Would you rather party inside a glacier, or on the top of a mountain? Here are the festivals that let you travel and explore!
Music festivals are joyous events that let you explore and experiment, to a level that no other social situation really does. They have been held in all kinds of beautiful places and this is what makes them so much better than the others. They are about so many things, revolving around music. So here, we provide you with a list of festivals that have made the best use of their brilliant surroundings and become almost synonymous with breezy outdoors.
1. Meadows in the Mountains, Bulgaria
When: June 9-10-11
This is the festival that hippies get their kicks at. The festival takes place atop a majestic mountain and you’re going to have to be ready for a pretty tough climb to actually get to the site. But once you get up there, the most surreal party awaits you. As the name suggests, it takes place in anΒ eerily beautiful space between the Rhodope mountains in Bulgaria, which provides the perfect setting for tuning out everyday life and plugging into free-spirited debauchery β with a pretty epic soundtrack.Β Think -gorgeous sunsets, the rustic beauty of the mountains and being surrounded by some of the most carefree souls.
2. Sasquatch! Music Festival, United States
When: May 2017
Sasquatch! Music Festival is an annual music festival held at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington. In recent years, it has taken place on the Memorial Day weekend, running for three to four days.Β Each year, thousands of young people make the trek to a remote area in central Washington for the festival, where the stages have hosted some of today’s biggest names in music, including Coldplay, the Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, and more.
3. Byron Bay Blues Fest, Australia
When: April 2017
With seven stages, Bluesfest gives you lots of choices in musical styles and headliners. The curatorial perspective of festival director Peter Noble is to highlight musicians with a strong point of view especially regarding how they might incorporate social justice issues in the context of their music. The festival features a mix of blues, soul, folk and rock. Plus the eclectic crowd that includes people from 8-80 years of age.Β With seven stages, Bluesfest gives you lots of choices in musical styles and headliners.Β With nearly 20,000 attendees each day and 200 performances over five days, this is the perfect place to discover some incredible new music.
4. Wilderness, UK
When: August 4-7
This yearβs Wilderness takes place from August 4β7 2016, with music, long table banquets andΒ street food, woodland parties, theatre, film and dance, a pop-up spa and more escapist activities.Β With live music, theatre, yoga, sports, gourmet food, dancing, and craft workshops, this all-in-one-festival can be pretty much anything you want it to be.Β Wilderness Festival has a reputation for being a hippy-dippy soirΓ©e for the middle class, which has earned it the moniker ‘Poshstock’.Β Although described as a βwilderness,β you probably wonβt need any survival skills in these manicured climes. This year’s lineup includes rock god Robert Plant, The Flaming Lips andΒ The Sensational Space Shifters.
5. Secret Solstice, Iceland
When: TBA
Ever thought of partying inside a glacier? How about a volcano? Because you can actually do all of these amazing things at the Secret Solstice festival. It is also known as the midnight sun festival asΒ ReykjavΓk, the region it is held in, is blessed with 24-hour daylight due to the ongoing summer solstice. The festival area is peppered with some of the most breathtaking sites that include majestic mountains, lush forests and beautiful rivers. This, year Deftones gave a one-of-its-kind performance INSIDE a volcano to a crowd of just 20 people. Secret Solstice is just as badass as it gets.
6. Electric Forest, United States
When: TBA
Rooted in the jam band and electronic music scene, this four-year-old fest packs the dance floors with happy feet. Similar to the UK-based All Tomorrowβs Parties, Electric Forest takes place at a fairly posh resort, theΒ Double JJ, whose sprawling grounds offer an expansive experience.Β Electric Forest is about the music as much as it is about the setting. The organisers curate a mind-melting array of world-famous DJs, electronic acts, and jam bands. Artists tend to thrive in the live setting, which features incredibly orchestrated light shows, stage sets with mechanical blooming flowers and other surreal embellishments.
7. Secret Garden Party, UK
When: July 21-24
The Secret Garden Party, often colloquially shortened to SGP, is an annual independent arts and music festival which takes place in Abbots Ripton near Huntingdon in England.Β The festival was launched by Fred Fellowes in 2004Β as an alternative to the established mainstream music festivals. Since its inception, the festival has increased in popularity and size,Β and has grown from one stage and 1,000 visitors in 2004Β to more than 15 stages and 26,000 revellers in 2011.Β This location is on the grounds of a Georgian farmhouse and has its own lake, river and landscaped gardens.
8. Festival No. 6, UK
When: September 1-4
An intensely creative experience, The festival presents a wide range of musical genres, such as rock, pop, hip-hop, techno, folk and house.Β Perhaps more than any other festival with a strong indie music contingent, Festival No. 6 has a very strong carnival feel. And every night the Central Piazza’s festivities were closed by a beautifully-lit procession up toward the main arena. The festival borrows from all the festivals that we have come to love, but mainly Glastonbury. It takes place in the beautifulΒ resort village of Portmeirion and is an incredibly creative experience, with loads ofΒ goes deeper than a gathering of bands and a smattering of stages. It hosts all kinds of amazing art installations and creative activities that you can participate in.
9. Burning Man, United States
When: August 28-September 5
Not much can be said about Burning Man that hasn’t already been said. The festival has been blazing a path of its own since the very beginning, choosing to build a community rather than just throw a festival. It is said that you can only understand this once you have been there. Taking place on aΒ far away piece of desert, the festival has come to represent a distinct culture that thrives on brotherhood and humanity. It is pure hippie and the hedonistic lifestyles seen here are expressions of the most primal desires of man. Love, peace and unity.
10. Splendour in the Grass, Australia
When: July 22-24
Splendour in the Grass is a hip, groovy festival with tonnes of music, deejays, crafts, food, yoga, TeePees, massages, workshops and, of course, circus performers.Β When you add a lineup of super popular artists, along with food trucks, yoga, spa activities, workshops, speakers and the requisite circus performers, you get the extravaganza known as Splendour in the Grass. Taking its name fromΒ English poet William WordsworthβsΒ ‘Ode: Imitations of Immortality’, it Β began as a one-day affair that has now culminated into one of the best outdoors festivals in the world.
11. Ziro Festival of Music, India
When: September 22-25
It bills itself as India’s greatest outdoors music festival, and believe us, it is. Held in the breathtaking state of Arunachal Pradesh,Β the festival is an organic gathering of music lovers, where independent music is allowed to thrive and is much loved. This, coupled with the travel to the scenic Ziro valley, where music can be enjoyed double-fold makes Ziro a truly distinctive blessing to the festival scene. It caters to a crowd who truly appreciate what the festival stands for and has hosted some amazing local and international talent.
12. Oerol, Netherlands
When: TBA
Oerol is a cultural festival held inΒ Terschelling in the Netherlands, every year in June. The festival uniquely celebrates live, public theatre as well as music and art.Β In the Terschelling dialect, Oerol means βeverywhereβ or literally βoverallβ in the sense of covering the entire land.Β During the festival, the beautiful island ofΒ Terschelling turns into a vibrant stage for all kinds of installations, dance performances, various kinds of theatre and music in all their glorious forms for a total of ten days. There are some proper stages as well, most notably the Groene Strand, the most beautiful live music stage in the Netherlands.Β The festival is the perfect cultural congregation for you to meet insanely creative people.
13. Traena Festival, Norway
When: July 7-10
Traena is a small locality in Norway and every year the little community holds one of the most beautiful festivals in the world. The festival is held on the islands ofΒ HusΓΈya and Sanna, which can only be accessed via ferries. The community of 500 people come together to give you a splendid show of music, art and culture in one of the most etherealΒ settings.Β This international music festival celebrates the history and culture of Traena by bringing new Norwegian musical expression into the openΒ throughΒ different genres.