Tomorrowland, Belgium

Tomorrowland is organized by ID&T, entertainment and media enterprise. Tomorrowland is held in Belgium as an outdoor dancing event (festival) organized every year in the town of Boom since 2005. The first names that showed up were Push (M.I.K.E.), Armin Van Buuren, Cor Fijneman, Yves Deruyter, Technoboy and Coone in that year.

The latest event was the seventh edition of the festival which was held between July 22nd and 24th, 2011, including Afrojack, Carl Cox, Fedde le Grand, Swedish House Mafia, Tiesto and David Guetta. For 2012 they have confirmed that Avicii, Fatboy Slim, Calvin Harris, Carl Cox, David Guetta and many others will be performing. Website:  www.tomorrowland.be

 

Open’er Festival, Poland

Poland’s big event is held in Gdynia, which is city located on the country’s north coast. The festival takes place in early July with an eclectic range of artists on offer – expect everything from electronic and pop music to rock and reggae. The event is held in a huge airfield filled with seven stages and the music starts at 4pm and goes on until 2am. DJs continue to 5am. It also features a ‘festival town’ where you can buy merchandise, watch films, see theatre performances, eat or even play some sport (if you can muster the energy).
Catering to everyone’s musical tastes, previous artists have included Cypress Hill, Coldplay, Fatboy Slim, Kasabian and Pearl Jam. For 2012 they have confirmed that Bjork, Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, Public Enemy, Janelle Monae, Bon Iver, Friendly Fires, Bat for Lashes, Justice and The XX will be performing.
This is an excellent opportunity to visit Poland where you can experience the Eastern European culture and even head out to more party zones (like Warsaw, Krakow or Latvia) for an extended break. Website: Opener festival

 

INmusic Festival, Croatia

Croatia’s largest open-air festival, INmusic started in 2005 and attracts approximately 25,000 people each year. It enjoys a pretty idyllic location on a small island in Lake Jarun. It’s a popular two day festival with some great acts. This years line up includes The Cranberries, Franz Ferdinand, Plan B, Mando Diao and Gogol Bordello.

INmusic was rated as one of Europe’s best festivals in 2008 and 2009 by The Times newspaper. If you want to continue the fun when the festival ends, try an extended break exploring some of Croatia’s beautiful coastal resorts. This event is the perfect way to combine sun and great scenery with plenty of festival laughs. Website: www.inmusicfestival.com

 

Exit Festival, Serbia

Exit is an annual summer music festival in the Petrovaradin Fortress of Novi Sad, Serbia. It is staged annually since 2000 and since 2003 lasts four days.

The festival was founded in 2000 by three University students. UK Festival Awards 2007, together with Yourope, the Association of the 40 largest festivals in Europe, awarded Exit the “Best European Festival” award. Public from all over the world voted for about a month, and among 10 festivals, Exit won this award that was awarded for the first time in the category of the Best European Festival. Website: www.exitfest.org

 

Pukkelpop Festival, Belgium

Each year Pukkelpop attracts thousands of vistors from Flanders and far beyond to the Kiewit site near Hasselt. Today Pukkelpop has become one of the biggest alternative open-air festivals in Belgium.
Pukkelpop prides itself on its progressive music programme, with its idiosyncratic blend of unforgettable top acts and surprising new talent. Year after year Pukkelpop’s international audience comes to Kiewit Hasselt to listen to a combination of successful contemporary bands, living legends and the most visionary alternative acts from all nooks and crannies of the musical landscape. Website: www.pukkelpop.be

 

Roskilde Festival, Denmark

Roskilde Festival is the largest North European culture and music festival and has existed since 1971. We are a non-profit organisation consisting of about 25 full-time employees and thousands of volunteers. When you buy your ticket for Roskilde Festival, you are supporting a good cause. Each year, Roskilde Festival donates any profits from the festival to humanitarian and cultural purposes. Website: roskilde-festival.dk

 

Rock en Seine Festival, France

The Rock en Seine festival is a two or three-day Rock ‘n roll festival, held at Domaine National de Saint-Cloud, Château de Saint-Cloud’s park West of Paris, inside the garden designed by Le Nôtre. It is the festival at which Oasis split up on 28 August 2009 after Liam and Noel Gallagher had a fight just before they were due to headline the main stage. Website: www.rockenseine.com

 

Fuji Rock Festival, Japan

All the artists, audience and staff together make Fuji Rock Festival the perfect place to enjoy music, meet new people and open your mind.
High up in the mountains, far away from city life and daily grind, you’ll love this festival and its unique atmosphere.
Website: www.smash-uk.com

 

Download Festival, UK

The Download Festival is a three day rock music festival held annually at Donington Park, England (which hosted Monsters of Rock between 1980 and 1996, and 2002′s Ozzfest). It usually takes place in June (although in 2003, the first day of the festival took place on the last day of May). The festival is owned and managed by Live Nation. Website: www.downloadfestival.co.uk

 

T In the Park Festival, UK

TITP has grown in size (now 85,000 capacity) and influence to become one of the most important and critically acclaimed music events on the international festival circuit.
2012 will be the Festival’s 19th year and boy has this baby grown up.  The festival’s progressive attitude has seen it develop into a benchmark event, held up not only in the UK, but in Europe and beyond.

With over 200 artists performing across 11 stages over 3 days, TITP consistently boasts the biggest bands, cutting edge DJ’s and best breakthrough acts. Website: www.tinthepark.com

 

Sónar Festival, Spain

Sónar is the festival of advanced music and multimedia art that takes place at various venues in Barcelona (Spain) in the third week of June since 1994.

Sónar is a pioneering festival that is unique in terms of its format and content: a leading international benchmark thanks to a carefully assembled range of culture that combines entertainment with artistry, the avant garde and experimentation, featuring the most consolidated artists and trends in electronic music and their interactions and hybridisations with other genres.
More than 80 thousand people enjoy a faultless programme which combined the major headliners in modern electronica with an extensive line-up of emerging artists and djs, trendsetters in today’s music and and new media art.
Website: www.sonar.es

 

Meadows in the Mountains

Imagine a field of grassland 2000 meters up in the sky almost touching the sun where you can breath fresh air and party for days on row. Meadows in the Mountains is an intimate music festival held high in one of Bulgaria’s most stunning and mystical mountain ranges in the Balkans, the Rhodopes. It’s a different kind of festival set in a small old village not far from Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s oldest city. Arts, crafts, literature, local and international performers alike have been visiting this magical place for two years now. It’s a new festival which has so far received nothing but a fantastic reception. No doubt there will be plenty more to come. More info found here: www.meadowsinthemountains.com.

 

Spirit of Burgas

Spirit of Burgas is Bulgaria’s biggest summer music festival held on the Black Sea coast. It has only been around since 2007 but is growing bigger and bigger by the year, attracting more and more influential international acts including The Prodigy, Moby, Grandmaster Flash, Groove Armada and Skunk Anansie. The festival is set on the hot beaches of Bulgaria with spectacular views where punters can camp and dance the night away minutes from the water. Swimming is, of course, prohibited. Check it out here: http://spiritofburgas.com/