lokerse Events, and depends almost entirely on its team of around 40 volunteers to operate. The line-up is as broad as they come, although the festival is spread out over 10 days, so while it’s bewildering to see The Chemical Brothers alongside Keane at first, Lokerse Feesten functions more like a festive period of concerts for all tastes, rather than a gated, singular experience. This year, NOFX, Christine and the Queens, Scorpions, Charlotte de Witte, The Offspring and Patti Smith will all perform too.

16


Beautiful Days | 226 Devon, UK Beautiful Days is The Levellers’ family music festival, organised by DMF Music and set within Devon’s Escot Park. It boasts six stages, onsite art, a huge children’s area, comedy, theatre, family camping, licensed real ale bars from Otter Brewery, and a wide array of food and craft stalls. Winner of the Grassroots Festival Award at the UK Festival Awards in 2015, Beautiful Days has no sponsorship or branding and does not advertise. The 16th edition of the festival will host Skunk Anansie, Ziggy Marley, The Levellers, The Stranglers, Sleaford Mods, Songhoy Blues, Ash, and Peter Hook & The Light.

225 | Pulp Summer Slam Quezon City, Philippines Presented by Pulp Live World and Red Horse Beer, Pulp Summer Slam is South East Asia’s biggest and longest running metal festival, hosting its 19th edition in 2019. With a line-up neatly divided between national and international talent, it brings together the best of the Philippines’ metal scene and the best of everywhere else’s. Pulp is the de facto authority for alternative rock and metal in the Philippines; aside from Summer Slam, as one of the region’s most influential promoters they’ve brought Slayer, Mr Big, All Time Low, Mayday Parade, Killswitch Engage, Slash, Aerosmith, Bring Me The Horizon, and Pierce The Veil to the Philippines.

Nature One | 224 Kastellaun, Germany In early August every year, 65,000 visitors a day converge on Pydna, the former NATO missile base near Kastellaun, for Germany’s largest electronic music festival, Nature One. This year marks the silver anniversary of a festival that first began with 34 DJs and live acts, now reaching 350 across its 22 floors. Richie Hawtin, Sven Väth, Rødhåd, Eric Prydz, and Joris Voorn are just some of the acts that will perform over Nature One’s four days and three nights, along with the countless unofficial performances from amateur DJs the festival has developed a reputation for having sprout up on its campsite.

17


223 | Solar Weekend Roermond, Netherlands Hosted on the banks between the Noorderplas and Doevesbeemd lakes, Solar Weekend is a summer event through and through, featuring beachside dance bangers, foam parties, boat parties, water sports, super soakers, hammocks, volleyball, and wrestling. This year’s theme is ‘A Story to Tell’, encouraging festivalgoers to dress up, stage plays, and…well, tell stories. A member of the Extrema festival family, which includes Extrema Outdoor and Extrema Outdoor Belgium, both of which feature on this list, Solar Weekend is in-keeping with the organisation’s environmental ethics of Green Events Nederland’s Green Deal program, which collectively trials and implements sustainability strategies at festivals.

Ilosaarirock | 222 Joensuu, Finland Founded in 1971, Ilosaarirock is a lakeside festival within the Finnish city of Joensuu. The three-day festivities begin with two separately sold club nights on the Friday, followed by a unified two-day programme on the main site. The five stages therein host more than 60 artists, and the event also features film screenings, DJ sets, table tennis and more. Aside from entertainment, Ilosaarirock’s primary areas of focus are food, drinks and relaxation. The organisers pride themselves on the festival’s ecological and ethical considerations, manifest respectively in its extensive use of renewable energy and through the partial donation of its proceeds to local music projects. With over 50,000 annual guests, Ilosaarirock is one of the largest festivals in Finland. The event is organised by Joensuu Pop Musicians’ Association, a non-profit association founded with the express purpose of supporting live music.

18


221 | Lakefest Ledbury, UK Set beside both the majestic Eastnor Castle and, unsurprisingly, a lake, Lakefest invites attendees to explore its historic grounds and enjoy a line-up mostly comprising indie bands from the nineties and noughties. Notably, the festival features plentiful family friendly activities, including but not limited to: a pop-up theatre, pro BMX displays, interactive storytelling, face painting, children’s yoga, and disco dressup. New for 2019 is the Lotus Garden area, offering a range of wellness activities that spans guided meditation, therapists, and yoga workshops.

Body & Soul | 220 Westmeath, Ireland Situated on the 300-acre estate of Ballinlough Castle, amidst idyllic woodland and gardens, Body & Soul cultivates an atmosphere of ambience and immersion, as much about relaxation as excitement. Less a collection of individual stages and more a living art installation of its own, roaming trapeze artists, belly dancers, acrobats and drummers seem to emerge from the festival’s ornate and cosy art trails, each flowing with the last and next. There is no such thing as incidental space at Body & Soul – everything has a creative purpose.

219 | Falls Festival Various, Australia With pins in practically half of Australia’s territories, the four nearsimultaneous events that fall under The Falls’ Music & Arts Festival umbrella – situated in Victoria’s Lorne, Tasmania’s Marion Bay, New South Wales’ Yelgun, and Western Australia’s Fremantle – all play host to the same diverse styles of hip-hop, downtempo, indie rock, disco, and whatever else that’s good. Additionally, the programme incorporates theatre, cabaret, comedy, circus acts, dance activities, and various other art forms. The festival’s forthcoming 26th edition features a characteristically multifaceted line-up, including Toto, Interpol, Juice Wlrd, entirely unrelated acts called Soccer Mommy and Hockey Dad, and Australia-exclusive performances from Cashmere Cat, Dizzee Rascal, First Aid Kit, and Asian hip-hop super collective 88 Rising.

19


Love Supreme Jazz Festival | 218 Brighton, UK Taking its name from John Coltrane’s magnum opus A Love Supreme, the UK based festival is presented by Jazz FM, and was founded in 2013 by Neapolitan Music, Ingenious Media and Serious. Although the event is still young it has already developed a respectable musical legacy, with alumni including the Robert Glasper Experiment, Bryan Ferry, Chic and Nile Rodgers, De La Soul, Jamie Cullum, Snarky Puppy, Gregory Porter, and Laura Mvula. On top of this, the festival features a secret swimming pool, yoga and wellbeing activities, a jazz lounge, and a kids’ area, as well as numerous glamping and VIP options.

217 | Digital Dreams Toronto, Canada Set against the iconic skyline of Toronto at RBC Echo Beach, Bud Light Digital Dreams Music Festival has offered partygoers a sophisticated experience supposedly unlike any other in the Canadian music landscape since 2012. Aside from the music – courtesy of assorted EDM figureheads – there are plenty of activities onsite to get you giddy and giggling, top of the list being giant water boxing, water jousting, and water zorbing, as well as yoga to stop you hyperventilating afterwards, and tons of vendors on-hand to restore the calories too.

Sundown | 216 Norwich, UK Sundown will return to Norfolk Showground in 2019 for its seventh edition, featuring performances from Anne-Marie, Tinie Tempah, MK, Andy C + Tonn Piper, Sonny Fodera, Artwork, Hannah Wants, and Stefflon Don. The new addition of a third stage in 2016 has allowed the festival to collaborate with more renowned underground dance brands, such as Rinse FM, Hospitality, UKF, and Dvine Sounds. The festival also hosts parties exclusively for camping guests, featuring artists such as DJ EZ, Sigala and DJ Target.

20


215 | Wychwood Festival Cheltenham, UK Wychwood is a quintessentially British affair harking back to festivals of Olde – adorned with picture marquees, bunting, circus tents, and carnival rides set beneath the Cotswold’s rolling Prestbury Hills at Cheltenham Racecourse. The art of family entertainment is in identifying the common thread between age groups and devising a concept that speaks to everyone at once. Pixar movies know this, The Simpsons knows this, and given its impressive programme of over 100 workshops for all ages, Wychwood Festival knows this too.

Chant du Gros | 214 Le Noirmont, Switzerland Held at the tail end of the festival season in September, and situated at over 1000 metres elevation atop the Jura plateau in Switzerland’s Franches-Montagne district, you could do with packing your mittens and a small selection of your favourite mammalian or synthetic furs for Chant du Gros. That said, you’ll have quite a bit of company for insulation, as the other 9,999 festivalgoers present alongside you dwarfs the native population of Le Noirmont roughly five and a half times over. Chant du Gros will have braved the elements for 28 years this year, and continues to refine its specialisation of booking multi-genre line-ups as eccentric as its notoriously goofy artwork.

213 | Worldwide Festival Leysin Leysin, Switzerland The second of two festivals conceived by British DJ, record aficionado, one-time video game radio host, part-time real-life BBC radio host and Brownswood label boss Gilles Peterson, Worldwide Festival Leysin lies in direct contrast to its French counterpart’s Mediterranean beach vibes, encircled instead by the lofty vistas of the Swiss Alps. Blessed with a location such as that, any festival would be remiss not to make skiing a core part of their offering, and so Worldwide Leysin does, alongside a cosmopolitan roster of DJs and artists that the brand has become known for championing.

21


Beat Herder | 212 Sawley, UK One weekend in every 52 something very special happens – a migratory flock of festival fanatics descends upon the quaint Lancashire village of Sawley to party on a farm for three days. A kind of performance art spectacle all of their own, the pilgrimage sees visitors turn up in fancy dress (this year’s theme is simply The Letter R) against the backdrop of elaborate handcrafted set pieces and deep woods, to escape the doldrums of late capitalism and rage against the mundane. Founded by six friends, all of them tradesfolk, the team dedicates themselves to tirelessly building each the festival’s structures, arenas, and installations from found materials, with the sole purpose of heightening the experience for their 12,000 esteemed daily guests. Despite constructing the entire place out of previously used objects, there’s nothing derivative about Beat-Herder; they’ve even devised their own systems for guest list and band applications, and outfit the exceptionally cheap bars with their own sound systems. Though steadily increasing its profile year on year, Beat Herder remains a truly individual, uniquely authentic festival experience.

211 | Reload Festival Sulingen, Germany Since 2006, Reload Festival has staked its claim as one of the premier proponents of metal, punk and hard rock, and has expanded to a three-day, 12,000 capacity mainstay of the German festival scene in the process. Returning to Sulingen this August, the forthcoming edition will welcome Sabaton, Bullet For My Valentine, Airbourne, Hatebreed, Of Mice & Men, Clawfinger, Lordi, and While She Sleeps.

22


Down The Rabbit Hole | 210 Ewijk, Netherlands Down The Rabbit Hole’s tagline is “where you are who you are when no one can see you”, which at first seems directly lifted from Alice in Wonderland but is actually original copy, and the kind of aesthetically precise, bamboozling turn of phrase that would make the festival’s spiritual ancestor, the author Lewis Carroll (if that wasn’t clear), proud indeed. That certainty of vision permeates the entire festival. Striving to facilitate unencumbered selfexpression and individuality, Down The Rabbit Hole offers some of the more leftfield festival activities going – guided group yoga and raft building come to mind – while still balancing eccentricity with bona fide Cool acts like Janelle Monae, Thom Yorke, Vampire Weekend, Foals, The Roots, Rosalía, Kamasi Washington, and Skepta.

209 | WOMAD Chile Recoleta, Chile WOMAD Chile stays true to its forebear’s cosmopolitan spirit, compensating for its relatively concise musical offering with a heightened focus on wellness, workshops, and gastronomy. The world music festival is one of 27 international incarnations, with kin in Abu Dhabi, Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, Sardinia, Sicily, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

23


Positivus Festival | 208 Salacgrīva, Latvia Latvia’s Positivus Festival has received impassioned chants of assent from esteemed music publications such as The Quietus and DIY Magazine, with a particular focus on the natural, unspoilt beauty of its surroundings. Taking place in the picturesque coastal town of Salacgrīva, in a serenely atmospheric setting amid stunning woodland and deeply nestled tree clearings, Positivus offers one of the most idyllic escapes a music festival can. Attracting 30,000 visitors over a span of three days and nights, it has become the biggest music event in the Baltic region and was shortlisted for Best Medium-Sized Festival in the 2015 European Festival Awards.

207 | Colours of Ostrava Ostrava, Czech Republic Established in 2002, and named as one of the top 10 music festivals in Europe for 2016 by The Guardian, Colours of Ostrava offers a selection of contemporary and classic performers – from electro to world music, jazz, indie rock, and reggae – guaranteeing festivalgoers a lively long weekend packed with music and culture. Colours of Ostrava now hosts 45,000 people per day on the atmospheric former steel mill & European Cultural Heritage Site Dolní Vítkovice. The festival comprises over 300 events – ranging from bands and DJs to films, open discussions, workshops, theatre, poetry, and art installations.

206 | Pitchfork Music Festival Chicago (IL), USA As you might expect from a festival curated by a longstanding musical trendsetter, Pitchfork Music Festival shifts tickets exclusively on its expertly selected line-ups. Last year’s programme included Tame Impala, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Fleet Foxes, Earl Sweatshirt, Blood Orange, Courtney Barnett, Chaka Khan, Noname, Moses Sumney, Mount Kimbie and a load of other culturally influential acts from recent times.

24


205 | NXNE Toronto, Canada With the likes of Iggy and the Stooges, Flaming Lips, St. Vincent, Run the Jewels, and Mac Demarco in its history, Toronto’s NXNE consistently positions itself as a top-tier curator. Even more impressively, each of those just listed performed in NXNE’s Festival Village – a space within the larger event that’s freely accessible to the public. Forever forward-looking, the past few years have seen NXNE evolve into both a music & gaming festival, featuring three days of highstakes eSports competitions to complement its auditory offerings. Additionally, the festival boasts a comedy tent, activations, buskers, and a series of specially curated indoor shows under its Club Land banner.

Worldwide Festival | 204 Séte, France The first of two festivals conceived by British DJ, record aficionado, one-time video game radio host, part-time real-life BBC radio host and Brownswood label boss Gilles Peterson, Worldwide Festival began as a modest seaside weekender that now resides in a converted shipyard. Peterson’s erudite and intimate knowledge of international music frequently sees him champion independent or underground artists and ensures that the line-ups are impeccably programmed, often spaciously across its seven days, leaving enough time to savour them properly and breathe in between. 2019 will see acts like Daphni, Ben UFO, Four Tet, Moodymann, DJ Krush, Seun Kuti, and Goldie perform at Worldwide.

25


203 | Oppikoppi Limpopo Province, South Africa The thing that stands out most about Oppikoppi (besides how fun that word is to say) is the organisers’ collective sense of humour. In addition to a yearly naked run, the festival’s official website includes a 35-point list of advice that encourages attendees to use both the Force and wet wipes, and chronicles the peculiar forms of suffering organisers have undergone and inflicted for their art, citing that they have “rolled bakkies (pickup trucks), burnt tents, driven over knees, slept in jails, slept outside jails and turned over several stones to make gigs and festivals work.” Having originated in 1994, OppiKoppi’s two-day festivities now comprise several stages, roughly 160 sets of music and entertainment, and 20,000 festivalgoers per day.

The Levitate Music & Arts Festival | 202 Marshfield (MA), USA Conceived out of the eponymous family-owned surf and skate shop just south of Boston, Levitate Music & Arts Festival is a contemporary echo of the great festivals from the 60s and 70s. Grassroots, community, collective experience, and good vibes inspire the entire experience. The pride of Marshfield and now in its sixth year, Levitate has developed to be the biggest community oriented music and arts festival on the east coast of the USA. Spread across two days, it’s open to all ages and designed to nurture a sense of belonging, free expression, and homegrown creativity in the arts, music, and cuisine. Activities include glassblowing, tiedye workshops, skating, and of course, live music.

26


201 | Awakenings Amsterdam, Netherlands One of Europe’s leading outdoor techno festiåvals, Awakenings will host its 19th edition in 2019, featuring eight different stages – including two spacious and impressive open air stages representing both traditional techno and fusion styles. Almost 100 different artists will grace the seminal event over the course of its 48 hours, including Adam Beyer, Charlotte de Witte, Jeff Mills, Nina Kraviz, Sven Väth, Amelie Lens, and Dixon. Awakenings’ worldwide conquest has thus far resulted in hosting stages at festivals in Australia and India and bringing indoor editions to New York, Santiago, Eindhoven, Antwerp, Manchester, and London, with more being added each year.

Reggae Sun Ska Festival | 200 Bordeaux, France For three days at the beginning of August, Reggae Sun Ska will celebrate its 22nd edition. Bringing back its classic, laidback, and sun-soaked atmosphere to the south of France, attendees will be treated to performances from Morcheeba, Dub Inc, Flavia Coelho, Don Carlos, and Ziggy Marley. In keeping with the Jamaican tradition where DJs and MCs load up trucks with a generator, turntables, and huge speakers, the festival will also see appearances from both Sinai and Kaya Natural sound systems. Reggae Sun Ska became one of the French festival scene’s eminent voices on sustainability after launching its Eco Sun Ska initiative with Meduli Nature in 2005. Each year the festival evaluates its environmental impact and accordingly adjusts its approach to transport, local partnerships, waste management and more.

27


199 -150

28


NOS Primavera Sound | 199 Porto, Portugal

Standon Calling | 165 Standon, UK

198 | Beauregard Festival Normandy, France

182 | World Club Dome Frankfurt, Germany

164 | Belladrum Tartan Heart Inverness, UK

Groezrock | 197 Gestel, Belgium

Summerfest | 181 Milwaukee (WI), USA

Best Kept Secret | 163 Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands

196 | Storsjöyran Ostersund, Sweden

180 | Sound City Liverpool, UK

162 | Forecastle Festival Louisville, Kentucky

Skive Festival | 195 Skive, Denmark

WOMAD New Zealand | 179 New Plymouth, New Zealand

Let It Roll | 161 Milovice, Czech Republic

194 | Provinssirock Festival Seinajoki, Finland

178 | Rock for People Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic

160 | Rainforest World Music Festival Sarawak, Malaysia

SunFest | 193 West Palm Beach (FL), USA

Sudoeste | 177 Herdade da Casa Branca, Portugal

192 | Secret Solstice Reykjavik, Iceland

176 | Sea Dance Festival Budva, Montenegro

158 | Kraków Live Kraków, Poland

Life Festival Oswiecim | 191 Oswiecim, Poland

Bearded Theory | 175 Catton, UK

Campus | 157 Debrecen, Hungary

190 | Wish Outdoor Beek en Donk, Netherlands

174 | Boston Calling Boston (MA), USA

156 | Pohoda Festival Trencin, Slovakia

Hip Hop Kemp | 189 Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

Moondance Jam | 173 Walker (MN), USA

Highfield Festival | 155 Grossposna, Germany

188 | Festival Papillons de Nuit Saint-Laurent-de-Cuves, France

172 | MetalDays Tolmin, Slovenia

154 | Melt! Festiva Chemnitz, Germany

We are FSTVL | 187 Upminster, UK

Splash! Festival | 171 Chemnitz, Germany

Bug Jam | 153 Wellingborough, UK

186 | Summerjam Cologne, Germany

170 | Ramblin’ Man Fair Maidstone, UK

152 | SonneMondSterne Saalburg-Ebersdorf, Germany

Rocklahoma | 185 Pryor (OK), USA

Resurrection Fest | 169 Viveiro, Spain

Rewind Scotland | 151 Perth, UK

184 | Cocoon In The Park Leeds, UK

168 | Bospop Weert, Netherlands

150 | Summer Breeze Dinkelsbuhl, Germany

Mysteryland | 183 Amsterdam, Netherlands

The Big Feastival | 167 Chipping Norton, UK 166 | Airbeat One Neustadt-Glewe, Germany

Cavendish Beach Music Festival | 159 Cavendish, Canada


NOS Primavera Sound | 199 Porto, Portugal NOS Primavera Sound is the Portuguese transplant of Barcelona’s original Primavera Sound, and will celebrate its eighth birthday in June. The genetic imprint of its big sister event is very much present in the Porto based festival, borrowing many of the Barcelona line-up’s main fixtures and supplementing them with local talent. NOS Primavera Sound has become a vital part of Portugal’s rapidly developing festival scene, and its presence in Porto has further sealed the town’s status as a vibrant tourist destination. This year’s lineup features Solange, Erykah Badu, Rosalía, J Balvin, Interpol, Nina Kraviz, and Guided by Voices.

198 | Beauregard Festival Normandy, France Beauregard Festival is one of France’s biggest rock, pop and indie events. Deriving its name from the incredible 19th century château whose grounds it stands on, and even naming the fictional founder of the festival after it, Beauregard has amassed a huge, loyal fanbase since debuting in 2009. Having begun with 20,000 visitors back then, this year will see 65,000 music fans attend the 10th edition of the festival over its three-day proceedings. Performances will include Idles, John Butler Trio, Snow Patrol, Limp Bizkit, Cat Power, Tears For Fears, Mogwai, and Mac Demarco.

30


Groezrock | 197 Gestel, Belgium Groezrock, translated to Grassrock (not to be confused with stoner rock) is one of the world’s most revered punk, hardcore and metal festivals, having grown from a 400-capacity oneoff event to an annual, two-day and 32,000-strong fixture of the Belgian summer. The festival consistently brings together the aforementioned scenes’ respective veterans and newcomers, this year personified in part by Dropkick Murphys, Coheed and Cambria, Bowling for Soup, Millencolin, The Bronx, and A Wilhelm Scream. With just two stages to host the entire lineup, each band and audience member alike are guaranteed the biggest mosh pits they can collectively summon.

196 | Storsjöyran Ostersund, Sweden Storsjöyran, or just ‘Yran’ to its closest friends, dates back to the ‘60s and now attracts around 55,000 visitors every year to the selfproclaimed Republic of Jämtland. It’s the largest festival within the facetiously designated ‘micronation’, and Sweden’s second largest overall. Alternatively known as The Great Lake Festival, the organisation’s initial raison d’être was to demonstrate to the world that its local people had the requisite zest, brass and chutzpah to foster a world-beating festival. This year will welcome First Aid Kit, Rival Sons, and Pussy Riot, as well as a broad selection of European artists from rappers, to singer-songwriters, and punks.

Skive Festival | 195 Skive, Denmark Originally bestowed with the extraordinarily imaginative name ‘Beach Party’, the festival now known as Skive was founded by three young men from the eponymous Danish town who shared a common predilection for classic bands and social responsibility. Since being founded in 1993, Skive has evolved in terms of programming sensibilities, capacity, duration, philanthropic efforts, and marketing strategies, however. The festival strives to provide purpose beyond entertainment, so its key mission is to support the region and help it thrive economically, socially, and culturally, the intersections of which are dutifully illustrated on the official website using a Venn diagram. There aren’t enough Venn diagrams on festival websites if you ask me.

31


194 | Provinssirock Festival Seinajoki, Finland Since its inception in 1979, the Kemu ry-founded Provinssirock has enjoyed continued success as one of Finland’s largest festivals, having come to host 28,000 music fans for each day of its sometimes two, sometimes three-day festival. It is now organised by Selmu ry, a live music association that was birthed in 1992 with the sole purpose of taking the reins of Provinssi from its predecessor. Situated in Seinajoki’s Törnävä Park, the event favours a collectivist and grassroots approach, with the organisation of the festival dependent upon hundreds of volunteers and workers who are compensated with nominal fees. Past performances have included Alice In Chains, Tori Amos, David Bowie, The Ramones, Weezer, The Cure, Massive Attack, and Rage Against The Machine.

SunFest | 193 West Palm Beach (FL), USA SunFest – Florida’s largest music festival – is produced by the private non-profit organisation of the same name. SunFest has a very clear vision when it comes to providing for its local communities, which manifests in SunFest365, an initiative working to restore housing for lowincome families; fund scholarships for gifted teens; and provide complimentary SunFest tickets to local charities, schools, synagogues, and additional organisations for locals who otherwise wouldn’t be able to attend.

32


192 | Secret Solstice Reykjavik, Iceland Secret Solstice is an Icelandic music festival that takes place during the 24-hour daylight of the nation’s famous summer solstice. Aside from its totally illuminated festivities and always-competitive lineups, Secret Solstice is also a perpetually shining light in terms of sustainability, having recently received CarbonNeutral certification. From 2016 onwards, all of the festival’s CO2 emissions from supplier and organiser travel, as well as event waste, have been compensated for via the purchase of high quality, verified carbon offsets from the rainforest conservation project Makira REDD+ in Madagascar. Furthermore, 100% of Secret Solstice’s power requirements are fulfilled through geothermal energy. Nice!

191 | Life Festival Oswiecim Oswiecim, Poland Oswiecim’s Life Festival is the creation of Darek Maciborek – a journalist for the broadcasting station RMF FM – who founded the festival to go some way to undo his hometown’s main association with Auschwitz-Birkenau, and to restore hope and happiness to the region. Life Festival’s mission statement, of course, is not to minimise the tragedies associated with the province but to conversely celebrate peace and challenge anti-Semitism, racism, and xenophobia. To this end, the festival’s line-up typically showcases a broad selection of Polish artists, which it’s difficult not to see as a profound and powerful kind of defiance, as they reclaim their legacy.

33


190 | Wish Outdoor Beek en Donk, Netherlands Part of a hat-trick of festivals worldwide, including Wish Outdoor Mexico and Wish Outdoor Italy, Wish Outdoor Netherlands hosts 30,000 people a day for three days on massive patch of classic Dutch pastoral flatland. While visually spectacular, as all EDM extravaganzas should be, Wish Outdoor is notable for its largely homegrown line-up, presenting the biggest acts in the Netherlands’ dance scene year on year. That’s not to say it doesn’t have universal appeal though – across its 17 stages there is a range of EDM on offer that, in its sheer vastness, captures a nuance in the genre scarcely represented at dance festivals.

Hip Hop Kemp | 189 Hradec Králové, Czech Republic The largest festival of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe, Hip Hop Kemp will usher in its 18th edition in August with Tech N9ne, The Alchemist, Pharoahe Monche, Mix Master Mike and more. Now with 22,000 annual visitors, the festival continues to prosper by staying true to its roots of representing just as many underground and local acts as it does mainstream and international icons.

188 | Festival Papillons de Nuit Saint-Laurent-de-Cuves, France Loosely translated, Festival Papillons de Nuit means ‘Festival of the Night Butterflies’, which is cute. The festival runs for three days, each dedicated to showcasing separate genres: rap and reggae, rock and electro, and French song. Former acts include The Hives, Iggy Pop, Lauryn Hill, Placebo, and Two Door Cinema Club. By contrast to most on this list, Papillons de Nuit is actually a non-profit enterprise. Organised by the ROC en Baie association, which is comprised of voluntary elected members of the local community – farmers, managers, retirees, and teachers – the festival is an independent, unifying initiative dedicated to promoting rural culture, developing regional artists, and contributing to the economic and artistic development of the province. Testament to this is the fact that volunteers at the festival outnumber the population of Saint-Laurent-de-Cuves itself by a factor of three.

34


We are FSTVL | 187 Upminster, UK Posting up at the festival season starting line, We Are FSTVL goes hard out of the gate. One of the most comprehensively curated festivals, FSTVL knows its audience; legendary tastemaker DJs and trendsetting producers tag team the weekend across 30 stages, with the latest in grime, dance, house and techno, this year featuring Chase & Status, Andy C, Charlotte de Witte, Craig David, Nina Kraviz, Mike Skinner, Todd Terry, and The Black Madonna.

186 | Summerjam Cologne, Germany Summerjam annually gathers an audience of 30,000 reggae fans to the Fühlinger See lakes in celebration of Jamaica’s most illustrious musical exports – reggae, dub, dancehall, ska, Mento, and rocksteady. Over the years, its line-ups have showcased the diversity of a family of music genres often unfairly mistaken for one. From mainstream idols like Sean Paul, who provided a point of reference for dancehall in the public consciousness, to Damien Marley, who fuses reggae with rock with hip-hop, to the roots and folk acoustic singer-songwriter vibe of Patrice, and even the likes of Nas, who in the inverse delved into reggae inspired hip-hop.

35


Rocklahoma | 185 Pryor (OK), USA Celebrating its 13th year in 2019, America’s biggest Memorial Day Weekend party features a line-up of contemporary rock artists and classic bands – this year embodied by Korn, Disturbed, Shinedown, Bush, and Seether. The three-day camping festival hosts music on three stages each day, as well as premium onsite camping amenities and supposedly unparalleled VIP packages, living up to its motto of ‘Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Rock.’ Notably, the Rocklahoma charity guitar auction has raised over $700,000 throughout the event’s history.

184 | Cocoon In The Park Leeds, UK Launched in 2009, the single-day Cocoon in the Park has become a prominent fixture of the UK’s house and techno scene, ushering in legions of four-to-thefloor fanatics to the stately grounds of Temple Newsam each July for some of those sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet repetitive beats they all crave. The rave-up’s line-up is neat every year, and usually weighs on the side of brevity by hosting seven or so concisely chosen DJs and artists. Hosted by techno veteran Sven Väth, this year’s 10th anniversary edition will be Cocoon in the Park’s last. Taking advantage of the site’s natural amphitheatre, this year those acts were Sven Väth, Adam Beyer, Joseph Capriati, Richy Ahmed, Alex & Digby, Annie Errez, and Bobby O’Donnell.

36


Mysteryland | 183 Amsterdam, Netherlands The LiveStyle owned Mysteryland combines both hyper mainstream and under the radar electronic music with an extensive arts and culture line-up. With over 350 acts spanning house, techno, disco, African beats, vinyl-only, hardstyle, hip-hop and feel-good bands, this year’s lineup includes everything from commercial sensations like Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Martin Garrix, and Diplo to underground legends such as Oliver Heldens, Nicky Romero, and Sven Väth. Plus there’s theatre, movies, street performers, and art installations all around, with Mysteryland having previously hosted work from revered artists such as Kate Raudenbush, best known for her work on Burning Man; and Robert Bose, famed for his Balloon Chain at Coachella.

182 | World Club Dome Frankfurt, Germany One of the world’s most uniquely ambitious events, in 2015 World Club Dome’s promoter BigCityBeats worked with Alleo to bring select festivalgoers to Frankfurt via the high-speed World Club Dome Ice Train, whose club floor was blessed with panoramic views of its fleeting surroundings. Not satisfied with this feat, the organisers quite literally went above and beyond to charter a Boeing 757 from London and Hamburg, inviting competition winners aboard to party at 10,000ft en route to the festival. But still this wasn’t enough. Left unsatisfied with going above and beyond, the festival took things to infinity and beyond in 2018 with the introduction of World Club Dome Zero Gravity – a collaboration with the European Space Agency that sees DJs and 50 VIPS get launched 27887ft above ground level to experience six minutes of pure weightlessness. They’re all on-board a spacecraft, if that wasn’t clear. Whether arriving by land, sea, or via orbital drop from the brink of space, World Club Dome attendees are treated to three days of DJ sets across 15 floors of the gigantic Commerzbank Arena.

37


Summerfest | 181 Milwaukee (WI), USA The late Mayor of Milwaukee, Henry Maier, inaugurated Summerfest in the 1960s. Following a visit to Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany, Mayor Maier dreamed of a festival for the people that would revitalize Milwaukee’s downtown district and revamp community spirit. In 1968, the first Summerfest debuted at 35 separate locations throughout the city. Over the years, the permanent festival site has seen tremendous growth and enhancements – including capital improvements, new partners, vendors and exhibits. Most recently, festival producer Milwaukee World Festival renovated approximately 22-acres of the 75-acre site, Henry Maier Festival Park, with a two-phase $35 million construction project – the biggest in Summerfest history.

180 | Sound City Liverpool, UK As much as Sound City has become a staple of the North West’s festival calendar for its cutting edge music programme, its defining feature is Sound City+ – an adjoining business conference that places it amongst the country’s leading supporters of upcoming artists. Founded to champion the rich and diverse creative output of the North of England, but welcoming musicians and executives from all over the world every year, Sound City+ hosts panels, a record fair, and networking opportunities for those aspiring to turn their hobby into a profession. This almost unrivalled dedication led the event to win the UK Festival Awards’ Best Festival for Emerging Talent accolade in 2016.

WOMAD New Zealand | 179 New Plymouth, New Zealand Much like its overseas counterparts, WOMAD New Zealand champions the world’s many forms of music, arts and dance. The festival will celebrate its 15th birthday in 2019, with performances from The Black Seeds, The Original Gypsies, Angelique Kidjo, The Correspondents, Kora and more. WOMAD co-founder Peter Gabriel summarised the ethos of the festival brand as follows: “Pure enthusiasm for music from around the world led us to the idea of WOMAD in 1980 and thus to the first WOMAD festival in 1982. The festivals have always been wonderful and unique occasions and have succeeded in introducing an international audience to many talented artists. “Equally important, the festivals have also allowed many different audiences to gain an insight into cultures other than their own through the enjoyment of music. Music is a universal language; it draws people together and proves, as well as anything, the stupidity of racism.”

38 38


178 | Rock for People Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic Since embarking on its conquest in 1995, Rock for People has gradually become one of the largest open-air festivals in the Czech Republic, now residing a little further from Prague in the otherwise unused airport of Hradec Králové after its move from the town of Český Brod. Staying true to its tradition of booking the best in metal, alternative rock, pop rock, and punk rock, this year’s headliners include Bring Me The Horizon, Manic Street Preachers, Rudimental, Franz Ferdinand, In Flames, and Kodaline.

Sudoeste | 177 Herdade da Casa Branca, Portugal Set on Portugal’s coastline, Sudoeste established itself in 1997 with performances from Blur, Marilyn Manson, and Suede, a far cry from its present self. Even a cursory comparison of Sudoeste’s past and present line-ups demonstrates a seismic shift in its curating proclivities over the past couple of decades, going from acts like Kraftwerk, AIR and Massive Attack in 2004 to The Chainsmokers, DJ Snake, Afrojack and Martin Garrix in 2017. Interestingly, its most recent line-ups mainly juxtapose EDM and reggae, of all genres, with a few pop and hip-hop acts strewn in between – this year Post Malone and Russ.

176 | Sea Dance Festival Budva, Montenegro With temperatures typically soaring into the mid-thirties (that’s in Celsius, for our US readers), Sea Dance is the second part of EXIT Festival’s ‘EXIT Adventure’ holiday package, and has more of a summer getaway vibe than its fortress based Serbian neighbour. Sea Dance Festival has received a number of accolades in its short lifespan; soon after its first edition it was designated the Best Medium-Sized Festival by the European Festival Awards, after which it was acquired by AEI and UKF. Forbes also listed Sea Dance in its top 10 European festivals for 2016, the same year the festival swept up Montenegro’s Wild Beauty Award for its extra special special effects.

39


Bearded Theory | 175 Catton, UK Bearded Theory is a multi-award winning creative & performing arts festival set within the picturesque grounds of Catton Hall, in the heart of the UK’s National Forest. Officially recognised as one of the nation’s most beloved family festivals, Bearded Theory goes the extra mile by hosting its own Ofsted-approved onsite Festival School, providing nearly 1500 children with valuable life skills. Throughout its 12-year history, the festival has also donated well in excess of £300,000 to charity, and in 2018 staged a Food Bank Holiday, encouraging each attendee to bring one item of non-perishable food to donate to a local food bank.

174 | Boston Calling Boston (MA), USA The biannual Boston’s Calling’s line-up is co-curated by Aaron Dessner of The National. Performers of past Boston Callings have included The National, Beck, My Morning Jacket, Of Monsters and Men, Kendrick Lamar, Passion Pit, Vampire Weekend, and Modest Mouse. Boston Calling was held on City Hall Plaza from 2013 to 2016, and in 2017 it moved to Harvard University’s athletic fields in Allston. There are now four performance stages, festivalwide beer experiences, and a food pavilion. The festival is produced by Crash Line Productions, the Boston based entertainment business that also produces the Eaux Claires Music & Arts Festival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Moondance Jam | 173 Walker (MN), USA Bill Bieloh of Walker, Minnesota conceived the classic rock festival Moondance Jam in 1992 as a way to promote his and his wife’s riding stables. The event got off to a modest start that first year, with a complete reliance on regional bands, but has since developed to attract 20,000 daily visitors for acclaimed heritage acts such as Blondie, Joan Jett, and Kansas. Owing to the multi-generational appeal of these artists, and younger audiences increasingly making up its audience, in 2010 Moondance began mixing in favourable contemporary bands alongside them, successfully moving with the times and securing its place in the future.

40


172 | MetalDays Tolmin, Slovenia Are you a hardcore metalhead but also inexplicably drawn to summer beach parties, inflatable unicorns, yoga, and giant Jenga? MetalDays has you covered. With more than a touch of endearing self-awareness, the tagline ‘Hell Over Paradise’, gives you free rein (in blood) to drink as many Piña Coladas, wear as many colours, and play as much beach volleyball as you want without fear of your metal license being revoked. Don’t get me wrong, the pits are brutal enough to leave a pentagram burned in the topsoil for months to come, but MetalDays understands that life is all about balance, and what at first seems like a stark cultural juxtaposition is quickly revealed to appeal to a universal sense of fun and light-heartedness – because who doesn’t like beach parties, really?

Splash! Festival | 171 Chemnitz, Germany Splash! Festival takes place in Gräfenhainichen’s Ferropolis every year, which, if you’re partial to a bit of etymological archaeology you’ll realise without Google’s assistance translates to ‘City of Iron’, and that’s essentially exactly what it is: an open-air museum for enormous industrial machinery from the mid-20th century, playing host to a hip-hop and reggae festival. The festival books a healthy mix of internationally and domestically renowned artists, and the industrial backdrop lends itself to the genres on offer – hip-hop, drum and bass, dancehall, reggae – which you might typically find blaring out of deafening sound systems in abandoned warehouses in the wider world. Likewise, there’s break dancing, graffiti contests, and turntablist matches. There’s even a giant kitty in shades, a snapback and a bandana.

170 | Ramblin’ Man Fair Maidstone, UK Perhaps the UK’s premier classic and progressive rock festival, Ramblin’ Man Fair will welcome The Darkness, Black Stone Cherry, Foreigner, The Wildhearts, Cheap Trick, and Airbourne to perform across its three-day proceedings in 2019. Ramblers in search of discovery would do well to check out the festival’s Rising Stage, while those governed more by the dictates of their guts are well catered for with the Fair’s fully-fledged onsite beer festival and selection of gourmet food stalls. One of those representing the latter camp this year is the DJ / purveyor of BBQ unambiguously known as DJ BBQ.

41


Resurrection Fest | 169 Viveiro, Spain Held annually since 2006, Resurrection Fest has become one of Spain’s most successful festivals, not in spite of but precisely owing to its specialisation in and dedication towards the rock, metal and punk communities. Hundreds of the genres’ most respected bands have performed over the course of the event’s history, including Iron Maiden, Kiss, Rammstein, Korn, Megadeth, NOFX, Black Flag, Refused, and Bad Religion.

168 | Bospop Weert, Netherlands Bospop is a cosy, old-fashioned pop-rock festival that will be held for the 39th time in mid-July, not far from the Netherlands’ border with Belgium. What began in 1980 as a small DIY festival for the region’s amateur acts has become a three-day event and platform for bands of international stature, this time personified by Snow Patrol, John Fogerty, Sting, Skunk Anansie, and Nile Rodgers & Chic.

The Big Feastival | 167 Chipping Norton, UK The brainchild of famous chef Jamie Oliver and Blur bassist / rabid cheese fiend Alex James, The Big Feastival is a hybrid of musical and culinary delights based on James’ farm in The Cotswolds. With all manner of feasts and banquets, a grill academy and cookery school, a wellness kitchen and healthy living zone, plus a lineup of Very Agreeable acts, The Big Feastival is arguably unrivalled in its execution of the now not-so-niche concept of the crossbreed festival.

42


Airbeat One | 166 Neustadt-Glewe, Germany Taking place at the Neustadt-Glewe airfield, hence the name, the northern German EDM festival is a powerhouse production. The 130-metre-wide, 45-metre-high main stage – the largest in Germany – was modelled in replica of the White House in 2017, in keeping with the festival’s theme of selecting iconic world landmarks for its set design. With its trippy, projection mapped facia, pyrotechnics burning hotter and bigger than some forest fires, enough fireworks to rival an Olympic games opening ceremony, and enough strobe lights to communicate with Alpha Centauri, it’s a sight to behold. The onsite attractions keep the energy up as well, with a mountain bike course, a bungee-jump crane, and a Ferris wheel offering panoramic views of the entire festival.

Standon Calling | 165 Standon, UK Standon Calling is a boutique festival / self-titled imaginarium which takes on a different theme ever year, historically including Murder on the Standon Express, Rio Carnival, Japanese Culture, and Tales of the Enchanted Valley. Boasting glamping, hot tubs, yoga, and even an onsite dog-show where good boys and girls can compete for such prestigious titles as ‘Dog with the Waggiest Tail’ and ‘Looks Most Like Owner’, you’d be forgiven for thinking this a bit lavish for a festival, but luxurious as it sounds Standon Calling is borne of a DIY ethos, having developed from its founder’s birthday barbecue in 2001.

164 | Belladrum Tartan Heart Inverness, UK Belladrum Tartan Heart, or ‘Bella’ to its loyal fanbase, is Scotland’s largest camping music festival. Set in the picturesque Highlands on the outskirts of the region’s capital, Inverness, the festival is set to celebrate its 16th outing in 2019. Selling out in advance every year since 2008, Belladrum Tartan Heart lays claim to being the friendliest, wackiest, and most inclusive festival in Scotland. With over 16 stages, Bella is a festival that rewards exploration. Away from the main stage – headlined in 2019 by Jess Glynne, Chvrches, and Elbow – festivalgoers can discover the Burke & Hare steampunk area; join in with a hoedown at the ‘Trailer Trash’ country stage; and experience burlesque, comedy, wrestling, and a Scottish Dub Opera in the ‘Venus Flytrap’ cabaret big top.

43


Best Kept Secret | 163 Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands One of the frontrunners in The Netherlands’ quantity and quality-heavy festival scene, Best Kept Secret scores high marks in the breadth and depth of its programming, sporting both revered headliners and carefully selected newcomers, which this year features Bon Iver, Christine and the Queens, Kraftwerk, Carly Rae Jepsen, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Death Grips, DJ Koze, Mac Demarco, and Sophie. Hidden within the site’s quieter areas are enthralling secret shows and ‘popup’ activities, from karaoke to BBQ bashes, as well as several different forms of accommodation – ranging from tipis, tents, and group tents, to bungalows, caravans, chalets, and log cabins, plus plentiful space to soak in the scenery.

162 | Forecastle Festival Louisville, Kentucky Since 95% of the world’s bourbon is reportedly produced in Kentucky, it only makes sense that Forecastle Festival has its own onsite Bourbon Lodge. Because one themed alcohol establishment isn’t enough, there’s also a Gonzo Bar that pays tribute to the late Hunter S. Thompson – Freak Admiral and avid consumer of bourbon (along with every other intoxicant in the solar system). The accompanying music line-up mostly consists of alternative, indie rock and hip-hop, this year represented in The Killers, The Avett Brothers, Anderson Paak & The Free Nationals, Maggie Rogers, Chvrches, First Aid Kit, Playboi Carti, and Nelly.

Let It Roll | 161 Milovice, Czech Republic Touted as the world’s largest drum and bass festival, Let It Roll draws 25,000 continental and international junglists a day to its inland home at Milovice Airfield. The summer festival is the culmination of its vision, but the brand extends to internationally touring club nights, a winter edition of the summer festival, and co-promoting a seemingly endless stream of drum and bass nights around Europe with renowned labels and collectives like Hospitality, Mayan Audio, and Titan Records. Gargantuan set pieces and pitch-perfect line-ups notwithstanding, Let It Roll presents some of the most extraordinary onsite activities on this list, offering a guided drum and bass workout, bubble football, skimboarding (think surfing down a slip and slide), a fashion design workshop, a BMX & skateboard jam spot, as well as dance and skate contests.

44


160 | Rainforest World Music Festival Sarawak, Malaysia The Rainforest World Music Festival is an annual threeday event celebrating the manifold permutations of world music. Owing to its daytime music workshops, cultural and craft displays, food stalls, and main stage evening concerts, it is now one of the largest music events in Malaysia with a daily audience reaching 23,000. Literally taking place in the heart of the Borneo jungle at the base of Mount Santubong in the Sarawak Cultural Village – an open-air, living museum – workshops and performances are held inside the various forms of traditional housing. In the spirit of the borderless theme of the festival, there are no barriers or stages separating the audience from the performer.

Cavendish Beach Music Festival | 159 Cavendish, Canada What was once a cow pasture in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island, is now the home of the largest multi-day outdoor music festival in Atlantic Canada: the Cavendish Beach Music Festival. More than 70,000 fans annually flock to the festival for dining, camping, and the biggest names in country music. Its core components are rounded out with a variety of peripheral experiences, including interactive songwriters’ circles, sampling sessions and food demos. Cavendish Beach is committed to protecting the PEI coastline, limiting its carbon footprint and abiding by self-imposed environmentally conscious practices such as having a full onsite recycling programme, encouraging the use of public transit and carpooling, and using renewable energy.

45


158 | Kraków Live Kraków, Poland Kraków Live (previously known as Coke Live Music Festival) is something of a festival-programming savant, frequently pulling together line-ups of the most relevant and influential artists of the time en masse. Whether it’s Kendrick Lamar, Lana Del Rey, Kanye West, N.E.R.D, Rejjie Snow, Lupe Fiasco, The Chemical Brothers, or The Roots, an unprecedented talent stands at your every flank each and every year. As a staple annual event in Kraków, the festival has teamed up with the city to exhibit some of its heritage; on top of two days of live music, your Krakow Live ticket grants you free entrance to several museums and cultural attractions around Kraków, including The Museum of Contemporary Art, the National Museum, Cricoteka, and the Historical Museum of The City.

Campus | 157 Debrecen, Hungary Now one of Hungary’s five largest open-air festivals, Campus welcomes 35,000 revellers to Debrecen each July for over 200 shows across 40 venues and several days. In addition to performances from both Hungarian and international musicians, the festival offers literary and theatrical programmes, meetings and talks with artists, film screenings, stand-up comedy, and plenty of drinking fountains and ‘mist gates’ to alleviate the searing Hungarian summer.

46


156 | Pohoda Festival Trencin, Slovakia Inaugurated in 1998 with ambitions of becoming a uniquely hospitable and inclusive celebration of arts & culture, Pohoda Festival has since grown to welcome 30,000 annual visitors to a former military airfield near Trenchin, garnering international acclaim in the process. Its programme amalgamates the best in indie, electronica, hip-hop, punk, world music, and even classical, offered alongside literature, dance, visual art, film, and theatre. According to co-founder and organiser Michal Kaščák: “When preparing Pohoda, we try to use the same approach as when you invite someone to your home for a visit. You want them to feel good in your place…then you can listen to good music, dance, watch movies, talk about the joys and challenges of the universe, [and] discuss art”.

Highfield Festival | 155 Grossposna, Germany Under the wing of FKP Scorpio, which organises many major festivals in Germany, Highfield has sold out for the past few years, with its recent success prompting a move to Grossposna in 2017. The newly relocated Highfield provides plenty of room for its threeday festival, which features live performances from national and international acts. Over the course of its 20-year history, the festival has featured performances from Arctic Monkeys, Placebo, Queens of the Stone Age, Biffy Clyro, NOFX and many more. For a break from the music you can also opt to be dragged around a lake on a giant inflatable banana, play volleyball, chill in a deck-chair under a one-man gazebo, bungee jump, or relax on the beach.

154 | Melt! Festival Chemnitz, Germany Taking place at Ferropolis amidst towering archaic machinery, positioned beside tranquil lake and woodland, Melt! prides itself on bringing together industry, culture, and nature for an inimitable experience. Despite being a long-running favourite of illustrious dance music publication Resident Advisor and its de facto designation as an electronic music event, Melt! Festival’s programming M.O. is more diverse than one might expect. Although Aphex Twin, Björk, Atoms For Peace and Giorgio Moroder have all graced the open-air festival in the past, so too have Oasis, Kylie Minogue, Foals, and Franz Ferdinand. An interesting feature of Melt! is its Sleepless Floor, which keeps the music going all night. That said, even the main stages run until 7am.

47


Bug Jam | 153 Wellingborough, UK No, Bug Jam is not a flea-circus rendition of a Grateful Dead concert, but instead a veritable mecca for Volkswagen devotees. Bug Jam’s especially specific concept thankfully hasn’t translated to limited popularity over its 33 years. Now welcoming 33,000 daily automobile fanatics, the VW festival also incorporates five stages of music, a kids’ zone known as Little Buggerz, drag racing, an auto parts jumble sale, a talent show, and camping. The music line-up isn’t too shabby either, this year featuring Ash, Example, and The Spitfires, along with a silent disco and a ‘90s Explosion’ set.

152 | SonneMondSterne Saalburg-Ebersdorf, Germany After 2,500 people attended its inaugural event in 1997, SonneMondSterne has grown to annually bring 35,000 electronic music enthusiasts to Saalburg-Ebersdorf. Its bills usually chart pretty diverse territory, from South African rap rave duo Die Antwoord to wonky Brainfeeder signee Mr. Oizo and EDM antichrist David Guetta. This year features Calvin Harris, DJ Snake, Armin Van Buuren, Nina Kraviz, and Robin Schulz. In the name of audience interactivity and cultivating fresh talent, SonneMondSterne runs a competition each year for filmmakers, known as SMS ShortCut Talent. The top three entrants take home a cash prize and the remaining six get two tickets for next year’s SMS. Not bad.

48


Rewind Scotland | 151 Perth, UK The three Rewind festivals treat their attendees to overwhelmingly nostalgic line-ups, always impressive in their curators’ ability to retrieve and assemble from the annals of obscurity. This year – alongside all those ubiquitous bands you don’t know you know but sing along verbatim with whenever they come on Heart FM – features Bryan Ferry, Foreigner, Lulu, The Stranglers, The Undertones, and Lisa Stansfield. There’s also a human carwash disco (which probably couldn’t be more 80s if it tried), posh food, a funfair to fulfil all your American high school jock fantasies, stand-up comedy, and firework displays.

150 | Summer Breeze Dinkelsbuhl, Germany Summer Breeze strikes as an odd choice for a name, since the hardcore punk and death metal bands the festival puts on tend to sound more like irradiated whirlwinds howling throughout a nuclear winter. Still, questionable branding hasn’t stopped the festival reaching its 23rd iteration, with a back-catalogue of names that read like the bibliography of H.P. Lovecraft. Continuing that wonderful trend, 2019’s line-up includes In Flames, Dragonforce, Battle Beast, Winterstorm, Myrkur, Burning Witches, and Clawfinger.

49


149-100

50


149-100

149 | Rock en Seine Paris, France

Ruisrock Festival | 115 Turku, Finland

Electric Castle | 148 Bánffy Castle, Romania

114 | Boardmasters Newquay, UK

147 | Weekend Festival Baltic Pärnu, Estonia

Cambridge Folk Festival | 131 Cambridge, UK

Electric Love | 113 Salzburg, Austria

Lytham Festival | 146 Lytham St Annes, UK

130 | End of the Road Wiltshire, UK

112 | Øyafestivalen Oslo, Norway

145 | Osheaga Montreal, Canada

Weekend Festival Finland | 129 Helsinki, Finland

Bluedot Festival | 111 Cheshire,UK

Made in America Festival | 144 Philadelphia (PA), USA

128 | Gurtenfestival Bern, Switzerland

110 | Wonderfruit Pattaya, Thailand

143 | Bumbershoot Seattle (WA), USA

Bilbao BBK Live | 127 Bilbao, Spain

Caprices Festival | 109 Valais, Switzerland

Ultra Europe | 142 Poljud, Croatia

126 | Eurosonic Noorderslag Groningen, Netherlands

Hideout Festival | 108 Pag, Croatia

141 | Outlook Festival Pula, Croatia

Cornbury Music Festival | 125 Chipping Norton, UK

107 | Super Bock, Super Rock Lisbon, Portugal

Y Not Festival | 140 Pikehall, UK

124 | TW Classic Werchter, Belgium

139 | Incheon Pentaport Rock Incheon, South Korea

Volt Festival | 123 Sopron, Hungary

105 | Deichbrand Festival Cuxhaven, Germany

Les Vieilles Charrues Festival | 138 Carhaix, France

122 | Zürich Openair Zürich, Switzerland

Rewind North | 104 Macclesfield, UK

137 | Ollesummer Tallinn, Estonia

Mountain Jam | 121 Hunter (NY), USA

103 | Greenfield Festival Interlaken, Switzerland

Snowbombing | 136 Mayrhofen, Austria

120 | WOMADelaide Festival Adelaide (SA), Australia

Longitude | 102 Dublin, Ireland

135 | Slottsfjell Festival Tønsberg, Norway

North Sea Jazz | 119 Rotterdam, Netherlands

101 | NOS Alive (formerly Optimus Alive!) Lisbon, Portugal

Extrema Outdoor Netherlands | 133 Wanroij, Netherlands

118 | Summerburst Festival Stockholm / Gothenburg, Sweden

Essaouira Gnaoua | 100 Essaouira, Morocco

132 | Green Man Festival Brecon Beacons, UK

Eaux Claires | 117 Eau Claire (WI), USA 116 | Couleur Café Brussels, Belgium

Fairport’s Cropredy Convention | 106 Cropredy, UK


149 | Rock en Seine Paris, France Situated just west of Paris in the vegetation-rich Domaine National de Saint-Cloud, Rock en Seine has cemented its position as one of the biggest festivals in France over the last 16 years. At the tail end of August, the festival invites myriad musicians to perform across its five stages, this year including The Cure, Major Lazer, Jorja Smith, Aphex Twin, Foals, and Royal Blood. In addition to its various sustainability policies, Rock en Seine is also commendable for its provision of free earplugs so that music fans can enjoy its proceedings without contracting post-event tinnitus.

Electric Castle | 148 Bánffy Castle, Romania Since its first edition in 2013, Electric Castle has been nominated several times for the Best Medium-Sized Festival Category at the European Festival Awards, alongside other famous European names. Held on the architecturally crossbred domain of Bánffy Castle, just 30km from the city of Cluj-Napoca, Electric Castle Festival combines a visually innovative concept with an eclectic music line-up, breaking the boundaries between electronic, rock, and reggae. This year’s edition will take place in July, where over 250 artists are set to perform across eight musical stages, including Florence + The Machine, Limp Bizkit, Nils Frahm, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Bring Me The Horizon, Chvrches, and Metric.

52


147 | Weekend Festival Baltic Pärnu, Estonia All three Weekend festivals – the other two being Weekend Festival Sweden and Weekend Festival Finland – are clustered quite tightly on this list, generally indicating a massively successful franchise, with no one iteration given higher priority than another. A feature that distinguishes Weekend Festival Baltic from its siblings is its coastal backdrop and beach setting, though much like its sisters, the festival offers up the biggest acts in EDM along with idiosyncratically outrageous production and stage design, solidly squaring off every major port in the Baltic Sea for the Weekend Festival brand.

Lytham Festival | 146 Lytham St Annes, UK Launched in 2010 as a single-night event to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, Lytham Festival now amounts to a seven-day series of festivities, including but not limited to music, literature and comedy. Based on the Lancashire coast in the leafy affluent town of the same name, the festival now brings 100,000 people to its Main Proms Arena each July. In celebration of its 10th anniversary in 2019, the festival’s individually ticketed programmes will welcome headliners Rod Stewart, The Human League, Stereophonics, and Kylie. Although an inclusive, family-friendly event at its core, Lytham also offers decidedly exclusive ‘Platinum Packages’ for those willing to splash out on a more VIP experience.

53


145 | Osheaga Montreal, Canada With its numerous outdoor stages located at Parc Jean-Drapeau on Montreal’s Saint Helen’s Island, the Osheaga Music and Arts Festival has gone from strength to strength since its inception in 2006, and now attracts 135,000 yearly visitors. A colossal celebration of music and visual arts, Osheaga has issued itself the noble objective of unearthing local and national emerging talent, offering the opportunity for them to play alongside some of the biggest international artists in the business, including Lorde, Kendrick Lamar, Iggy & The Stooges, The Black Keys, Sonic Youth, Beck, The Roots, Snoop Dogg, Elvis Costello, Arcade Fire, and Eminem.

Made in America Festival | 144 Philadelphia (PA), USA Produced by Live Nation, the Budweisersponsored Made in America Festival was founded by very successful rapper, kind of unsuccessful TIDAL owner and self-proclaimed inventor of swag, Jay-Z. The line-ups are personally chosen by the man himself, and walk the line between hip-hop, radio friendly pop and indietronica, with everyone from Cardi B to James Blake.

143 | Bumbershoot Seattle (WA), USA Bumbershoot began as a city-funded arts & music festival called Mayor’s Arts Festival, held at the Seattle Center from August 13 – 15 1971. Amidst the local economic depression triggered by the near collapse of Boeing, the event attempted to revive the optimism of its 125,000 local visitors, and was the largest event held in the Seattle Center since the 1962 World’s Fair. Today Bumbershoot presents such vast, deeply culturally nutritious activities and entertainment that taking just one disciplinary focus from it would be sufficient to throw an entirely separate festival with, whether we’re talking music, comedy, theatre, film, lectures & talks, dance, food, visual arts, and yoga, each with enough variations to warrant separate filters on the official website to help you navigate it all.

54


Ultra Europe | 142 Poljud, Croatia Best known for exporting European dance music to the US, Ultra Europe endeavours to import it right back. Ultra has franchises set up not only in Florida and Croatia, but in a further eighteen countries around the world, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, South Korea, South Africa, Colombia, Japan and Belarus. Ultra Europe will celebrate its seventh anniversary this year. Evidently thriving wherever it stakes its claim, Ultra Europe is in league with some of the world’s most affluent sponsors: Red Bull, Uber, Mastercard, Heineken, Samsung, as well as the country of Croatia itself, guaranteeing a spectacle like no other.

141 | Outlook Festival Pula, Croatia Celebrating its 10th and final annual outing at the otherwise abandoned Fort Punta Christo this September, Outlook is a beatific beachside ode to dance music culture and Croatian history. The 150-year-old monument houses 10 unique stages, and with numerous boat parties awaiting just offshore, Outlook delivers a truly singular experience for its 15,000 attendees. Each year the festival kicks off proceedings with a massive opening concert inside Pula’s 2000-year-old Roman amphitheatre, and in 2018 partnered with Pozitivan Ritam to host a special party inside Pula’s ‘lost realm’, Zerostrasse – an underground network of tunnels. There’s a saying that ‘writing about music is like dancing about architecture’, as if the latter is impossible, but it sounds like Outlook may have proven them wrong.port in the Baltic Sea for the Weekend Festival brand.

55


Y Not Festival | 140 Pikehall, UK Something of a trope in festival origin stories is for rebellious kids to throw a party in their parents’ absence, which turns out to be so damned fun everyone feels obliged to turn up again the year after and outdo it. Y Not Festival is as on the nose as they come in that regard. As fans first, the same group of mates have lovingly curated the line-up and activities each year since its inception, based on their own formative musical experiences and the ones their audience yearn for. Plus, they once put Snoop Dogg on the Derbyshire dales, which is pretty surreal when you think about it.

139 | Incheon Pentaport Rock Incheon, South Korea The only Korean festival to make this list, South or otherwise, Incheon Pentaport Rock fuses homegrown talent with established Western stars. Not literally. For three days at the end of July, the festival takes place at Dream Park, a former landfill site turned wildflower complex and botanical garden. Amidst grandiose works of topiary, Incheon has previously hosted Bastille, Justice, You Me At Six, Charli XCX, 5 Seconds of Summer, Circa Waves, and lots of Korean artists. If you were wondering, the ‘penta’ part of the festival’s title comes from its five main themes: music, passion, DIY ethic, friendship, and the environment.

Les Vieilles Charrues Festival | 138 Carhaix, France Translating to something along the lines of ‘The Old Plows Festival’, it’s clear Les Vieilles Charrues Festival sounds much prettier in French, which is evidently the festival’s serving suggestion given its celebration of all things Breton. Its four stages are named after Breton exports – poets and musicians Glenmore and Youenn Gwernig, journalist and poet Xavier Grall, and Jack Kerouac, whose ancestors were from Brittany. Further still, Les Vieilles Charrues established a record label to showcase emerging local talent, and also helped to renovate the Chateau de Kerampuil and financed Hall Glenmore, two culturally significant buildings in the region. Every year 5,500 volunteers bring this 65,000-capacity festival together, now the largest in France.

56


137 | Ollesummer Tallinn, Estonia The Estrella-sponsored Õllesummer is an annual beer festival in Estonia, and although the event was borne out of a love for libations with musical performances as a supplement, it has since grown into a fully-fledged music festival – a sentiment echoed by the mayor of Tallinn. This year will see headline performances from Franz Ferdinand, Armin Van Buuren, and Pet Shop Boys, with roughly 100 additional acts from the Baltic and Northern European region. Not entirely shaking its roots, the festival is sponsored by Bombay Sapphire gin, Oakheart rum, Mionetto Prosecco, and OlyBet sports bar, of which there is an onsite recreation.

Snowbombing | 136 Mayrhofen, Austria Combining a dance-heavy line-up with idyllic alpine scenery and snow-based sports sounds like a perfect combination, and by all accounts it is. Snowbombing appeals to beginners and veterans alike in terms of both its sonic offerings and its slopes, ensuring that everyone can get involved via a diverse party platter of the former and lessons for the latter. If you’re especially experienced / clinically insane you can try the aptly-named Harakiri slope, which boasts gradients of up to 78% and has to chain its piste bashers to the ground so that they don’t slide down and crush an inordinate amount of dudes. If you’re more Sudoku than seppuku you can always eat pizza by the side and watch Solid Gold Nutters slide down on their arses at terminal velocity, with emphasis on the ‘terminal’ part.

57


135 | Slottsfjell Festival Tønsberg, Norway Founded in 2003, Slottsfjell Festival takes place on the site of a 1,000-year-old Viking fortress, and offers scenic views of the city of Tønsberg and its neighbouring fjord. The festival welcomes 14,000 daily visitors for five stages of music every July. Primarily a rock and pop festival, though with quite a few hip-hop slots, Slottsfjell will see Diplo, Tommy Cash, First Aid Kit, Cashmere Cat, and Two Door Cinema Club atop the plateau this year. The festival is as much about national as international talent though, given the Norwegian government’s reputation for actually supporting the arts.

Extrema Outdoor Belgium | 134 Houthalen-Helchteren, Belgium Hosted a month earlier than its Dutch counterpart, Extrema Outdoor Belgium is nearly identical, sharing many of the same acts, this year including Tale of Us, Stephen Bodzin, Ben Klock, and Tiga. However, much like twin siblings, if you get to know them personally you’ll discover the nuance and individuality between them.

58 58


Extrema Outdoor Netherlands | 133 Wanroij, Netherlands Now held at the De Bergen Vakantiepark (which means holiday resort, if you were wondering), Extrema Outdoor Netherlands is an annual electronic festival that takes place in early July, and twin sister to Extrema Outdoor Belgium. Amidst beachside stages and woodland canopies, the festival comfortably hosts 20,000 daily festivalgoers on its relatively large site, and given the calibre of its line-up, it frequently presents the opportunity to see some of the world’s most renowned DJs in a comparably more intimate, laid-back environment. Past acts include Carl Cox, Seth Troxler, Deadmau5, Swedish House Mafia, and Flux Pavillion.

132 | Green Man Festival Brecon Beacons, UK One for the Renaissance men / women out there, the staunchly independent Green Man Festival offers 10 unique areas of music, comedy, literature, film, visual & performing arts, science, family activities, wellness, and food & drink. Now in its 11th year, the multi-arts festival is the largest of its kind in Wales, and has been identified as a considerable contributor to the country’s economy and culture, thanks in part to its philanthropic endeavours and pioneering non-corporate attitude. This year’s predictably stellar line-up includes Four Tet, Father John Misty, Yo La Tengo, Sharon Van Etten, Broken Social Scene, Car Seat Headrest, and Big Thief – as if receiving a Pitchfork ‘Best New Music’ distinction is a prerequisite for consideration.

Cambridge Folk Festival | 131 Cambridge, UK Cambridge Folk Festival has brought the finest in British and Irish folk music, American country, blues, bluegrass, and gospel together at its hallowed home of Cherry Clinton Hall for the past 55 years. The historic festival has an art for plucking modern folk-inspired performers from popular music and fusing them with its traditional lineup, which perhaps speaks to its unshakeable longevity. The festival has seen performances from Mumford & Sons, Van Morrison, KT Tunstall, Jake Bugg, Laura Marling, and Passenger over recent years, as it had the 60s and 70s legends Don Mclean, Paul Simon, and Elvis Costello before them. What’s more, as a frequent recipient of the sustainability-focused Greener Festival Awards, Cambridge Folk Festival is proof you can teach an old dog new tricks, leaving little excuse for others.

59


130 | End of the Road Wiltshire, UK Shortlisted at 2015’s UK Festival Awards for Sufjan Stevens’ headline performance – whose booking was secured through an endearing handwritten letter sent by the organisers – End of the Road provides a platform for indie music’s most celebrated oddities, from Joanna Newsom to Cat Power and Animal Collective. Besides critically acclaimed music acts, the intimate and charming event includes workshops, comedy, film, and wellness activities. This year the festival continues its streak of fantastic line-ups with performances from Beirut, Metronomy, Michael Kiwanuka, Mitski, Wire, Kero Kero Bonito, Black Midi, Courtney Barnett, Spiritualized, Jarvis Cocker, and Yves Tumor.

Weekend Festival Finland | 129 Helsinki, Finland Weekend Festival Finland is the home base of the Weekend Festival franchise, which at this point has reached both west and south of the Baltic Sea to Sweden and Estonia. This year’s edition will welcome the likes of Swedish House Mafia, Armin van Buuren and Robin Schulz, all accompanied by perspective-warping, projectionmapped illusions and hyper-futuristic set design across the festival’s five immense stages. Echoing and emanating out over the Vanhankaupunginselkä bay, Weekend Festival Finland deeply understands how crucially intertwined EDM is with the spectacle of its live performance, and offers a remarkable multisensory experience rivalled by few others.

128 | Gurtenfestival Bern, Switzerland Staged on the summit of Bern’s Gurten Mountain – which makes it cool by default – and accessible only by foot or funicular railway, Gurtenfestival has been held annually in the middle of July since 1977. This year, with views of the Swiss Alps and Jura Mountains, 80,000 visitors will make it to the top one way or the other to enjoy live performances from Twenty One Pilots, Tash Sultana, Faber, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Rudimental, and Rival Sons, with its alumni having accumulated everyone from The Roots to Bad Religion, James Blunt and Portishead over past years.

60 60


Bilbao BBK Live | 127 Bilbao, Spain Each July, Bilbao BBK Live stages three days of popular music amidst the mountains and clear views of its eponymous Spanish host city. Coupled with a close proximity to the beach and city centre, the late start time of its entertainment and ease of access have seen its popularity spike as a viable sojourn for overseas patrons, and has significantly boosted the region’s economy. Reportedly, hotels in the city regularly have an occupancy rate of 95% during the festival. This year features performances from Weezer, The Strokes, Liam Gallagher, Rosalía, Thom Yorke, Suede, Idles, Brockhampton, and Nils Frahm.

126 | Eurosonic Noorderslag Groningen, Netherlands The European emerging talent festival Eurosonic Noorderslag celebrated its 33rd anniversary in January 2019. Staying true to its purpose of stimulating the circulation of European music, the festival showcased 342 European acts across 42 venues this year. In the daytime of the four-day event, 4,135 international professionals from 44 countries participated in the Eurosonic Noorderslag conference and European Production Innovation Conference (EPIC) in order to network and discuss all the latest developments in the European music industry, with the conference and festival alike selling out completely.

Cornbury Music Festival | 125 Chipping Norton, UK The Cornbury Music Festival is a lovingly crafted and quintessentially English open-air party, tailor made with families in mind. Beyond its eclectic mix of music across four stages, the festival also encompasses a comedy emporium, a ‘Festival of Words’ hosted by QI and Unbound, a children’s area with a complete programme of workshops, gourmet caterers, coffee and emerging talent courtesy of partners Caffè Nero, an extensive range of arts and crafts stalls, roaming entertainers, a fairground, a relaxing therapy and massage zone, a Disco Shed, an exclusive VIP area, and camping and glamping sites nestled in the estate’s rolling hills.

61


124 | TW Classic Werchter, Belgium The single-stage TW Classic appeals mostly to nostalgia, transporting its wistful revellers back to an era when music was made with real instruments and not just by pressing a couple of buttons on one of them new-fangled PC computers. Sarcasm aside, what the festival does it does very well, with The Police, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Lionel Richie, Guns N’ Roses, The Pretenders, The Rolling Stones, and Depeche Mode among its previous performers, along with modern acts who nevertheless believe they are from the era, like Lana Del Rey and Wolfmother.

Volt Festival | 123 Sopron, Hungary Although Volt Festival draws over 100,000 fans each year, it prides itself on managing to maintain a close-knit and familyfriendly atmosphere. With around 10 stages, 150 performers and a number of quality lounges, bars, cafes, and restaurants – all built up in the middle of a green forest – Volt touts itself as a great place to meet open-minded and friendly music lovers. Despite its accessibility and family appeal, the festival’s programming sensibilities run the gamut between squeaky clean corporate pop, stoner hip-hop and heavy metal, this year personified by Black Eyed Peas, Cypress Hill, and Slipknot, respectively.

122 | Zürich Openair Zürich, Switzerland Zürich Openair offers a blend of top acts and promising new talent across its 95,000sqm site every year. Over four days and nights, the festival traditionally presents everything from indie rock to electronica. Equidistant between the city of Zürich and its neighbouring airport, Zürich Openair has become a big player on the Swiss festival scene, thanks in part to its high profile bookings over the years. Fifty thousand fans are expected to come out this year to see performances from Calvin Harris, The Chemical Brothers, Billie Eilish, Foals, Jungle, Jorja Smith, Royal Blood, and Swedish House Mafia.

62


Mountain Jam | 121 Hunter (NY), USA Mountain Jam is a four-day event set on the upstate New York ski resort of Hunter Mountain. Originally conceived to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Radio Woodstock, the festival was founded by the radio station’s president and CEO in 2005, plus The Allman Brothers Band and Gov’t Mule musician Warren Haynes. Following the first edition’s success, it has taken place every June since. Set in a pristine natural amphitheatre, its 15th outing will take place this year featuring approximately 45 bands across its three stages. Acts include Willie Nelson & Family, Phil Lesh & Friends, The Avett Brothers, The Revivalists, Dispatch, and Joe Russo’s Almost Dead.

120 | WOMADelaide Festival Adelaide (SA), Australia The Australian branch of Peter Gabriel’s WOMAD festival was founded in 1992 and has since become one of the nation’s most popular outdoor festivals, a feat achieved in part thanks to a family friendly atmosphere facilitated by providing free entry to kids 12 and under. The incredibly cosmopolitan world music line-up might have something to do with its widespread adoration too, which last year encompassed everyone from Gogol Bordello to Kamasi Washington, Jojo Abot, Nai Palm, and Peanut Butter Wolf.

North Sea Jazz | 119 Rotterdam, Netherlands Paul Acket ¬– a businessman and jazz lover who made a fortune in the 1960s through print publishing ¬– founded North Sea Jazz Festival in 1976. The inaugural edition was an immediate success, featuring six stages and 300 performances that drew over 9000 visitors. Some of said performances came courtesy of untouchable icons such as Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Sarah Vaughan, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, and Stan Getz. Still the Mecca of jazz music, this year the festival will welcome over 25,000 visitors to witness performances from more than 150 acts across 13 different stages. Refusing to confine itself to its titular genre, some of its most recent leftfield bookings include Flying Lotus, The Roots, Grace Jones, Solange, Sampha, Erykah Badu, Jamiroquai, The Cinematic Orchestra, and Maceo Parker.

63


118 | Summerburst Festival Stockholm / Gothenburg, Sweden Taking place in both Stockholm and Gothenburg, albeit a week apart, Summerburst is an EDM festival and recent acquisition of Live Nation. Entering its ninth year in 2019, the two-day, 54,000-capacity festival will see performances from Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Tiësto, Caroline Roxy, R3HAB, Dimitri Vangelis, Tinie Tempah, and Tigerlily. In a cool bout of philanthropy, every year Summerburst runs a songwriting contest for unsigned artists, the winner of which receives 50,000 kr, performs at Summerburst, and has their tune officially released with DF Records, the home to Swedish EDM star Mike Perry.

Eaux Claires | 117 Eau Claire (WI), USA Co-founded in 2015 by Justin Vernon of Bon Iver and Aaron Dessner of The National, Eaux Claires is a two-day music & arts festival that takes place in Wisconsin’s town of [almost] the same name. Having inherited its parents’ restless sense of creativity, Eaux Claires is a self-professed ‘anti-music-festival festival’ that continually and meaningfully switches up its own established template year-onyear. The fingerprints of its founders are to be found all over the event – from an unorthodox marketing strategy to a line-up seemingly comprised of their collective personal contacts. Decisions as bold as decreasing the amount of stages to foster a more intimate atmosphere, or having both headliners exclusively perform the music of others, are ones that could only be made by artists, and therein lies much of the festival’s appeal. This insatiable appetite for innovation did slightly backfire in 2018, however, when the idea of withholding the line-up until the event itself garnered a lukewarm response. Like most experiments, this particular one was heralded as a failure by quite a few in attendance, with complaints focused on both a lack of big names and a number of billed bands simply being ad-hoc reconfigurations of one another. Ostensibly as a result of its fourth edition’s mixed reception, the festival will undergo a fallow year for 2019, during which time the organisers promise to ‘bolster their philosophies’ so that 2020’s outing will emerge ‘more focused, fun, and internal’.

64


116 | Couleur Café Brussels, Belgium Since 1990, Couleur Café has been host to everything Afrocentric – from R&B and hip-hop to soul, funk, reggae, Latin, salsa, and electro, with acts like Ziggy Marley, Maceo Parker, Erykah Badu, De La Soul, Hudson Mohawke, Jamie Woon, and Quantic performing. Couleur Café founder Patrick Wallens told Festival Insights: “Couleur Café is a festival dedicated to all currents of urban music. Anchored in the heart of Brussels on the industrial site Tour & Taxis, this three-day festival reflects the diversity of the European capital. The world food restaurants, marching bands, dance workshops, beautiful cocktail bars, DJs and live acts create a truly unique cosmopolitan atmosphere.”

Ruisrock Festival | 115 Turku, Finland The 46-year-old Ruisrock is the oldest festival in Finland, and the second oldest continuously running festival in Europe. Organised on Ruissalo Island, a predominantly protected nature reserve inhabited by rare species of birds and assorted mammals, Ruisrock goes to great lengths to leave no trace upon its natural surroundings. Shifting somewhat from its rock ‘n’ roll roots, Ruisrock has recently made room for popular contemporary artists, electronic, and hip-hop, with this year’s line-up showcasing Travis Scott, Ellie Goulding, Brockhampton, Diplo, Bad Bunny, Future, MØ, Jpegmafia, Lykke Li, Rita Ora, J Balvin and more.

114 | Boardmasters Newquay, UK Organised by Vision Nine Group, Boardmasters is an annual music, surfing and skateboarding festival usually held over four days in mid-August, and dating back to 1981. After increasing its capacity to 50,000 in 2017, it comfortably qualifies as one of the UK’s biggest festivals. Boardmasters hosts the men’s World Qualifying Surfing competition, The Women’s Open, and the World Surf League for men and women, as well as numerous BMX and skate competitions with a considerably respectable line-up providing the soundtrack. This year will see performances from Wu-Tang Clan, Florence + The Machine, Foals, The Wombats, Dizzee Rascal, Jorja Smith, DJ EZ, Giggs, Idles, Mall Grab and more.

65


Electric Love | 113 Salzburg, Austria Surrounded by the natural splendour of mountains, lakes, and forests, Electric Love by contrast celebrates all things synthetic. Across three days and eight spectacular stages, Austria’s leading electronic festival hosts 160 acts, treating EDM enthusiasts to near fatal servings of bass and all the searing synthesizers they could ever need – an experience elevated to life-affirming heights with the mindblowing feats of production on display. Never one to shy away from self-improvement, 2019 will see the festival introduce several new additions: the Honeycomb Techno Stage, the Shutdown Uptempo Cage, an Alpine ski hut area, and a roller disco.

112 | Øyafestivalen Oslo, Norway Surprisingly, having an absolutely outstanding line-up hasn’t factored into these rankings, but if it had then Øya would be in the upper echelon. Some notable names from its past line-ups are Outkast, Neutral Milk Hotel, PJ Harvey, Todd Terje, Joey Bada$$, Darkside, Blood Orange, Little Dragon, Jon Hopkins, Queens of the Stone Age and Janelle Monáe, amongst others. Growing almost by mitosis, from a mere 1,200 total in 1999, to 17,500 per day last year, the festival has kept a grounded conscience, and employs numerous environmental initiatives across its site. With all of Norway’s electricity provided via sustainable sources, in 2009 Øya traded in its generators and personally funded the installation of the electronic infrastructure at the festival’s site in Middelalderparken, saving 40,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2015, which is roughly equivalent to 15,000 cars’ carbon emissions.

66


Bluedot Festival | 111 Cheshire,UK “The pale blue dot. The only home we’ve ever known”. Affectionately named after the astrophysicist Carl Sagan’s poignantly humbling words, Bluedot is a celebration of science at every point of entry, and a festival of cosmic, earthly and self-discovery. Hosted on the secularly consecrated grounds of Jodrell Bank Observatory, aptly beneath the towering Lovell Telescope, Bluedot executes a very deliberate vision. Live music, workshops, science experiments, interactive presentations, art installations, sci-fi esoterica and comedy all take equal precedence, each carefully conceived to stir and indulge profound astral wonder. Plus, education permeates Bluedot at every level, so if you’ve had your fill of astronomy for the day you can always turn to gastronomy and the onsite real ale microbrewery, you know…for science.

110 | Wonderfruit Pattaya, Thailand Wonderfruit is a pioneering carbon-neutral celebration of the arts, food and ideas designed to make a positive impact on both the state of its attendees’ minds and the cultural landscape of Thailand. Taking place at The Fields at Siam Country Club in Pattaya, Wonderfruit will return in December 2019 for its sixth iteration with world-class live music acts and DJs, as well as perspective-shifting talks and workshops, tantalizing tastes from award-winning chefs, family-friendly activities and more. Wonderfruit is produced by the Thai based organisation Scratch First, which uses the festival as an opportunity to bring together diverse communities in an environment where innovation, creativity and social cohesion go hand-in-hand.

67


Caprices Festival | 109 Valais, Switzerland Caprices is a four-day alpine festival whose three different stages are positioned on both the top and bottom of its slopes. Launched as Modernity@Caprices in 2003, the first edition of the festival came in 2004 with the intent to bring people and electronic artists together in a dreamlike location in the Swiss Alps. Recently shifting from mainstream and crossover programming sensibilities to more of an underground and exclusive cast, Caprices Festival continues to switch things up and thrive after 13 years on the scene. Jamie Jones, Ricardo Villalobos, Seth Troxler, Sven Vath, Peggy Gou, Black Coffee, Pan-Pot, and Marcel Dettmann brought some altitude sickness to the festival this year.

Hideout Festival | 108 Pag, Croatia Boasting pool and boat parties on iridescent waters – each soundtracked by the trendiest dance acts in the world – Hideout Festival sounds like a fun, sexy time for everyone involved. One of the most popular festivals of its kind in Europe, Hideout’s line-up demands attention from fans across the full spectrum of dance music. With Zrce Beach as its backdrop, the festival is a desirable destination for partygoers and adventure lovers alike, a fact appropriately identified by The Guardian after Hideout landed on their list of best European festivals in 2011, the festival’s first year. The festival now runs for five nights with over 150 artists performing.

107 | Super Bock, Super Rock Lisbon, Portugal With the Portuguese beer brand Super Bock as its principal sponsor, this nomadic festival has changed locations several times since its infancy in the mid ‘90s, having most recently resettled at Meco Beach in Sesimbra. Now equipped with four stages and welcoming 35,000 music fans for each of its three days, SBSR cultivates much of its appeal from an eclectic approach to programming that speaks to the blurred lines of contemporary listening habits. Between headliners Lana Del Rey, Phoenix, and Migos – not to mention its diverse undercard of contemporary trendsetters – the festival’s 2019 edition promises to cover as many bases as ever.

68


Fairport’s Cropredy Convention | 106 Cropredy, UK Founded by seminal British folk rock band Fairport in 1980, this 24,000-capacity festival has purposely stuck with a one-stage setup in order to ensure that the audience doesn’t miss a single act. Also intentional is the guarantee that each band, regardless of timeslot, will perform in front of thousands. The Cropredy ‘Fringe’ – consisting of entertainment provided by the two pubs in the village – act as satellite stages. Resistant to being pigeonholed as a folk festival, Cropredy has hosted the likes of Alice Cooper, Robert Plant, Status Quo, Squeeze, Seasick Steve, The Coral, Madness, Petula Clark, Steve Winwood and Buzzcocks over the years.

105 | Deichbrand Festival Cuxhaven, Germany Adopting the slogan “It’s a long way to the top if you wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll!” after its first edition in 2005 – which was attended by 500 people and cost a modest €12 – Deichbrand might have just made good on its ambition, as 120 times that figure bore down on the festival’s North Sea-side home last year. That’s 60,000, to clarify. An interesting logistical feature of Deichbrand is its separate Green camping site, an opt-in initiative for around 12,000 campers, geared towards those of us who take personal responsibility for our waste, and creating a little environmental utopia for the weekend.

69


Rewind North | 104 Macclesfield, UK One of near-identical triplets – the others being Rewind South and Rewind Scotland – Rewind North aims to be an unrivalled celebration of 80s music and culture, having brought the likes of The Jacksons, Bonnie Tyler, Billy Ocean, The Boomtown Rats, Thin Lizzy, Bananarama, Level 42, and Heaven 17 to Macclesfield’s Capesthorne Hall over the past 11 years. Not content to be a straightforward nostalgia trip, the festival also boasts comedy, street food, a silent disco, cinema, karaoke, musical bingo, crazy golf, a honky-tonk piano bar, funfair, and plenty of kids’ entertainment.

103 | Greenfield Festival Interlaken, Switzerland Greenfield is an annual rock festival held on the outskirts of the town of Interlaken, in the Swiss canton of Bern. Organised by FKP Scorpio, the 30,000-capacity event will welcome Slipknot, Sabaton, Amon Amarth, Dropkick Murphys, Papa Roach, Within Temptation and more to perform at this year’s edition. For every plastic cup recycled, two Swiss Francs will be donated to the Greenfield Festival Foundation, which was founded by the festival in 2012 to support and fund selected musical projects home and abroad, bolstering the culture and the protecting the environment in the process.

Longitude | 102 Dublin, Ireland Ireland’s definitely largest and possibly only hip-hop festival, Longitude’s line-ups go toe-to-toe with the best in its class across the globe. Whereas those with bigger budgets often pad out their interesting bookings with, well, less interesting ones, Longitude’s programmes are practically filler-free. 2019’s sold-out edition features Chance the Rapper, Cardi B, A$AP Rocky, Lil Uzi Vert, Future, JID, Brockhampton, Flatbush Zombies, Denzel Curry, Flohio, Jpegmafia, Vince Staples, Dave, Little Simz, and Slowthai.

70


101 | NOS Alive (formerly Optimus Alive!) Lisbon, Portugal In tandem with Porto’s Optimus Primavera Sound, Optimus Alive changed its forename to NOS several years ago. Despite a change in title, both festivals have stayed true to their indie, rock, and just a little bit of pop origins. At its home on the Tagus riverside, 2018’s edition of the three-day NOS Alive festival saw a tightly packed line-up of talent, featuring Arctic Monkeys, Pearl Jam, Queens of the Stone Age, Nine Inch Nails, Jack White, SOPHIE, and Yo La Tengo. A huge event for the city, NOS Alive has been broadcast on national radio and television, as well as online every year since 2012.

Essaouira Gnaoua | 100 Essaouira, Morocco Featuring sizeable contingents of French, Moroccan, and Senegalese musicians, Essaouira Gnaoua is one of the most successful world music festivals going, attracting more than 500,000 visitors every year. Also covering jazz, pop, and rock, the festival provides the platform for fusion and collaboration between foreign artists and traditional North African gnawa musicians, which the festival grew from. For three days and nights, the port of Essaouira resembles a carnival, brilliantly alive with eccentric street performers, bustling markets, colourful dancers, and vibrant decoration. This year, Essaouira Gnaoua will celebrate its 22nd anniversary with nearly 80 artists.

71


99-50

72


99-50

99 | Lovebox London, UK

OpenAir Frauenfeld | 66 Frauenfeld, Switzerland

Barclaycard Presents | 98 London, UK

65 | Rototom Sunsplash Benicassim, Spain

97 | Paléo Festival Nyon Nyon, Switzerland

Hellfest | 82 Clisson, France

Sasquatch! Festival | 64 Gorge (WA), USA

80s Rewind (South) | 96 Oxfordshire, UK

81 | Parookaville Weeze, Germany

63 | Hangout Music Festival Gulf Shores (AL), USA

95 | Concert at SEA Zeeland, The Netherlands

Kendal Calling | 80 Kendal, UK

Le Printemps de Bourges | 62 Bourges, France

Lightning in a Bottle | 94 Bradley (CA), USA

79 | Graspop Metal Meeting Dessel, Belgium

61 | Camp Bestival Dorset, UK

93 | Neversea Constanța, Romania

Southside Festival | 78 Munich, Germany

Way Out West | 60 Gothenburg, Sweden

Rock on the Range | 92 Columbus (OH), USA

77 | Flow Festival Helsinki, Finland

59 | Wireless Festival Germany Frankfurt, Germany

91 | Splendour in the Grass Festival Byron Bay (NSW), Australia

Bottle Rock | 76 Napa (CA), USA

Nova Rock | 58 Nickelsdorf, Austria

Download Paris | 90 Paris, France

75 | Electric Forest Festival Rothbury (MI), USA

57 | Nuits Sonores Lyon, France

89 | NorthSide Festival Aarhus, Denmark

Balaton Sound | 74 Zamardi Beach, Hungary

OpenAir St. Gallen | 88 St. Gallen, Switzerland

73 | Peace & Love Festival Darlana, Sweden

55 | Mad Cool Festival Madrid, Spain

87 | Sunburn Goa, India

Wilderness | 72 Charlbury, UK

Movement Electronic Festival | 54 Detroit (MI), USA

Tinderbox | 86 Odense, Denmark

71 | Parklife Manchester, UK

53 | Outside Lands San Francisco (CA), USA

85 | BPM Festival Portimao & Lagoa, Portugal

Smukfest | 70 Skanderborg, Denmark

Dour Festival | 84 Dour, Belgium

69 | Eurockéennes Sermamagny, France

51 | Pol’and’Rock Festival Kostrzyn, Poland

83 | Woodford Folk Festival Woodford (QLD), Australia

New Orleans Jazz Festival | 68 New Orleans (LA), USA

Lowlands | 50 Biddinghuizen, Netherlands

67 | Clockenflap Hong Kong, China

Festival Internacional de Benicassim | 56 Benicassim, Spain

Summersonic | 52 Osaka, Japan


99 | Lovebox London, UK One of the more credible and colourful fixtures in the UK festival calendar, Lovebox was founded as a nomadic party brand by Groove Armada in the early noughties, before graduating into a fullyfledged festival in Victoria Park in 2005. Since hosting its first night in an old strip club, Lovebox has matured into a 50,000-capacity event, widely respected for reliably booking critical darlings and festival favourites in equal measure. Having never given up its sojourning spirit, Lovebox moved once more in 2018 – this time to Gunnersbury Park – and in 2019 will feature performances from Chance the Rapper, Solange, Cypress Hill, Brockhampton, Four Tet, Giggs, J Hus, Loyle Carner, Kaytranada, Action Bronson, and Annie Mac.

Barclaycard Presents: British Summer Time Hyde Park | 98 London, UK In spite of its verbose name, the offerings of Barclaycard Presents: British Summer Time Hyde Park are pretty concise. With two stages, uncluttered but potent line-ups, beautiful surroundings and a clear layout, it’s easy to see why the series of one-day festivals sells 65,000 tickets to each. The juxtaposition at the heart of the festival – the coupling of a lush greenfield site with a central metropolitan locale – has proven to be crucial to its appeal, allowing attendees to bask in the magnificence of trees and associated greenery without having to spend the customary three hours erecting a tent. Taking part in the middle of the capital also enables the festival to host a range of high quality local eateries, whose produce one can endlessly gorge upon with the knowledge that there are proper toilets onsite, with actual plumbing. Anyone remember that girl who fell down the longdrops at Leeds Festival that one time? Wouldn’t have happened at Barclaycard Presents: British Summer Time Hyde Park, I can tell you that for the price of free.

74


97 | Paléo Festival Nyon Nyon, Switzerland Despite the implications of its name, Paléo has nothing to do mimicking the dietary habits of troglodytes and everything to do with ingesting vibrant fringe music that exists in (hopefully) satirical micro-genres such as ‘literary rock’, ‘composite hip-hop’ and ‘electronic gypsy cabaret’. Nestled between the Jura Mountains and Lake Geneva, halfway between the cities of Geneva and Lausanne, it has become one of Europe’s largest open-air music events since its humble beginnings in 1976. Over six days, audiences totalling more than 230,000 come together for the event, which boasts over 250 concerts.

80s Rewind (South) | 96 Oxfordshire, UK If the trio of 80s Rewind festivals can teach us anything, it’s that there are way more 80s icons than anybody would have thought, enough that the organisers don’t just book one static line-up and ship it around to its two other sites for repeat viewings; there is remarkable variation between them. The southern iteration will see Four Tops, Lulu, Kathy Sledge, Grandmaster Flash, and Michael Bolton converge for exclusive 80s Rewind appearances this year.

75


95 | Concert at SEA Zeeland, The Netherlands Concert at SEA, blessed with a unique location by the seafront, is one of the largest and fastest selling festivals in the Netherlands. Interestingly, the festival is organised by one of Holland’s biggest bands, BLØF, alongside promoter Agents After All. Over the past 12 years the festival has attracted international headliners such as Sting, Alanis Morissette, Lenny Kravitz, Counting Crows, Passenger, Bastille, James Morrison, Skunk Anansie, Tom Odell, Gavin James and Faithless.

Lightning in a Bottle | 94 Bradley (CA), USA World renowned as California’s premiere boutique camping, music and arts festival, Lightning in a Bottle brings together a community of inspired individuals, internationally acclaimed musicians, enlightening speakers and illuminating workshops designed to promote sustainability, social cohesion, wellness and creative expression. Executed by event creators Do LaB, the festival occurs over Memorial Day Weekend at Lake San Antonio Recreation Area in Bradley, California, with previous installments showcasing world class live and electronic music acts such as Nick Murphy (FKA Chet Faker), Nicolas Jaar, and Flume. A vanguard of sustainability initiatives, Lightning in a Bottle has also won A Greener Festival’s ‘Outstanding’ award five times. Similarly trailblazing is its work with the Zendo Project, a psychedelic harm reduction specialist that disseminates objective drug related information and testing kits to attendees to ensure their safety.

76


93 | Neversea Constanța, Romania Romania’s second largest festival is the brainchild of Romania’s first largest festival, Untold. Sharing much of its progenitor’s EDM DNA, the beachside spectacular will this year feature performances from Afrojack, Alesso, DJ Snake, Steve Aoki, Sean Paul, Andy C, Jamie Jones, Sub Focus, and Wilkinson.

Rock on the Range | 92 Columbus (OH), USA Rock On The Range is one of the largest and most acclaimed rock festivals in the United States, and celebrated its 12th anniversary in 2018 at Columbus, Ohio’s MAPFRE Stadium. Its line-up is virtually unrivalled for the seasoned rock fan; a circle pit could spit you out at any time in any direction and you’d find yourself at the foot of one of your favourite bands. Last year featured Tool, Avenged Sevenfold, A Perfect Circle, Alice in Chains, Baroness, Andrew W.K., and basically everyone else that ever touched a guitar. The latest edition of the festival sold out just over a month after going on sale, making this the sixth consecutive advance sell-out for Rock On The Range.

77


91 | Splendour in the Grass Festival Byron Bay (NSW), Australia Unwilling to settle for a similar line-up to its national counterparts, Splendour In The Grass last year continued to establish its individual character through exclusive Australian performances from Lorde and Vampire Weekend, plus a wide assortment of those currently killing it, from Kendrick Lamar to MGMT, Khalid, Miguel, Chvrches, and Towkio. Aside from the main programme, the festival incorporates several other areas, including The Tipi Forest – an immersive outdoor dance space full of interactive art, where you can create mandalas from natural elements and add to the Intra mural amidst underground sounds and alternative beats.

Download Paris | 90 Paris, France Download Paris is the devil-horned Ronnie James Dio scream to arms for every metalhead on the European mainland. Though the little sister to its big brother in Donington, UK, Download Paris presents a feast as fat as theirs. Held on the same weekend as back home, every significant headliner carries over to Paris, alternating line-up days in the manner of domestic sister festivals. Acts this year include Ozzy Osbourne, Marilyn Manson, Foo Fighters, Guns N’ Roses, The Offspring, Volbeat, Ghost, NOFX, Converge, and Perturbator. A significant logistical point about Download Paris: it is one of an increasing number of festivals to adopt a cashless payment system site-wide, whereby guests pay for services and goods via a prepaid account linked to a microchip in their entrance wristband, facilitating quicker and safer transactions.

78


89 | NorthSide Festival Aarhus, Denmark The 10th edition of NorthSide will occur this June, presenting acts like Alice in Chains, Bon Iver, Foals, Idles, New Order, Major Lazer, Migos, Tame Impala, The Streets, and approximately 30 others, all helping to once again turn the peaceful Aarhus valley into three days of high-energy music and parties. NorthSide focuses on innovation, sustainability, and user involvement, and has the largest selection of organic food of any Danish festival. Besides a large selection of vegetarian and vegan options there are also several seated dinner options built around the philosophy of social dining. Located within walking distance of downtown Aarhus, the festival is deeply rooted in its community, drawing on a number of organisations and groups like graffiti artists, bicycle enthusiasts, student groups, and many more, who help build an event unlike any other in Denmark.

OpenAir St. Gallen | 88 St. Gallen, Switzerland OpenAir St.Gallen is one of the oldest and biggest outdoor festivals in Switzerland, having been established in 1977 and at this point attracting more than 110,000 music fans each year. A notable feature of the festival is that the campsite is included within the festival arena, removing the barriers from where you dance and where you sleep. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to see your favourite band perform on-stage while you’re relaxing in front of your tent. This is one of the traits that make OpenAir St.Gallen special, besides its unique flora-adorned setting in the valley of the river Sitter.

79


87 | Sunburn Goa, India In 2015, Insights interviewed Shailendra Singh, ‘The Inceptor’ of Sunburn Festival. The EDM titan claimed its place as the most successful dance music festival in Asia as far back as 2013. Since 2007 it has grown from a 10,000-capacity gamble to an absolute certainty, now attracting 60,000 digital dreamers to Goa every day for the parenthetical holiday stretch of December 27 - 30. Its avoidance of Christmas and New Year’s isn’t accidental; Singh knew that detracting from the local economy – rather than enhancing it – would cripple the event before it had legs. Through its plethora of national and international incarnations, plus its extensive experiential programming, Sunburn has effectively transcended the reductive moniker of ‘music festival’, as Singh attested. “Sunburn is a lifestyle product rather than just an event,” he said. “We’re running a marathon in which we want to incorporate the entire culture surrounding music. Since our inception in 2007 we’ve consciously dedicated 50% of the programme and the venue space to experiences, including painting areas, tarot card readings, astrology, educational and artistic installations, conference panels, a flea market, a massage centre, volleyball, table tennis, basketball, a rock-climbing wall, an art gallery and more.”

Tinderbox | 86 Odense, Denmark Taking its name from a poem by Odense wordsmith Hans Christian Anderson, Tinderbox is a relatively new entry on the festival scene whose stylistic sensibilities lean heavily towards inoffensive pop, rock, and EDM – with Robbie Williams, Calvin Harris, The Gaslight Anthem, and Denmark’s own MØ on the inaugural bill. The festival’s motto, when put through Google Translate, spits out “Where words fail, music speaks – please do not pee in the tree – life is like a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up”. Words to live by. Taking place in Odense’s Millennium Forest, performances last year included Jack White, Depeche Mode, Iggy Pop, Prophets of Rage, Wiz Khalifa, and Kygo.

85 | BPM Festival Portimão & Lagoa, Portugal The BPM Festival is an annual 10-day and night electronic music festival, founded by Craig Pettigrew and Philip Pulitano, and historically held in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. BPM, which stands for ‘Bartenders, Promoters, Musicians’ was conceived as a post-New Year’s gathering of industry professionals and has grown to a 70,000+ congregation of DJs, producers, revellers and industry insiders.

80 80


Dour Festival | 84 Dour, Belgium Dour Festival might be a bit of a misnomer considering the vibrancy of the artists it chooses to showcase, with everyone from A$AP Rocky to Battles, Nina Kraviz to Mr. Oizo, and Charlotte de Witte to Skepta in attendance. Effectively equidistant from France, England, Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Germany, Dour Festival is situated in the accessible, scenic village of the same name. Evidently the focus of the organisers is music centric here; unlike other entries in this list there aren’t a whole lot of extras, but the ones available are quietly impressive. Beer connoisseurs can enjoy a ‘special beer bar’, and football enthusiasts can register for its annual ‘Dournois’ tournament.

83 | Woodford Folk Festival Woodford (QLD), Australia Roughly 130,000 people attend Woodford Folk Festival’s six-day forest getaway every year. Seventy kilometres north of Brisbane on a rural, 250-hectare patch of land dubbed Woodfordia, Woodford culminates on the precipice of the New Year in a pyrotechnic, musical, theatrical and dance display simply dubbed the ‘Fire Event’. Despite its penchant for burning things, Woodford Folk won the FasterLouder Festival Award for the Most Green Friendly Festival in 2008, and often invites environmentalist activists to speak at its event. This preservationist tendency shows in the festival’s expansive line-ups too, with its resources spreading far and wide.

Hellfest | 82 Clisson, France Brooding deep in the plains of Turkmenistan’s Karakum Desert lays an abyssal pit of perpetually blazing natural gas affectionately dubbed the ‘Door to Hell’. Encircled on all fronts by endless swathes of nothingness, the 60 metre wide and 20 metre deep anti-oasis was ignited by Soviet petrochemical engineers in 1971 – presumably for fun – and has inexorably raged ever since. Tangential as this factoid may be, the Door to Hell embodies the exact atmosphere that Hellfest attempts to cultivate through its plethora of acts, whose logos are as illegible as their music is heavy. Hellfest’s financial clout – coupled with an encyclopaedic knowledge of metal and the genre’s many permutations – results in a bill unparalleled in comprehensiveness and credibility. 81


81 | Parookaville Weeze, Germany So the story goes, Parookaville was named after its founding father Bill Parooka, a benevolent, utopian man donned in steampunk garb – aviator goggles, top hat, duster, flares and boots – and wielding a staff that looks strikingly similar to a honey dipper, but is probably some kind of Tesla coil in formal canon. The Parookaville festival is the annual commemoration of the man and the governing law of the land he instituted, defined by Madness, Love, and Pure Happiness. Things are prosperous in Parookaville. Amenities are plenty – there’s an official newspaper, a post office, a supermarket, a barber’s, a tattoo parlour, a fairground, a bank, a church, and obviously a fully stocked line-up of EDM stars paying homage to the supreme leader, Bill Parooka.

Kendal Calling | 80 Kendal, UK Winner of multiple UK Festival Awards, the beloved Lake District based Kendal Calling is renowned not only for its music but its hospitality, family-friendly atmosphere, commitment to emerging talent, and even its innovative marketing campaigns. Further doing its best to represent all that’s good in the world, or at least Cumbria, Kendall Calling supports over a dozen charities, one of which is the David Lynch Foundation, to which all profits from the Tim Peaks Diner filter towards.

79 | Graspop Metal Meeting Dessel, Belgium Despite its perimeter spanning only four kilometres, Graspop Metal Meeting somehow manages to funnel 45,000 daily visitors through its site each year for four days of metal and punk. Originally conceived as a family friendly rock festival, its ailing ticket sales in 1995 prompted a reconfiguration of its remit, as well as a name change. Since then the festival has enjoyed a continually growing audience, and now has five stages. The annual assembly last year saw headline performances from Guns N’ Roses, Iron Maiden, and Ozzy Osbourne, as well as additional performances from Avenged Sevenfold, Judas Priest, Parkway Drive, and Megadeth.

82 82


Southside Festival | 78 Munich, Germany Southside is the southern counterpart and big sister to Germany’s Hurricane Festival, and shares a nearly identical line-up over its three days, only even slightly steering off course once you’re halfway through each site’s list of acts. It’s uncanny really; almost as if the whole festival were packed into a van and unloaded like a pop-up tent 760 kilometres’ later. Even the locations similarly juxtapose remote woods and farmland against gnawing guitar riffs and nasally pop-punk singers, depending who’s on at the time. One guaranteed difference between the two is the food, with each festival employing local restaurants and eateries to keep everyone’s insulin levels up.

77 | Flow Festival Helsinki, Finland Beyond its generation and genre-spanning music, Flow Festival warmly embraces the arts and offers an exceptional array of diverse cuisine. Only a short walk away from the centre of Helsinki, the festival breathes life into its monumental architectural site, which in 2019 will welcome Cardi B, The Cure, James Blake, Tame Impala, Erykah Badu, Robyn, and many others. Flow is one of the first carbon neutral festivals in the world, striving to entirely compensate for its environmental footprint through recycling and the serving of locally sourced organic food. Its close proximity to the centre of the city facilitates the use of public transport or bikes to reach its gates, allowing its ecologically cognisant attendees to enjoy a wealth of renowned international acts guilt-free.

Bottle Rock | 76 Napa (CA), USA Kicking off the US festival season from the heart of the legendary Napa Valley, Bottle Rock combines music with a wealth of beloved bottled beverages, which the region just so happens to specialise in – namely wines and craft beers. Additionally, there are world-class muralists and sculptors, a culinary stage, and a host of VIP options for an exceedingly luxurious festival experience. The line-up is as fine as its wine as well, this year offering proven classics like Neil Young, Gary Clark Jr., and Santana, as well as universally un-unlikeable acts like Cypress Hill, Pharrell Williams, and Flogging Molly.

83


75 | Electric Forest Festival Rothbury (MI), USA Having wrapped up its seventh year, Electric Forest is known for bringing together a passionate group of fans whose shared community spirit makes the festival a truly unique experience. The festival incorporates the natural beauty of its surroundings at the lakeside woodland of Michigan’s JJ Resort, and incorporates it into carefully crafted art pieces and creatively themed environments, while colourful interactive characters and storylines blend with eclectic performing artists and musicians. The festival is hosted over two weekends, with slight tweaks in line-up between them.

Balaton Sound | 74 Zamardi Beach, Hungary Balaton Sound, organised at Lake Balaton in Hungary, hosts 35,000 people a day for its five-day run. Though it’s entirely landlocked, that hasn’t stopped Balaton Sound from throwing its own beach party for the past 10 years. Standing on its banks you could easily mistake the lake for an ocean, given that it’s the largest in Europe, and it plays host to boat parties, waterfront stages, and this year, acts like Armin van Buuren, DJ Snake, J Balvin, The Chainsmokers, Future, and Marshmello. The Mastercard-sponsored event won the European Festival Award for Best Medium-Sized European Festival in 2013 as well.

73 | Peace & Love Festival Darlana, Sweden After filing for bankruptcy in 2013, the newly rebranded Peace & Love World Forum rose from the ashes in 2014 like an eco-friendly phoenix. Since the original’s inception in 1999, each year has had a ‘focus area’, such as ‘Revolution’, ‘A New World’, ‘Wake Up!’ and ‘Courage, Hope & Love’. As a bit of an all-rounder, recent line-ups have featured bands like The Hellacopters, Kansas, and Canned Heat, rappers LBSB and Dani M, DJs Dada Life, brass band Sallyswag, acoustic singer-songwriters Jose Gonzales, Lisa Miskovsky, and Good Harvest, as well as edgy popstars Felin, Julie Bergan, Icona Pop, and Cherrie.

84


Wilderness | 72 Charlbury, UK Characterised by its organisers as a ‘heady dose of high art playtime with a side of low-down dirty dancefloor hijinks’, Wilderness is at once one of the more cerebral and hedonistic fixtures of the UK’s festival calendar. Sporting a progressive and deliberately curated programme, the festival rounds out its superlative music offering with theatre & arts, wellbeing activities, food & drink, talks & debates, and family entertainment. Perhaps most interesting of all, those with an affinity for the outdoors can partake in foraging, axe throwing, horse riding, hiking, rock climbing, wild swimming, and boating – amongst other pursuits. As if all of the above wasn’t enough, Wilderness’ ninth edition will add six vibrant new venues when it returns to Cornbury Park this August.

71 | Parklife Manchester, UK Parklife is a two-day festival whose expansive line-ups blur the lines between hip-hop, house, techno, indie and electronica, representing something of a spiritual microcosm of Manchester’s musical heritage, bold as it is to name a northern festival after a southern Britpop band’s hit song. Owing to its parentage from The Warehouse Project and Live Nation, Parklife regularly puts on a scarcely rivalled, dense line-up of innovative international talent, this year exemplified by Cardi B, Solange, George Ezra, The Streets, Christine and the Queens, Dave, Nas, Kaytranada, Helena Hauff, Little Simz, Slowthai and many more.

Smukfest | 70 Skanderborg, Denmark Smukfest, which takes place amidst a beech forest every August, is the second largest festival in Denmark and one of few to offer its fans the chance to nominate acts they’d like to see in the following year, which last year included Kendrick Lamar, Deadmau5, Post Malone, Shawn Mendes, and none other than Britney Spears. The festival has a pretty evolved sense of altruism – each year donating the proceeds of its onsite sports tournament to The Beautiful Foundation, as well as allocating 200,000 DKK to various local cultural initiatives.

85


69 | Eurockéennes Sermamagny, France Established in 1989, Eurockéennes is an independent, 34,000-capacity festival in Eastern France that awakens for three days and three nights on the first weekend of July every year. It’s produced by the non-profit association, Territoire de Musiques, and nestled on the Malsaucy peninsula – a protected and unspoiled location surrounded by two stretches of water – featuring a water sports centre, a beach, and an environmental centre. The festival’s four principles are to create unique experiences, to protect the environment, to support and develop emerging talent, and to encourage solidarity amongst all economic, cultural, and social backgrounds. Eurockéennes is also fond of promoting civic values, and each year launches a social responsibility program called Eurocks Solidaires, with an aim to develop access to culture for all.

New Orleans Jazz Festival | 68 New Orleans (LA), USA The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, presented by Shell, celebrates the music and culture of New Orleans and Louisiana at large with the biggest names in rock, blues, jazz, R&B, gospel, Cajun, zydeco, folk, Latin, rap, country (thankfully not rap-country), bluegrass and almost everything in between. Spanning two weekends, Jazz Fest consistently scores an impressive line-up of over 500 artists on 12 stages. Located at the New Orleans Fair Grounds, incredible food and crafts from around the region and the world round out the sevenday extravaganza that keeps Jazz Fest an annual can’t-miss destination.

67 | Clockenflap Hong Kong, China In an attempt to defy definition, and I guess to boost their SEO, the organisers of the ridiculous sounding ‘Clockenflap’ just made up a word for the festival’s moniker. Despite their playfulness in choosing a name, it seems that the Hong Kong based event has a serious vision in building a responsible, sustainable event that the region can be proud of, having consulted environmental research consultancy Globescan to do so. Last year’s line-up was something for Hong Kong to be proud of as well, having booked artists of international renown, such as David Byrne, Erykah Badu, Interpol, Jarvis Cocker, Caribou, and Alvvays, alongside a selection of influential domestic acts.

86


OpenAir Frauenfeld | 66 Frauenfeld, Switzerland Openair Frauenfeld is one of the largest festivals in Switzerland, boasting a capacity of 100,000 and past programmes incorporating everyone from Rammstein to Wu-Tang Clan to Pink, though its central focus remains hip-hop oriented, and in this respect its energy is unrivalled. Between German rapper Marteria running into the crowd and inciting a mosh pit around himself, Desiigner’s open invitation to join him on stage, or even Travis Scott kicking off on a member of the audience in past years, there’s something about Frauenfeld that brings out the hype in artists and fans alike.

65 | Rototom Sunsplash Benicassim, Spain One of the more socially conscious festivals on this list, reggae festival Rototom Sunsplash incorporates an educational component into its proceedings with the Reggae University, plus a Social Forum designed for debate and the exchange of ideas, an Art Symposium, an artisanal market, as well as areas to learn about sustainability and African culture. Of course, there’s quite a lot of everything else too – an open-air market consisting of over 100 stalls, 38 restaurants and bars; a beach; an art gallery with live painting; a circus; and obviously, music. This year will feature performances from Ziggy Marley, Chronixx, Busy Signal, and Queen Ifrica.

Sasquatch! Festival | 64 Gorge (WA), USA Named after one of the five greatest forest-dwelling apemen of all time, Sasquatch! Festival possesses a similar level of prestige to the eponymous hominid due to the depth and breadth of its line-ups, last year including Bon Iver, The National, Modest Mouse, David Byrne, Spoon, Vince Staples, Grizzly Bear and more. Taking place at the Gorge Amphitheatre, in view of the Columbia River and the pastoral mountains of the Cascade Range, Sasquatch! Festival’s venue is widely considered to be one of the most scenic in the world, and is a nine-time winner of Pollstar Magazine’s award for Best Outdoor Venue.

87


63 | Hangout Music Festival Gulf Shores (AL), USA A.J. Niland and Shaul Zislin founded Hangout Music Festival at the tail end of 2009, after spending several years scouting locations. In 2015, Goldenvoice – the promoter behind Coachella – entered into a joint venture to produce the festival. Similarly to Coachella, Hangout’s line-ups typically run the gamut from rock to electronica, hip-hop, punk, RnB, and EDM. Those who can afford the two-tiered VIP options can enjoy such extras as watching main stage acts from hot tubs, eating gourmet food prepared by acclaimed chefs, getting rides to stages on golf carts, plus a number of assorted surprises, but most important of all: air conditioned restrooms.

Le Printemps de Bourges | 62 Bourges, France Le Printemps de Bourges is practically a French institution at this point, and amongst the most historic festivals on this list. Having been established in 1977 to host traditional Chanson artists – a type of lyric-driven French songwriting – Le Printemps de Bourges has been content to embrace the ebb and flow of contemporary music alongside it, without ever detaching from its roots. A study in integrity, versatility, and longevity, the festival is a living legend in context, and hints at no sign of letting up as the torch is passed from generation to generation. Turnout each year frequently tops 200,000 over its five-day course, with the overwhelming majority of attendees being under 35 years of age.

61 | Camp Bestival Dorset, UK Much like actors who turn to kids’ films in their later years so that their own children can watch them in something, so too, it seems, do festivals. Camp Bestival is the kid sister of Bestival, aimed at families with children aged anything from toddler to teen. Unlike the majority of those films, however, the term family fun has never been so unambiguously true for all involved. Essentially a cooler reimagining of the British staple holiday camp mashed up with a music festival, Camp Bestival expertly curates universal appeal across age every group. Over its four days, wholesome, indisputably agreeable headliners blend seamlessly into the line-up alongside revered contemporary artists. Specially designed age-specific activities also run across the entire festival, ensuring that at any one time, there is always something for everyone.

88


Way Out West | 60 Gothenburg, Sweden Taking place in Sweden’s music capital of Gothenburg every August, Way Out West will celebrate its 13th anniversary this year with a multitude of international talent, including Cardi B, James Blake, The Cure, Stormzy, Earl Sweatshirt, Cupcakke, and Blood Orange. What’s more, its nighttime programme, Stay Out West, will once again give revellers a chance to see acts of the highest calibre play in the best and most unique venues across the city. The festival’s environmental credentials are also something to behold. In 2012 Way Out West announced that all food served to artists, staff and visitors during the festival would be vegetarian, and in 2017 stopped serving dairy.

59 | Wireless Festival Germany Frankfurt, Germany The London based Wireless Festival has been instrumental in supporting hip-hop and pop music for over 12 years, and its younger German sibling hopes to follow in its footsteps. Conceived in 2017, Wireless Festival Germany hosts national and international artists – both established and upcoming – and welcomes 40,000 fans per day. Aside from the music, Wireless Germany offers an array of ancillary experiences, ranging from breakdance performances and street art to culinary delights and open-air shisha bars. In 2019 the festival will relocate to the Alter Rebstock Park, a green oasis in the heart of Frankfurt.

89


Nova Rock | 58 Nickelsdorf, Austria Ever since 2005, Nickelsdorf’s Nova Rock has staged international acts alongside local ones every June, with metal and hard rock leanings as the common thread between them. The festival is arranged by Nova Music Entertainment, which is a super group combining Musicnet with the seemingly omnipresent European event organisers, FKP Scorpio. With flat rural planes in all directions, sparsely punctuated by wind farms, last year Nova Rock saw 200,000 people pass through its gates to see The Prodigy, Marilyn Manson, Volbeat, Iron Maiden, Avenged Sevenfold, and Billy Idol.

57 | Nuits Sonores Lyon, France For five days and nights a year, Nuits Sonores (‘Night Sounds’ to me and you) is a multi-disciplinary event that transforms the city of Lyon into a playground of scattershot electronic expression, from the sonic to the visual, presenting the bleeding edge in innovative music and performance technology. Celebrating new and local talent as well as the already established, the 85,000-capacity festival utilises Lyon’s most interesting venues to showcase its artists’ creative works, examples of which include a pre-WWI light bulb factory, a swimming pool on the banks of the Rhone, the Charlemagne ice skating rink, a former 17th century convent, and the historical art deco Citroën building.

Festival Internacional de Benicassim | 56 Benicassim, Spain Aficionados of beaches, bangers and beers will no doubt thrive at Benicassim, as long as they’re somehow immune to heat stroke. Likely due to said heat, the bands run from 5pm – 8am, so attendees better be ready to forego their Circadian rhythm in exchange for some rhythm of the four-to-the-floor variety. Given Benicassim-the-municipality’s reputation as a clubbing enclave, Benicassim-the-festival has a surprisingly varied line-up, this year hosting Lana Del Rey, Kings of Leon, Fatboy Slim, The 1975, Action Bronson, Jess Glynne, AJ Tracey, Franz Ferdinand, and Marina, as well as the expected house and dance DJs across its five stages.

90


55 | Mad Cool Festival Madrid, Spain Now with its fourth year on the horizon, Mad Cool has made huge strides during its relatively short time on Earth. Arguably the jewel in Madrid’s crown, the festival welcomes all manner of international talent to entertain and inspire some 80,000 daily visitors. With curatorial sensibilities straddling indie, electronica, hip-hop, rock, and pop, this year’s line-up includes The National, The Smashing Pumpkins, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Bon Iver, The Cure, Prophets of Rage, The 1975, Vampire Weekend, Kaytranada, and Tokimonsta.

Movement Electronic Festival | 54 Detroit (MI), USA It is only right that the birthplace of techno should have an annual celebration of the genre’s indelible mark on electronic music. However, the festival’s stylistic sensibilities are anything but monolithic, with some of the most interesting hip-hop, dubstep, downtempo, electro, and house artists gracing its stages. Taking place every year at Detroit’s Hart Plaza, there’s room for 90,000 people a day to come down, last year for performances from Ben Klock, Carl Craig, Juicy J, Earl Sweatshirt, Jamie Jones, Seth Troxler, Thundercat, S U R V I V E, and Detroit’s own Danny Brown, who’s admitted himself that he grew up on the city’s electronic scene.

91


53 | Outside Lands San Francisco (CA), USA Set in the iconic Golden Gate Park, Outside Lands apparently wants you to forget there’s even music on with its onslaught of delicious sounding cuisine. There’s Bacon Land – hosted by Bacon Bacon – for those who like their meals tautological. There’s also an entire land of chocolate aptly titled ‘Choco Lands’, plus BBQ and burger connoisseurs 4505 Meats – who may or may not serve 4505 different kinds of meat. If you manage to stir from your food coma, this year you could catch Paul Simon, Childish Gambino, Twenty One Pilots, The Lumineers, Flume, Blink 182, Kygo, Anderson Paak & The Free Nationals, Kasey Musgraves, and Lil Wayne. Surely only the cynical and tasteless could have had anything approaching a bad time here.

Summersonic | 52 Osaka, Japan Like the majority of other twinned festivals on this list, Osaka’s Summersonic Festival is much like its counterpart in Tokyo, except in geographic terms. Taking place on the man-made Maishima Sports Island in Osaka Bay, this year’s Summersonic will see performances from Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Chainsmokers, Babymetal, The 1975, Zedd, Weezer, Chvrches, Rancid, Flume, Bring Me The Horizon, Foals, Brockhampton, Robert Glasper and more. Also under the Summersonic banner is the EDM orientated Sonicmania, once a part of the Tokyo / Osaka lineup but now a separate festival acting a prelude to Summersonic.

92


51 | Pol’and’Rock Festival (FKA Przystanek Woodstock) Kostrzyn, Poland Pol’and’Rock is an annual ticket-free event whose average attendance figures exceed 600,000. An admirably altruistic endeavour, the gargantuan open-air festival is organised by the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity as a way to thank its volunteers. The two stages of the weekend-long event are in continuous use from early afternoon to dawn, and host performances from roughly 90 bands per year. This year marks the 24th edition, and will draw acts like Ziggy Marley, Skunk Anansie, Parkway Drive, and Black Stone Cherry, alongside a legion of homegrown acts.

Lowlands | 50 Biddinghuizen, Netherlands Established in 1993, Lowlands – or ‘A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise’ as it’s referred to by approximately no-one – attracts around 55,000 visitors to its annual three-day event. Appealing to both Renaissance men and women, Lowlands encompasses over 200 acts across various disciplines: music, cinema, comedy, street theatre, cabaret, stand-up, ballet, and literature. Weirdly, most of the stages are named after the NATO phonetic alphabet every year, with the notable exceptions of the Hacienda, which is a literal hacienda; as well as Helga’s, which is modelled on the type of sleazy dust bowl strip club you’d see in a Robert Rodriguez film. The highlight of Lowlands’ 2019 line-up include Tame Impala, Twenty One Pilots, A$AP Rocky, Billie Eilish, The National, New Order, and Royal Blood.

93


49-10

94


49 | BoomTown Fair Winchester, UK

21 | Leeds Festival Leeds, UK

Primavera Sound | 48 Barcelona, Spain

Austin City Limits | 20 Austin (TX), USA

47 | Wireless Festival London, UK

TRNSMT Festival | 36 Glasgow, UK

19 | Wacken Open Air Holstein, German

Suikerrock | 46 Tienen, Belgium

35 | Latitude Suffolk, UK

Sónar | 18 Barcelona, Spain

45 | Rock in Vienna Vienna, Austria

UNTOLD Festival | 34 Cluj-Napoca, Romania

17 | FM4 Frequency Festival St. Pölten, Austria

Voodoo Experience | 44 New Orleans (LA), USA

33 | Victorious Festival Portsmouth, UK

Creamfields | 16 Daresbury, UK

43 | Hurricane Festival Scheeßel, Germany

Open’er Festival | 32 Gdynia, Poland

15 | Amsterdam Dance Event Amsterdam, Netherlands

Summersonic Tokyo | 42 Tokyo, Japan

31 | Life Is Beautiful Festival Las Vegas (NV), USA

Sziget Festival | 14 Budapest, Hungary

41 | Lollapalooza Berlin Berlin, Germany

Firefly Music Festival | 30 Dover (DE), USA

13 | Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival Manchester, (TN), USA

Electric Picnic | 40 Stradbally, Ireland

29 | WOMAD Wiltshire, UK

Quebec City Summer Festival | 12 Quebec City, Canada

39 | Sweden Rock Festival Solvesborg, Sweden

Byron Bay Bluesfest | 28 Byron Bay (NSW), Australia

11 | Exit Festival Petrovaradin, Serbia

Governors Ball | 38 New York City (NY), USA

27 | Ultra Music Festival Miami (FL), USA

Rock am Ring | 10 Nurburg, Germany

37 | Rhythm and Vines Gisborne, New Zealand

Pukkelpop | 26 Hasselt, Belgium 25 | Pinkpop Landgraaf, Netherlands Orange Warsaw Festival | 24 Warsaw, Poland 23 | Isle of Wight Festival Isle of Wight, UK Rock Werchter | 22 Werchter, Belgium


49 | BoomTown Fair Winchester, UK After extending its capacity to 60,000 a couple years ago, BoomTown has become one of the UK’s most successful and innovative independent festivals, offering its citizens a fully immersive, theatrical experience. ‘Metropolis’ might be a tad hyperbolic, but it’s fair to say that Boomtown Fair styles itself as a municipality of some sort each year within the woodlands of Hampshire. Akin to Burning Man but without the special snowflake complex or tech bros, its nine districts comprise everything from cyberpunk dystopias to pirate infested port towns. There’s also a child-friendly zone replete with workshops, music, interactive games, and various other entertainment.

Primavera Sound | 48 Barcelona, Spain Host to a plethora of both historic acts and contemporary luminaries, Barcelona’s Primavera Sound has championed innovative music for over a decade. 2019’s roster was characteristically replete with the inventive and influential, and was notable for achieving a 50/50 balance between female and male artists. Amongst those performing were Solange, Erykah Badu, Tame Impala, Janelle Monáe, James Blake, FKA Twigs, Christine and the Queens, Robyn, Jpegmafia, Kali Uchis, Nas, Danny Brown, Shellac, Guided By Voices, Tierra Whack, Yaeji, SOPHIE, Mac Demarco, Pusha T, Rosalía, Tim Hecker, Carly Rae Jepsen, and The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices. Notably, the festival recently joined 193 countries of the United Nations in adopting 17 objectives designed to work towards gender equality, eradicating poverty, ensuring prosperity for all, and protecting the planet. Emblematic of the festival’s socially conscious ethos, the commitment manifested itself across a multitude of concrete policies at this year’s edition.

96


47 | Wireless Festival London, UK A unique and towering silhouette in the skyline of British festivals, Wireless has developed substantial mainstream appeal since its inception in 2005, and cultivated a reputation for booking global headline stars. Following a brief flirtation with EDM in the early ‘10s, the festival has reverted back to presenting the best in mainstream hip-hop & grime across its three days. The forthcoming Finsbury Park outing will feature performances from Cardi B, Migos, Travis Scott, Future, Lil Uzi Vert, Stefflon Don, A$AP Rocky, Rae Sremmurd and more.

Suikerrock | 46 Tienen, Belgium Suikerrock’s name is derived from Tienen’s nickname of ‘Sugar Town’, due to its housing of Belgium’s main sugar refinery. Fittingly, the festival’s bills are short and sweet, and – depending on your perspective – could be characterised as either wonderfully eclectic, or suffering from an identity crisis. For example, the first edition of the festival had Iggy Pop, Shaggy, Within Temptation and Status Quo on the bill, and the latest had Alanis Morissette and Steve Aoki. Puzzling as those combinations may be, it’s working for them, as Suikerrock is clearly attracting a very specific and very loyal demographic year upon year.

97


45 | Rock in Vienna Vienna, Austria Rock in Vienna has repositioned its uber-rockand-metal identity a little since 2017. Following a hardcore line-up of Iron Maiden, Gojira, Zakk Wylde, Dragonforce, Rammsetein, Slayer, and Anthrax, by contrast 2018 saw Macklemore and Ryan Lewis take to the stage, along with Australian DJ Left Boy, and the fan favourites that transcend all musical and cultural allegiances, House of Pain. To their credit, Rock in Vienna’s architects haven’t compromised the existing line-up to accommodate the new guys, they’ve simply added an extra day. Win-win.

Voodoo Experience | 44 New Orleans (LA), USA New Orleans’ Voodoo Experience describes itself as a musical gumbo that stirs together music, art, community, cuisine, and all the mystery and adventure that Halloween weekend in New Orleans conjures up. With over 65 bands performing across three days, Voodoo is one of the most successful festivals in a city whose musical heritage rivals that of any other. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Voodoo bravely staged the 2015 edition of the festival. Determined not to let the tragedy defeat the city, Voodoo opened its gates a mere two months later to police, firefighters, National Guard, military, and countless volunteers that had aided in the recovery efforts.

98


43 | Hurricane Festival Scheeßel, Germany Hurricane Festival is the northern counterpart and little sister to Germany’s Southside Festival, and shares a nearly identical line-up. The first festival to take place on Hurricane’s grounds of Scheeßel was Es rockt in der Heide, literally translated to ‘It’s Rocking in the Heath’, featuring Chicago, Jerry Lee Lewis, Lou Reed, and Manfred Mann’s Earth Band. Hurricane, its spiritual successor, was born in 1997 and takes place every June. A noteworthy fact about the festival is that following his headline performance there in 2004, David Bowie suffered a heart attack and collapsed backstage. It would be his last full set.

Summersonic Tokyo | 42 Tokyo, Japan According to Summersonic’s official website: ‘Sparrow mechanic our notorious will listen to you!’ which demonstrates why you shouldn’t ever use Google Translate. In addition to the adorable promise of an infamous yet attentive winged technician, Summersonic features a casino and a stage dedicated to the celebration of Asian music. Last year, Summersonic Tokyo saw an obscure collaborative performance between Foo Fighters and Rick Astley, who, evidently inebriated on the rebellious spirit of rock ‘n’ roll, unexpectedly greeted the crowd with “Come on you mother******s!” before plunging into the Foo Fighter-backed ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’, which sounded suspiciously like a pitched-up version of the riff from ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, but whatever. It’s on YouTube if you want to have a look yourself.

99


41 | Lollapalooza Berlin Berlin, Germany Marking its first European excursion, Germany joined the likes of Chile, Brazil and Argentina in 2015 as the fourth international Lollapalooza location, in addition to the original US festival in Chicago’s Grant Park. Lollapalooza Berlin follows in the tradition of Lollapalooza US by bringing incredible music, food, art and sentiments of social responsibility to a location in the heart of its host city. Last year saw a one-off collaborative performance between the Foo Fighters and Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell, and 2019 will see performances from Kings of Leon, Twenty One Pilots, Martin Garrix, Princess Nokia, and Underworld.

Electric Picnic | 40 Stradbally, Ireland The self-professed ‘festival of good intentions’ saw 10,000 punters attend its inaugural event in 2004, and now boasts attendance figures exceeding 55,000 per day. Its success comes as no surprise, considering its strong music programming, beautifully constructed stages, interactive theatre, creative workshops, immersive spa experiences, all manner of artistry, and – of paramount importance – great food.

100


39 | Sweden Rock Festival Solvesborg, Sweden In case the name wasn’t self-explanatory enough, Sweden Rock Festival’s line-up is absolutely stacked with the elder statesmen of rock and / or roll. It even had a band called ‘D-A-D’ play in 2015, if there was any confusion on the intended demographic. Clearly disciples of the not fixing what isn’t broken school of thought, this year Sweden Rock has booked Kiss, Rainbow, Def Leppard, ZZ Top, Slayer, Tenacious D, Disturbed, Dream Theater, Amon Amarth, Saxon, Arch Enemy and Skid Row.

Governors Ball | 38 New York City (NY), USA Over the past nine years, Governors Ball has conquered a notoriously difficult market for music festivals, survived a couple of historic tropical storms, and grown from a one-day event to a three-day affair to emerge as one of North America’s most revered music festivals. Promoted by Founders Entertainment and held on New York City’s Randall’s Island, the festival’s programmers maintain an admirable balancing act between booking the ubiquitous and the esoteric. Gracing the 2019 line-up were Tyler, the Creator, Florence + The Machine, The Strokes, Lil Wayne, Major Lazer, Nas, Brockhampton, Mitski, Kaytranada, Gesaffelstein, Blood Orange and more.

101


37 | Rhythm and Vines Gisborne, New Zealand Taking place in the Waiohika Estate vineyard, New Zealand’s Rhythm and Vines originated as a way for a few university friends to celebrate the New Year. Now a three-day event, Rhythm & Vines’ excellently curated line-ups comprise the best of underground hip-hop, electronica, and pop music. Last year’s programme featured the likes of Vince Staples, Juice Wrld, Tchami x Malaa, Bicep, Wilkinson, Flight Facilities, Duke Dumont, Sigma, Smokepurpp, and Bob Moses.

TRNSMT Festival | 36 Glasgow, UK Assuming the mantle of its beloved predecessor, T in the Park, TRNSMT has rapidly become the definitive event of the Glaswegian summer. Named Best New Festival by the UK Festival Awards in 2017, TRNSMT has since expanded from three to five days and increased its attendance figures from 120,000 to 200,000. 2019 once again promises to up the ante, with a lineup that features Stormzy, Catfish and the Bottlemen, George Ezra, Gerry Cinnamon, Years & Years, Bastille, Example, Snow Patrol, and Jess Glynne.

102


35 | Latitude Suffolk, UK Since 2006, Latitude has been an exemplar of the boutique festival movement. Yes, there are countless festivals that host all manner of non-musical mediums and activities on their programmes, but Latitude was one of the first to treat them all with equal significance. Comedy, spoken word, poetry, theatre and music all share the spotlight, fostering a laidback, exploratory atmosphere further enhanced by a serene woodland backdrop and myriad pop-up performances. The curator of Latitude’s Poetry Arena, Luke Wright, told Festival Insights: “We make a feature out of the different mediums we represent, and we’re proud of it. Increasingly I think you’re going to see these other forms of art catch up with music in terms of popularity. We see people coming along to Latitude who’ve never experienced live poetry before – they come to the Poetry Arena just wanting to sit down and eat their falafel, and next thing they know they’re experiencing something new. Some of them stay for six or seven hours after stumbling in by accident.”

UNTOLD Festival | 34 Cluj-Napoca, Romania Owing to its production’s boundless imagination, plus the most recurrently comprehensive line-ups you could hope to see on the EDM scene, Untold Festival has made stratospheric leaps in the time it might take some festivals to take a few steps forward. Despite being around for only four years, the festival already boasts a daily capacity of 80,000, and swept up the European Festival Awards’ Best Major Festival accolade for its inaugural edition. Such is Untold’s national significance, it is now the international ambassador for Romania and Transylvania, with each festival bracelet granting free or discounted access to several cultural attractions in an initiative aimed to cultivate tourism in the region.

103


33 | Victorious Festival Portsmouth, UK Victorious Festival has made waves since it first moored at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard in 2012, having more than tripled its initial daily capacity to swallow the coastline grounds of Southsea Common, the D-Day Museum, and Henry VIII’s Southsea Castle, access to which come complimentary with your ticket. The festivities are flanked from every conceivable angle – from the fully stocked guitar band favourites of the larger stages, through to dedicated mid-sized world music, acoustic, and emerging talent stages, and out into the eccentricities of a full-scale circus and a tent specifically curated for hula hooping to electro-swing. Finalist for the UK Festival Awards’ 2014, 2015 and 2018 award for Best Family Festival, Victorious also boasts a real ale bar and market stalls for the parents, and abundant planned entertainment and attractions for the kids, which, perhaps most family friendly of all, are entirely free.

Open’er Festival | 32 Gdynia, Poland Based in a military airport, Open’er’s balance between booking the critically lauded and commercially successful is one of the reasons it garnered consecutive wins of the European Festival Awards’ Best Major Festival accolade in 2009 and 2010. Since then, as though by selffulfilling prophecy, the festival has only further confirmed its ability to pull together impressive line-ups, having booked huge acts like The Smashing Pumpkins, Travis Scott, Robyn, Rosalía, and The 1975 this year alongside underground innovators like Kamasi Washington, Flatbush Zombies, and Idles.

104


31 | Life Is Beautiful Festival Las Vegas (NV), USA Touted as an ‘inspirational social platform’, the ambitions of Life is Beautiful Festival include but are not limited to: putting on a diverse line-up of musicians, public speakers and world class eateries, as well as sharing inspirational online articles to help its fans subdue their baseline level of existential angst. Its youthful optimism and all-embracing positivity are reflected in its age, having only been founded in 2013. Still, gaining this level of prestige in such a short space of time is no small feat, and evidently its momentum shows no sign of slowing.

Firefly Music Festival | 30 Dover (DE), USA Although its line-up is adorned with many of the world’s most popular artists, it’s Firefly’s promotion of emerging artists that sets it apart. The Introducing Stage may be a common fixture at festivals nowadays, but Firefly’s ‘Treehouse Sessions’ take place in – you guessed it – a Cold War-era nuclear bunker. That was a little joke; the shows are in a treehouse. In addition to live music, the Red Frog Events-produced festival offers several alternative activities, including a games arcade, a studio where attendees can design their own pair of shoes and have an artist paint the design, a hammock hangout area, a coffee house, a silent disco, a microbrewery, and a pathway coursing through the festival grounds whose design is decided by festivalgoers each year.

105


29 | WOMAD Wiltshire, UK WOMAD is a bastion of multiculturalism, serving up a plethora of international acts and workshops for children and adults alike. Founded by Peter Gabriel in 1982, the event has since set up shop in New Zealand, Chile, Australia, The Canary Islands and Spain. Since its first year, WOMAD has presented over 180 festivals in more than 100 countries, and remains the most successful and highly regarded world music festival on the planet. Perhaps the most cosmopolitan festival in existence, WOMAD’s unique endeavour to represent as many cultures as possible has led it into its 35th consecutive year as a bona fide international institution.

Byron Bay Bluesfest | 28 Byron Bay (NSW), Australia As lauded as it is alliterative, Byron Bay Bluesfest is one of Australia’s most prestigious and beloved festivals – having accrued all manner of accolades since its inception in 1990, one of which was for the UK Festival Awards’ Best Overseas Festival in 2009. Speaking of Inception, the organisers launched Boomerang Festival in 2013, a fullyfledged celebration of indigenous Australian culture that takes place within the Bluesfest site. Together, the two intertwined events present over 200 performances across seven stages, and feature five licensed bars, over 100 food and market stalls, dance, theatre, comedy, film, visual arts, cultural knowledge exchanges, beer gardens, and children’s entertainment.

106


27 | Ultra Music Festival Miami (FL), USA Conceived as a closing ceremony for Miami’s Winter Music Conference, Ultra Music Festival has enjoyed consistent growth as America’s premier importer of European rave culture, with every major DJ from the last 20 years having graced its stages. That said, last year they branched out to rapper Ice Cube as well. Besides the main event, Ultra has overseas franchises set up in Argentina, Chile, South Korea, South Africa, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, and Spain. Its supplementary Road to Ultra events, which consist of single stage, one-day concerts, were launched in 2012 and take place across seldomserviced nations like Taiwan, Colombia, the Philippines, Paraguay, Bolivia, Puerto Rico, Macau, and Peru.

Pukkelpop | 26 Hasselt, Belgium Pukkelpop is a three-day festival organised by Leopoldsburg’s Young Humanists, with a line-up that’s as widely varied as humanity itself. It started life as a small, local music event in 1985 before becoming an outdoor alternative festival of international renown, now billing artists like At the Drive-In, BadBadNotGood, Ben UFO, Billy Talent, Death Grips, and Armand Van Helden. Almost 300 current musical sensations, living legends and visionary alternative artists all come to perform across its 10 stages each year – spanning rock, metal, pop, and dance. Additionally, the Petit Bazar and Salon Fou usher in street theatre, entertainment and wellbeing elements; the Food Wood serves up dishes from around the world; and the Baraque Futur area focuses on sustainability.

107


25 | Pinkpop Landgraaf, Netherlands Since 1990, Pinkpop has been designated the oldest continuous pop festival by the Guinness Book of Records, and even has an onsite museum dedicated to itself. The first edition took place on May 18 1970 in Geleen, where Pinkpop was subsequently organised 17 times. Since 1988, Pinkpop has been organised at the event site Megaland in Landgraaf, where it took place for the 48th time in 2018 with Martin Garrix, Justin Bieber, Imagine Dragons, Green Day, Kings of Leon, Passenger, Machine Gun Kelly, Sum 41, System Of A Down, James Arthur, Kaiser Chiefs, Five Finger Death Punch, and Clean Bandit.

Orange Warsaw Festival | 24 Warsaw, Poland Taking place at Warsaw’s National Stadium, the Orange Warsaw Festival has grown massively in the 10 years it has been running, especially considering that the event’s debut had only six artists on the bill. Topping said bill that year was Wyclef Jean, whose one hour scheduled set lasted three. Thanks to the festival’s sponsor, the telecommunications network Orange, a number of onsite brand activations have developed of the years – from a reported 600 phone charging banks in designated chill-out zones; an Orange x Spotify crossover where patrons receive three months’ of Spotify Premium for free; as well as a phone recycling competition, the winner of which receives a brand new Samsung S8 and VR headset.

108


23 | Isle of Wight Festival Isle of Wight, UK With its earliest line-ups including Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, King Crimson, Joni Mitchell, and Leonard Cohen, the legacy of the Isle of Wight festival was already cemented, despite its first incarnation fizzling out after a mere three years. Veteran music promoter John Giddings managed to defibrillate the long departed festival in 2002, and it has since hosted equally legendary acts such as David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Jay-Z, The Sex Pistols and The Rolling Stones. The latter closed out the festival’s second stage in 2007, and were booked after the festival had already sold out – a decision emblematic of Giddings’ maverick reputation within the industry.

Rock Werchter | 22 Werchter, Belgium Rock Werchter was inaugurated in 1977 under the name The Rock & Blues Festival, and it didn’t take long for it to establish itself well enough to attract internationally renowned bands such as Talking Heads and The Runaways. The festival’s clear statement of intent worked for the first three years, but it didn’t take long for it to change its name to something a little less generic, doing so in 1980. Here are some fun facts about Rock Werchter: The Specials played the festival in 1980 and again in 2010, 30 years apart; in 1985, The Ramones’ drummer fractured a metacarpal at the festival; in 1996, Chili Peppers bassist Flea performed for around an hour completely naked; and in 1991 Iggy Pop urged the audience to throw plastic bottles at the stage, so when Sting came on to play next all hell broke loose when he started playing ‘Message in a Bottle’. Bottles were subsequently banned from future editions of the festival.

109


21 | Leeds Festival Leeds, UK Launched in 1999 as a counterpart to the historic Reading Festival, Leeds Festival tends to remain relatively unheralded compared to its older sister, despite the fact that they’re virtually identical and equally well attended. In recent years the pair have introduced the BBC 1XTRA stage to champion both UK grime and US hip-hop, a move that has worked in conjunction with the overall line-up’s trend towards dance and rap. One notable fixture of Leeds Festival that its sibling lacks is the Relentless Stage, a joint venture between the brand and Vision Nine Group, the masterminds behind fellow Festival 250 entrants Boardmasters and NASS. Home to Leeds Festival’s late night entertainment, the projection mapped stage played host to Mike Skinner, Jax Jones, and Wookie last year, amongst others.

Austin City Limits | 20 Austin (TX), USA Being located in the centre of its titular city allows Austin City Limits to engage with and promote the local community in a way few other festivals can, exemplified by its Austin Eats Food Court and ACL Art Market. ACL distinguishes itself further through the early adoption of cashless wristbands, eschewing the anxiety of some reprobate potentially picking your pocket over the weekend. Or weekends, if you justifiably decide to attend both legs of the event. Offsetting worry seems to be a prominent theme in the ACL M.O., as it also offers a ‘tag-a-kid’ policy. If you’re a parent and you’re afraid that your child will go native over the course of the festival – perhaps seeking out other wayward infants to stage some sort of Lord of the Flies scenario – you can register your details at a certain booth and acquire a special wristband, allowing you to indulge in the festival’s amazing line-up stress-free. Speaking of the line-up, 2019 will feature no fewer than eight major headliners: Guns N’ Roses, Mumford & Sons, Childish Gambino, The Cure, Billie Eilish, Cardi B, Robyn, and Tame Impala.

110


19 | Wacken Open Air Holstein, Germany Promising ‘Faster’, ‘Harder’ and ‘Louder’ offerings than the competition, Wacken Open Air justifies such claims with an 11year sold out streak. Dubbed the ‘Mecca of heavy metal culture’, the journey to Wacken has become an annual pilgrimage for bands and metalheads alike. In 2018, over 170 bands and 75,000 visitors from around 80 countries attended the festival. What began in 1990 as a local event within a small, sleepy north German village is now a virtually peerless metal institution, which sold its entire ticket allocation for 2019 several months in advance.

Sónar | 18 Barcelona, Spain Sónar – in each of its international incarnations – exists at the intersection between creativity and technology, heralding tomorrow’s musical and new media trailblazers with astonishing prescience. Since 2002, the Sónar brand has been responsible for over 50 worldwide events, each engaging with its local community to celebrate the talent fostered there. What’s more, the festival’s technological component, Sónar+D, welcomes speakers, students, and businesses to demonstrate the potential of new technologies in relation to artistic creation and performance.

111


17 | FM4 Frequency Festival St. Pölten, Austria Established in 2001 and set within what looks like an upscaled model city, FM4 Frequency Festival invites you to chill out on the banks of the river Traisen or make your way across the tantalising ‘food mile’ when you’re not getting a little too unruly to that band you really like. FM4’s green campsite and ban on single-use plastics demonstrate a strong organisational conscience, further exemplified in its combination of anti-tout measures and an annual ticket lottery. This year’s line-up features Swedish House Mafia, Billie Eilish, Macklemore, Twenty One Pilots, The Offspring, Prophets of Rage, Juice Wrld, Charlie XCX, and Bullet For My Valentine.

Creamfields | 16 Daresbury, UK Never one to rest on its laurels, Creamfields has been rolling out improvements and pollinating new territories year upon year. From not-totallyhumble beginnings in 1998, the then 25,000-capacity, Winchester based event featured Run DMC, Primal Scream, and Daft Punk. Since then the main event has relocated to a 60,000-capacity site in Daresbury, with additional franchises in around 15 other countries – including Malta, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Peru and Abu Dhabi. Continuing to attract the heaviest hitters from both past and present, as well as the most exciting underground talent, 2019 will see performances from Calvin Harris, The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, Carl Cox, The Black Madonna, Andy C, Hannah Wants, Helena Hauff, and Jamie Jones.

112


15 | Amsterdam Dance Event Amsterdam, Netherlands If there’s one thing that Amsterdam Dance Event proves it’s that quality and quantity needn’t be conflicting concepts, exposing it as a false dilemma with a roster of over two thousand DJs whose names ring out as loud as their beats. Perhaps most interesting are the non-musical elements spread across the city’s canals, including educational talks, gear playgrounds, visual tech showcases, and a competition for aspiring producers. ADE Green – the festival’s pioneering conference on sustainability and social change – finalises the programme with keynotes from innovative international speakers, panels, and hands-on workshops.

Sziget Festival | 14 Budapest, Hungary Having grown from a somewhat modest student event in 1993, Sziget has become one of the most renowned rock & pop festivals in Europe. Located on the picturesque Óbuda Island in Budapest, and attracting over 400,000 fans from over 70 countries per year, Sziget is a hugely successful cultural event for arts and music lovers – offering a complete festival-holiday experience. This self-proclaimed Island of Freedom is a weeklong non-stop event, with approximately 50 venues and around 200 daily acts. Aside from the music – which spans pop, rock, electronic, metal, folk, jazz, blues, alternative and even classical – visitors can enjoy theatre, circus, exhibitions and more, as well as a beach area set against the beautiful Danube river.

113


13 | Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival Manchester, (TN), USA In 1974, the prolific New Orleans blues dignitary Dr. John released Desivitely Bonnaroo, a record whose title consists of two characteristically zany neologisms. The latter term – supposedly meaning ‘the best of the street’, or alternatively ‘a really good time’ – was adopted by Tennessee’s Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, and its consistent sell-out success suggests it lives up to the namesake. Sprawling 700 acres of land dubbed ‘The Farm’, and populated by 80,000 ‘Bonnaroovians’ who are bound by a moral decree known as ‘the Code’, you could be forgiven for assuming that the festival is a just a front for a doomsday cult. The true Bonnaroo experience, however, features a diverse line-up of over 150 musicians & performance artists across 10-plus stages, along with yoga, watercolour painting, a 5k run, food & drink, art installations and more.

Quebec City Summer Festival | 12 Quebec City, Canada The marathon is a very different discipline to the sprint, and Quebec City Summer Festival is a master of going the distance in more than one sense. The eleven-day, primarily Francophone extravaganza has been running since 1968, when a set of enterprising individuals from various backgrounds decided that Quebec had too much talent to keep under the radar. Supplemented by a cluster of urban venues, the main stage is situated on the Plains of Abraham, possibly the most grandiose sounding venue associated with this list. It’s also an historic battlefield, which is neat. The aforementioned urban venues tend to showcase classical, jazz, world, and electronic music, whilst the bigger stages play host to all things charttopping.

114


11 | Exit Festival Petrovaradin, Serbia Exit Festival takes place within the 18th century Petrovaradin Fortress on the right bank of the Danube. Just a short ride away from the Serbian capital Belgrade, the festival’s different stages are connected by cobbled streets, ramparts and tunnels, and this year will showcase the likes of The Cure, Skepta, DJ Snake, Greta Van Fleet, Desiigner, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Carl Cox, and Charlotte de Witte. The festival also has roots in Serbian student activism, which makes it instantly cooler than just about anything else on this list. Exit has quite an extensive awards history as well, having swept up Best Major European Festival at the European Festival Awards in 2015, Best Overseas Festival at the UK Festival Awards in 2013, the Golden Superbrand at Superbrands Serbia in 2006, and made top 10 festivals lists for numerous publications over the years, including The Guardian.

Rock am Ring | 10 Nurburg, Germany Aside from the occasional exclusive appearance, Rock am Ring and Rock im Park could be considered identical twins if not for the fact the former takes place at the famous Nurburgring and the latter takes place at Zeppelinfield, so named because Ferdinand Zeppelin once landed his zeppelin there. In a refreshing twist on the commercial rock festival, the two German goliaths do their best to expose crowds to new and homegrown talent. Here’s an interesting bit of trivia: in 2007 Rock am Ring was used in a science experiment to help answer the age-old question over what would happen on a tectonic level if the whole population of China were to jump on the spot and land at once. As it turns out, probably nothing much at all, so, at least that’s settled.

115


9-1

116 116


9-1

9 | Tomorrowland Boom, Belgium Reading Festival | 8 Reading, UK 7 | Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas (NV), USA Mawazine | 6 Rabat, Morocco 5 | Download Festival Donington Park, UK Fuji Rock | 4 Niigata, Japan 3 | Roskilde Roskilde, Denmark Glastonbury Festival | 2 Glastonbury, UK 1 | Coachella Indio (CA), USA


9 | Tomorrowland Boom, Belgium ‘Ostentatious’ would be a good word to describe Tomorrowland. With a ridiculous, steampunk-inspired behemoth of a main stage serving as its focal point, the hyper-conspicuous EDM-centric megaspectacle necessitates excessive use of hyphens. Despite its parent company SFX Entertainment suffering a sustained period of well-documented financial turbulence in 2016, Tomorrowland remains as opulent as ever, owning its own fleet of branded private jets and maintaining an expenditure of over $1 million on wristbands alone. It likely goes without saying, but this year Tomorrowland will once again feature performances from a whole constellation of megastars, including The Chainsmokers, Steve Aoki, Carl Cox, and Martin Garrix, on top of enough additional acts to fill a small island over its 16 stages and four days. Oh, and they do it all twice; Tomorrowland repeats the cycle the weekend after.

Reading Festival | 8 Reading, UK Every year festivalgoers descend upon a patch of grass in Reading to watch their favourite bands, which, given that it’s pretty much a Reading & Leeds trope for seemingly disparately related artists to all share the same bill, rounds up a lot of different people – 90,000 a day in fact. This year, amidst leaning towers of plastic pint pots clumsily bobbing and weaving their way through the crowd, Foo Fighters, The 1975, Post Malone, Twenty One Pilots, Bastille, Dave, Mura Masa, and Enter Shikari will all be thrown in the pot alongside hundreds of performances from an array of additional artists, bands, DJs and comedians across the August bank holiday weekend. Festivalgoers even have opportunity to meet some of them, through the comprehensive BBC sponsored meet and greet.

118


7 | Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas (NV), USA EDC and EDM are almost synonymous, not simply due to the conveniently close proximity of their acronyms, but in the way that Las Vegas’ flagship festival lives out its betrothed genre’s values. Fuelled by positivity, built upon inclusivity, and esteeming love, connection and creativity above all else, Electric Daisy Carnival annually attracts 135,000 pilgrims to bask in the neon glow of its awesome stages, upon which some of the world’s most successful DJs do their thing. Analogous to EDM’s appeal to big emotions via digital means, Electric Daisy Carnival fuses the technological with the elemental through the intricacy and bombast of the aforementioned stages – each emblazoned with flora and fauna, emitting light and sound, emulating both natural and holy structures. Insofar as EDC has built its empire giving fans what they want, it’s also notable for providing local communities with what they need, having raised $2 million for Vegas based charities since it moved to the area in 2011.

119


Mawazine | 6 Rabat, Morocco To an outsider it’s somewhat of a mystery how Morocco’s capital of Rabat deals with the influx of 2.2 million Mawazine-bound visitors each year – outsizing the city’s actual population by a factor of three. Economically positive – albeit infrastructure-straining – as these numbers may seem, Mawazine’s existence has been a point of contention within Morocco’s political and religious spheres. Since the festival is organised by Mounir Majidi – personal secretary to Morocco’s King Mohammed VI – the priorities of the government have been called into question as the lavish expenditure involved in Mawazine is juxtaposed against a climate of poverty and illiteracy. Concurrent to these criticisms is a perceived moral threat to Islam, supposedly imported via the sexualised Western artists present on the roster. That isn’t to say that this is just a transplant of a Western event though; homegrown talent increasingly permeates the line-ups, almost single-handedly establishing Morocco as a player on the global festival scene.

5 | Download Festival Donington Park, UK From the entry level to the decidedly obscure, The Festival Formerly Known as the Monsters of Rock champions the most seismic metal, punk, and rock acts from across the globe. Tanked up on an impossible amount of Jägermeister and adorned in unnecessary spikes, a horde of the unrepentantly rowdy converges upon Donington Park once in every 12 lunar cycles, expressing their allegiance to sonic brutality via ritualistic ultraviolent dance and satanic hand gestures. There are a lot of free hugs on offer too, because despite what all of the above might suggest the atmosphere is actually really friendly.

120 120


Fuji Rock | 4 Niigata, Japan With half of its inaugural event cancelled thanks to an inexorable and inconsiderate typhoon, the Mount Fuji-based debutante got off to a rocky (sorry) start. Since then the now formidable festival has relocated to Mount Naeba, whilst retaining its original title. With a backdrop as photogenic as they come, the organisers have played to their strengths by creating woodland boardwalks and a cable car dubbed the ‘Dragondola’. And no, it isn’t shaped like a big dragon, we checked. The festival suggests that ‘independence’, ‘cooperation’ and ‘respect of nature’ are the core values that attendees should bring with them, perhaps alongside an umbrella in case that particular typhoon happens to be out there still, biding its time. Fuji Rock’s position amongst the global elite owes itself, in part, to the incongruously monumental daily ticket revenue it draws in. Other factors include the obvious: its capacity, prestige, environmentalist approach, and its ability to withstand gargantuan and potentially vengeful tropical cyclones originating from the Northwest Pacific Basin.

3 | Roskilde Roskilde, Denmark Inspired by the most iconic iterations of Woodstock and the Isle of Wight Festival in the immediate past, two Danish high school students decided to put on the first Roskilde Festival in 1971. To do so, they worked with a Copenhagen based music agent who helped to source the talent. Attracting 10,000 attendees to its debut, the event was a resounding success even by today’s standards. Unfortunately, said agent hid all of the proceeds in the back of his Mercedes and drove off into the proverbial sunset. Undeterred by betrayal, the duo teamed up with a local foundation – now known as the Roskilde Festival Society – to stage a non-profit follow-up. It has since become one of the top three most successful festivals in the world. Hand-in-hand with its financial backing of human rights and humanitarian organisations, Roskilde promotes an inclusive and humanist ethos onsite through various means. Its compassionate worldview permeates everything from its security policies to the annual theme, and none of this is to mention the festival’s world-conquering line-ups. Where else could you see Cardi B and Bob Dylan back to back?

121


Glastonbury Festival | 2 Glastonbury, UK You’d have to be a pretty dedicated contrarian to exclude Glastonbury from the top five greatest music festivals of all time, not simply due to its history or consistency in providing impossibly extensive line-ups, but for its sheer magnitude. It’s physically impossible to experience everything Glasto has to offer in a single year, and yet ticket prices inexplicably remain competitive with much less ambitious festivals. Some argue that since its inception the festival has lost its radical spirit, and there are those who harken back to the days when the Hell’s Angels provided security and the festival scene wasn’t generally a little too safe and sterilised, but it remains true that Glastonbury is an unimpeachable cultural phenomenon that will most likely maintain its pre-eminence well into the future.

122

122


1 | Coachella Indio (CA), USA Coachella – or the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival if you’re not into the whole brevity thing – is a truly singular cultural institution, its line-ups having half followed and half oriented the musical zeitgeist since 1999. To its most avid followers, Coachella transcends the usual boundaries of festivaldom and signifies something more akin to a lifestyle – or as the New York Times put it, Coachella represents ‘a fully formed aesthetic, a lightning rod of aspiration, a way of being’. Festival fashion trickles both down from here and ripples outwards, its attendees’ Bohemian accoutrements having become something of an industry standard – despite having drawn scorn for the more culturally appropriated elements. Even Swedish retailer H&M has its own Coachella clothing line. This immense level of visibility and hype wouldn’t be possible without the festival’s yearly livestream. Coachella’s early adoption of the technology played no small part in its financial success and global reach, and resulted in 41 million views for Beyoncé’s 2018 headline set, amounting to the most watched livestreamed event of all time. Netflix has since produced a documentary about the performance. The festival’s 20th anniversary in 2019 – headlined by Ariana Grande, Tame Impala, and Childish Gambino – unsurprisingly and almost immediately sold out across both consecutive weekends, and its acolytes are no doubt already agonising over what they might wear in 2020.

123


www.festivalinsights.com | www.festivalawards.com

Credits & Contact Matthew Jones – Copywriter m.jones89@live.co.uk Michael Baker – Editor michael.baker@cga.co.uk CGA Analytical Data Team – Research info@cga.co.uk


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.