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Great nights don’t come to you. Buy and sell tickets to your favourite events.
G-Eazy
WELCOME... To the complete edition of the Festival 250, a new 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 renowned business intelligence consultancy CGA Strategy during the 2015 season, and was based on such metrics as duration of the event, ticket revenue, capacity, and sponsorship estimates. 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 eminent events. Next year’s edition will maintain the same format, and will also demonstrate whether festivals have moved up or down in the league table. In the meantime, please enjoy the inaugural list and feel free to provide any feedback that you think will help to refine and improve the initiative. Cheers, Michael Baker Editor, Festival Insights
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250. THE GREAT ESCAPE
BRIGHTON, UK
The Great Escape’s singular remit is to showcase the most exciting emerging artists from all over the world, with over 450 of them performing across 30+ Brighton venues that are all accessible on one wristband. Branding itself as ‘the festival for new music’, TGE is attended by a multitude of music industry insiders who are on the hunt for the next big thing. A convention runs alongside the gigs, featuring insightful panels, topical debates, and keynote speeches, with networking opportunities in abundance.
249. BUKU MUSIC & ART FESTIVAL
NEW ORLEANS, USA
Buku Music & Art is a vibrant and charismatic boutique event that aims to achieve the clout of a major festival without compromising its underground house party atmosphere. Tucked right in the heart of New Orleans’ burgeoning Warehouse District, Buku’s intimate postindustrial setting complements its – for lack of a better term – ‘urban’ centric line-ups, graffiti wall, classic New Orleans food, pop-up street performers and art exhibits.
248. INCUBATE
TILBURG, NETHERLANDS
If these rankings had been conceived based upon the imagination of each festival’s respective line-up rather than by quantitative and commercially focused metrics, then Incubate would be much, much higher up. Its utterly preeminent programmes coalesce everything from free jazz to electronica and contemporary classical, staging unique one-off performances and collaborations between its artists and forever retaining its propensity to surprise. In addition to hosting acts that are seldom seen on the festival circuit – such as the ambient pioneer William Basinski, melancholy raconteur Sun Kil Moon, and the stupidly prolific Japanese noisemaker Merzbow – Incubate has comprehensive film, art, and theatre offerings. Microcosmic of the imagination and idiosyncrasy encoded into Incubate’s DNA, last year’s visual art component featured a Simpsons and Akira mash-up called ‘Bartkira’.
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247. I LOVE TECHNO
GHENT, BELGIUM
Held annually since 1995, I Love Techno attracted up to 35,000 attendees year-on-year to the Belgian city of Ghent by virtue of its 24/7 devotion to 909s in 4/4. Its success culminated in the launch of a number of satellite events, but – according to the festival’s former organiser – the ascent of dubstep and electro house took its toll on ticket sales. Ostensibly, as a result of this inter-genre competition, I Love Techno has cancelled all future spin-offs and has relocated the main event to Montpellier, France for the foreseeable future.
246. KAPPA FUTURFESTIVAL
TORINO, ITALY
Kappa FuturFestival is a techno event fittingly located in Torino’s Parco Dora, an open green space juxtaposed against symmetrical formations of rusted pillars, a river rendered inaccessible by the now defunct factories on its banks, and all manner of mechanical miscellany. The contrast of the natural and man-made serves more than just an aesthetic purpose. Manifested in eco-conscious art installations and recycling initiatives, FuturFestival lives up to its forward-looking namesake by championing sustainable solutions.
245. POSITIVUS FESTIVAL
SALACGRIVA, 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 beauty of its surroundings. Taking place in the picturesque coastal town of Salacgriva in Latvia in an unspoiled atmospheric setting amid stunning woodland, Positivus offers one of the most idyllic escapes to festivalgoers. 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.
244. LAUNDRY DAY Laundry Day, a one-day EDM festival in Antwerp, distinguishes itself from its ilk with a distinct, themed aesthetic that partially involves hanging laundry all over the place. Laundry Day’s organiser Quentin Van Damme told Festival Insights: “What separates Laundry Day is that we put a lot of effort into staging, and do all of the production in-house. For 2014’s Main Stage we constructed a 14 storey high, 312 tonne, 84 metre wide Roman palace with 40 video screens and 200 moving lights, and we had a truck or two of pyrotechnics too.” The insanity illustrated above may explain how the event has evolved from a 400-person, single day, single DJ booth, single bartender set-up to a Belgian stalwart that welcomes 70,000 annual visitors to its site.
ANTWERP, BELGIUM
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243. PULP SUMMER SLAM
QUEZON CITY, PHILLIPINES
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 16th edition in 2016. 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.
242. OPPIKOPPI
LIMPOPO PROVINCE, SOUTH AFRICA
Photo: Ralph Larmann
241. MAYDAY
Photo: Charlemagne Olivier
The thing that stands out most about Oppikoppi is the organisers’ collective sense of humour. In addition to a yearly naked run – which due to a loose organisational approach ended up being two separate unclad marathons last time – the festival’s official website includes a 35-point list of advice that encourages attendees to use both the Force and wet wipes. Having been founded in 1994, OppiKoppi’s two-day festivities now comprise seven stages, roughly 160 sets of music and entertainment, and 20,000 festivalgoers.
DORTMUND, GERMANY
Mayday is one of the only festivals on this list to run to nine in the AM, constituting an all-night rave that typically encompasses trance, tech-house, techno and minimal. The 24-year-old event now attracts 25,000 visitors every year, and boasts seven sister events across Germany.
240. LIFE FESTIVAL OSWIECIM Oswiecim’s Life Festival is the brainchild of Darek Maciborek – a journalist for the broadcasting station RMF FM – who founded the festival in order to undo his hometown’s sole association with Auschwitz-Birkenau. Life Festival’s mission statement, of course, is not to minimise the tragedies associated with the region but to conversely celebrate peace and challenge anti-Semitism, racism, and xenophobia.
OSWIECIM, POLAND
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Photo: Lisa Meinen
239. 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 attracts an international crowd of managers, agents A&R folk, label heads and more, owing to its incisive conferences and performances from the headliners of tomorrow.
238. PRINTEMPS DE BOURGES
BOURGES, FRANCE
Many elder statesmen of the festival industry stick to their original, narrow and self-imposed stylistic restraints with an aggressive indifference towards evolution. Therefore it’s refreshing to see an old timer like Printemps de Bourges – running since 1977 – understand that the only constant in life is change and adapt accordingly. Its 2015 Rock’N’Beat stage booked electronic innovators such as Cashmere Cat and France’s own Rone, exemplifying its ability to remain relevant.
237. HEGY FESTIVAL
TOKAJ, HUNGARY
There aren’t many festivals that take place in a UNESCO World Heritage Centre, but Hegy is one of them. Specifically located within the idyllic Tokaj Wine Region, it’s a rather refined affair characterised by rowboats, theatre and – rather predictably – wine.
236. COMMON PEOPLE A relatively recent entrant into the festival market, Common People helps to kick off the UK festival season in two locations over the second May bank holiday weekend. It shares much of the same sensibilities of its parent festival, Bestival, most importantly featuring The Chuckle Brothers on this year’s programme.
SOUTHAMPTON, UK
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235. COMMON PEOPLE
OXFORD, UK
Like Southampton’s edition of Common People, but in Oxford.
234. STORM ELECTRONIC FESTIVAL
SHANGHAI, CHINA
For all of the things China is synonymous with: exponential industrial development, an extensive historical impact on science and culture, street food that ranges from life-changing to potentially life-ending, authoritarian political regimes, and spitting – festivals are not one of them. Storm Electronic Festival is one of few aiming to change that, albeit with a cast of international EDM superstars.
233. HEBCELT FEST
STORNOWAY, UK
Photo: Colin Cameron
The long running, multi-award winning HebCelt celebrated its 21st anniversary in 2016, once again showcasing the best of Celtic talent alongside more traditional rock, indie-folk and world music. Set in Stornoway’s Lews Castle grounds, the festival is a gateway to the wildlife-rich Scottish Isle of Lewis. The four-day festival’s 18,000 attendance figure for 2016 was its biggest and highest-grossing to date, with tickets selling faster than at any time before.
232. MIDI FESTIVAL Midi Festival – whose name might suggest a predominantly electronic output – actually caters to an equally rock loving audience. Occurring across Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen – China’s trinity of metropolises – the environmentally conscious festival attempts to shine the light of sustainability through the cyberpunk-esque smog of its host cities.
BEIJING, CHINA
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231. ELECTRIC CASTLE
BANFFY CASTLE, ROMANIA
Since its first edition in 2013, Electric Castle has been shortlisted every year for the Best Medium-Sized Festival Category at the European Festival Awards, alongside other famous European names. Held on the 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 took place from July 14 – 17, where over 250 performed across eight musical stages.
230. TRAMLINES FESTIVAL
SHEFFIELD, UK
229. ULTRA EUROPE
Photo: Simon Butler
Now in its eighth year, Tramlines is one of the UK’s biggest inner-city music festivals. In 2014, it attracted 100,000 people as the festival took over the entire city centre across 20 stages. Tramlines gives festivalgoers a chance to see established artists alongside up-andcoming acts, with this year’s edition notably featuring George Clinton Parliament Funkadelic, Kelis, Jurassic 5, Gaz Coombes, Field Music, Young Fathers, Dizzee Rascal and Goldie.
POLJUD, CROATIA
Best known for exporting European dance music to the US, Ultra Europe endeavours to import it right back, under its own umbrella of course. Ultra has franchises set up not only in Florida and Croatia, but also in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, South Korea, South Africa, Colombia, Japan and Belarus.
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228. FIELD DAY
LONDON, UK
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
Field Day is a beautifully curated, dichotomous event that splits its days between mostly electronica and hip-hop on the former and indie rock darlings and debutantes on the latter. On one side of this year’s coin you have James Blake, Holly Herndon, and Floating Points, and on the other you have PJ Harvey, Beach House, and Mbongwana Star.
227. COLOURS OF OSTRAVA
OSTRAVA, CZECH REPUBLIC
Founded 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. Held in an atmospheric former steel mill and European Cultural Heritage Site, the festival comprises over 300 events – ranging from bands and DJs to films, open discussions, workshops, theatre, poetry, and art installations.
226. RUHR IN LOVE
OBERSAUSEN, GERMANY
Part of the rare breed that is the family-friendly electronic music festival, Obersausen’s Ruhr in Love is a one-day open-air event that invites various clubs, event organisers, record labels, booking agencies, radio stations and magazines to curate its 40 ‘floors’.
225. MS DOCKVILLE FESTIVAL MS Dockville – founded in 2007 – is a music and arts festival situated on Europe’s largest river island, Hamburg’s district of Wilhelmsburg.
HAMBURG, GERMANY
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224. PAASPOP
SCHIJNDEL, NETHERLANDS
Photo: Mike Breeuwer
Taking place across the Easter period in Schijndel, Paaspop is an annual music and performing arts festival whose 12 stages offer everything from rock and metal to hip-hop and house. Supplementing the core entertainment at this year’s event is a vinyl shop, a barber, a David Bowie tribute and gospel sessions.
223. ONBLACKHEATH
LONDON, UK
Last year, over 30,000 music and food lovers gathered to enjoy the two-day festivities of OnBlackheath. This year’s music line-up included Primal Scream, Hot Chip and Belle & Sebastian, and the festival also featured a whole range of chefs giving one-off performances and a huge array of street foods. Furthermore, OnBlackheath collaborated with John Lewis and Puffin Books to bring the Magical Storytelling Stage, a Talking Maze, a Village Green Sports Day, and a plethora of workshops and activities for children.
222. SUNDOWN
NORWICH, UK
Sundown returned to Norfolk Showground in 2016 for its fourth edition, featuring performances from Jason Derulo, Chase & Status, Dizzee Rascal, David Rodigan, Jess Glynne, Ms Dynamite and more. The new addition of a third stage allowed the festival to collaborate with more renowned underground dance brands such as Defected, Ministry of Sound, UKF, and Drum&BassArena.
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EMBRACING TECHNOLOGY TO DELIVER BETTER
FESTIVALS
FOR FANS AND ORGANISERS
When you think of music festivals, you probably picture floral headbands, wellington boots, glow sticks and your favourite band performing in a rural field. You probably don’t associate festivals with the latest technology; however, technology has a big impact on festivals and makes the experience, both as a fan and as an organiser, seamless. There are some great trends in the festival industry that are starting to take off, so we have investigated a few of them to see what impact they are making on the industry and what we are doing at StubHub, the world’s largest ticket marketplace to serve fans as they get much more sophisticated in the way they approach attending festivals. CHANGING THE RELATIONSHIP MODEL WITH FANS
We can all agree that life today has become truly digital. We use our mobiles and the internet to plan our weekends, learn about what’s happening in the news and to share content that we find interesting or engaging with our friends. However, everything that we do online is also very personalised. Through social and online media, we select what we want to read by clicking through to an article that catches our interest on Twitter, businesses and brands target us based on the interests that we’ve declared on Facebook and we only follow brands or friends that we want to hear from on Instagram. The entertainment industry is all about creating unique experiences
for fans, and they use personalisation to do this. When attending a live event, the traditional customer journey started at the moment of purchasing the ticket, but we see now that the dialogue with the attendee has many more traceable interactions points, whether it be through social media, pre-tours, or apps. At StubHub, our mission is to provide best-in-class experiences to our fans, by adding new value to the experience. We do this for both the fan and the promoter. Wouldn’t the experience be better if we sent a cake to a fan who was celebrating their birthday at a festival? What if we targeted fans who only had a one-day pass for a multi-day festival by providing them with an upgrade for the next day as they left the venue? We trialled these rewards with fans at Cruïlla Festival in Barcelona this year, with success. These are all ways of using personalisation to better engage with the fan and give them an inspiring event experience, something that we are very passionate about at StubHub. WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY AND CASHLESS FESTIVALS
Everyone seems to be obsessed with wearable tech, regardless of the industry that you work in. This trend has definitely not been ignored by the festival industry. Radio Frequency Identification, more commonly known as RFID is taking festivals by storm. Instead of queuing up to get a paper wristband, fans can now wear wristbands with the RFID technology already built in. This gives them the opportunity to
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enter the festival with a paperless ticket, use the wristbands to make payments for food, drink and memorabilia as well as links up with their social networks, so fans can share their experiences with their network of followers. It’s all about digitalising on-site activities, and wearable tech is the clear enabler for this. It allows us to truly know the customer by managing and understand all of their interactions with the festival before, during and after the event. StubHub is actively involved with the RFID and cashless ecosystem by bringing this experience to fans and promoters. Working with one of our RFID partners, PlayPass, one of the RFID market leaders, StubHub is developing this experience to bring it to more festivals. Festival organisers use StubHub to transparently list face value tickets for purchase. StubHub will then send out the RFID bracelets to the fans in advance of the festival, making it a seamless process with festivals like Standon Calling, Holi Festival of Colours, Eastern Electrics and Cruilla Festival. These have been great partnerships for us and we hope to bring the full cashless experience to more festivals next summer.
to life and find ways to deliver a meaningful impact to customers. Festivals are also jumping on board and are looking for ways to change the way that we experience live events. One of the world’s most recognisable festival brands, Coachella experimented with VR with the Coachella VR app. The app gave fans “unprecedented access to behind-the-scenes VR content.” It also gave fans the opportunity to experience the festival from other fans’ perspectives.
VIRTUAL REALITY
There are endless ways in which technology can impact festivals and at StubHub, we cannot wait to see what exciting new technology will shape the festival landscape in years to come.
Virtual reality (VR) has become the technology trend of 2016. Businesses from all sectors are looking for ways to bring this technology
At StubHub, we have been experimenting with this technology to complement the ticket-buying experience. We were the first ticketing brand to launch VR in our app. We launched Virtual View in late March 2016 (and brought the technology to UK fans in June 2016). When developing Virtual View, we focused on using VR in an impactful way for our business and users. Virtual View gives fans more information prior to purchasing their tickets to help inform them of their decision. They will understand exactly what the view will look like from their seat. In the UK, this is available at the key venues including The O2 and SSE Wembley Arena and we are exploring ways of making VR useful and impactful for festival fans.
BY: ANTONIO VALERO, HEAD OF NEW BUSINESS MODELS, STUBHUB ANVALERO@EBAY.COM
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221. LES VIEILLES CHARRUES
FINISTERE, FRANCE
Les Vieilles Charrues claims to be the largest festival in France, welcoming 200,000 revellers for its four-day celebrations. The top end of its line-ups are typically a cross section of pop culture’s most influential, but beyond that is a deep dedication to emerging talent that sees it team up with its partnering label to coach local musicians and provide a platform for them at the festival. Its promotion of responsible travel, waste management initiatives, resource preservation efforts, and commitment to welfare all further exemplify these strong ethical foundations.
220. BLOODSTOCK OPEN AIR
DERBY, UK
Photo: Enda Madden
A little more purist than its larger metal counterparts, Bloodstock has cultivated a loyal fanbase thanks to its refusal to pander with crossover and entry-level acts. In keeping with its love of heavy metal, Bloodstock and the 100% CA team will host two special strongmen events for the first time at this year’s festival.
219. GODS OF METAL
MILAN, ITALY
Held annually since 1997 and acquired by Live Nation in 2010, Gods of Metal is Italy’s biggest metal festival. Its location and duration have both been known to switch up from year to year, but the essence of the festival remains much the same.
218. TAUBERTAL
ROTHENBURG OB DER TAUBER, GERMANY
Nestled within Bavaria’s striking Tauber Valley since 1996, Taubertal has matched the punk ethos of its acts via its collaboration with Sounds For Nature, whose mission is to propagate environmentalist information.
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217. 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’). Last year saw the hip-hop demigod Kendrick Lamar and the preternaturally sensual D’Angelo bring their idiosyncratic brands of Afrocentric protest music to Belgium, sharing the bill with Nicki Minaj, Iggy Pop and many more. The latest edition welcomed Brainfeeder boss and LA beat scene progenitor Flying Lotus, as well as Pharrell Williams, Mark Ronson and Cat Power.
216. GAROROCK
MARMANDE, FRANCE
Photo: LA CLEF
Unlike many events on this list, Garorock is free from the shackles of the dreaded curfew, meaning the acts of its cosmopolitan roster are permitted to make copious amounts of noise until dawn, and that they do. Garorock’s original incarnation took place within the old slaughterhouses of Marmande, but moved after 15 editions to the more rural and less morbid region of Plaine de la Filhole, in tandem with its burgeoning ecological ambitions.
215. SPRING FESTIVAL
GRAZ, AUSTRIA
Every year Springfestival attracts 12,000 electronic music aficionados to southern Austria for five days of DJ performances, visual arts, workshops and talks.
Founded in 1993, Paredes de Coura has grown to become one of Portugal’s three biggest music festivals. Its alumni range from Pixies to LCD Soundsystem and Crystal Castles, with this year’s confirmations including psychedelic indie rockers Tame Impala, abrasive post-punkers Iceage and The War on Drugs.
PRAIA DO TABUAO
Photo: Hugo Lima
214. PAREDES DE COURA FESTIVAL
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213. 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 in the otherwise unused airport of Hradec Králové.
212. STONEFREE FESTIVAL
LONDON, UK
Featuring rock ‘n’ roll storytelling sessions, a record fair, fringe stages, after shows, film screenings, plus a line-up of classic rock legends, Stonefree Festival is the ultimate dad rock fest and fittingly takes place over Father’s Day.
Photo: Christoph Eisenmenger
211. M’ERA LUNA FESTIVAL
HILDESHEIM, GERMANY
With the iconic image from Georges Méliés’ Le Voyage Dans La Lun front and centre on its website, it’s clear that M’era Luna seeks to cultivate a nocturnal aesthetic, reinforced by the gothic, industrial and metal acts that permeate its line-ups.
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210. FUSION FESTIVAL
BIRMINGHAM, UK
Fusion Festival is an unashamed, singular celebration of pop music, with Jason Derulo, Olly Murs, Tinie Tempah and Busted on this year’s bill.
209. C/O POP FESTIVAL
COLOGNE, GERMANY
One of Germany’s biggest metropolitan festivals, C/O Pop invites 30,000 visitors to its 70 concerts that take place across 30 different locations in Cologne across five days. As a supplement to its ticketed headline performances, the festival also incorporates a number of free shows. In addition, C/O Pop Convention takes place in parallel, and delves deep into industry-facing issues.
Photo: Dolph Cantrijn
208. FESTIVAL MUNDIAL
TILBURG, NETHERLANDS
On [100% recycled] paper, Festival Mundial sounds incredibly pleasant and eco-friendly, and not just because it has to be. The term ‘grass roots’ is a subjective and oft-misappropriated one, but Mundial’s claim is a strong one due to its predominantly homegrown talent, educational urban farm area, three-year plan to become a waste-free event, and bustling market of ‘nice and honest’ products.
207. OLLESUMMER The Estrella-sponsored Õllesummer is an annual beer festival in Estonia, and although it welcomes acts such as The Prodigy to entertain its patrons, the main focus of the event is its intoxicants. Not too dissimilar to the average music festival then.
TALLINN, ESTONIA
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Photo: Mika Vesala
206. PROVINSSIROCK FESTIVAL
SEINAJOKI, FINLAND
Since its inception in 1979, the Kemu ry founded Provinssirock has enjoyed continued success as one of Finald’s largest festivals. 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 grass roots approach, with the organisation of the festival dependent upon hundreds of volunteers and workers who are compensated with nominal fees.
205. FESTIVAL OF HOUSE
ANGUS, UK
Unfortunately, due to conflicting plans between key players, Festival of House has been cancelled for 2016. It was set to bring Rudimental, Leftfield, Eats Everything, Bicep, Underworld, Dubfire, Dixon, and more dance music luminaries to Scotland in June. Plans to stage the festival in 2017 seem to be underway, which is nice considering the organisers’ clear ethical commitments, integrity, and passion for music.
204. SUMMERFEST
MILWAUKEE, 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 foster community spirit. In 1968, the first Summerfest debuted at 35 separate locations throughout the city. Over the years, the permanent 75-acre 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.
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203. DANCE VALLEY
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 now welcomes 50,000 daily visitors through its gates.
202. SUNFEST
WEST PALM PEACH, USA
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
201. SHAMBALA
Photo: SUNFEST
SunFest – Florida’s largest music festival – is produced by the private non-profit organisation of the same name. Although its musical remit isn’t focused on one area in particular, SunFest has a very clear vision when it comes to providing for its local communities. Said vision manifests itself in SunFest365, an initiative purporting to restore housing for low-income families, fund scholarships for gifted teens, and provide complimentary tickets for locals that otherwise wouldn’t be able to attend.
NORTHAMPTON, UK
Over its 17-year history, Shambala has been a vanguard for sustainability, introducing numerous pioneering initiatives such as becoming 100% renewably powered and eliminating all disposable plastics. Going meat and fish free for the first time in 2016 is arguably its most controversial decision to date and yet has received huge support. Proving that conscientious organisation needn’t be at odds with financial success, Shambala sold out well in advance this season.
Great nights don’t come to you. Buy and sell tickets to your favourite events.
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200. INCHEON PENTAPORT ROCK
INCHEON, SOUTH KOREA
The only Korean festival to make this list, Incheon Pentaport Rock fuses homegrown talent with established Western stars. Not literally.
199. UNDERNEATH THE STARS
BARNSLEY, UK
A collaborative venture between Barnsley singer-songwriter Kate Rusby, her family production team Pure Records, and Cannon Hall Open Farm, Underneath the Stars aims to showcase a mix of music including folk, swing, rock, jazz, and world music as well as arts, crafts and cultural activities. Each stage is sheltered and comes with seating, so music fans can stay dry and comfortable no matter how vengeful the sky is feeling. Embracing the relatively recent festival phenomenon of hospitality, its facilities include hot showers, glamping options, and the ability to park next to your tent.
198. PITCHFORK MUSIC FESTIVAL
CHICAGO, 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. This year’s programme includes Anderson Paak & the Free Nationals, Beach House, FKA Twigs, Jlin, Kamasi Washington, Brian Wilson, Julia Holter, Neon Indian, Car Seat Headrest, Blood Orange and more.
Secret Solstice is an Icelandic music festival that takes place during the 24-hour daylight of the nation’s famous summer solstice. Perhaps the most notable performance of this year’s edition was Deftones frontman Chino Moreno’s acoustic set within the Thrihnuagigur volcano. A mere 20 guests, who reportedly paid north of $1300 for the privilege, witnessed the intimate subterranean performance. Secret Solstice is also a perpetually shining light in terms of sustainability, having recently received CarbonNeutral certification. In 2016, all of the festival’s CO2 emissions from supplier and organiser travel, as well as event waste, were 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.
REYKJAVIK, ICELAND
Photo: Vlad Solovov
197. SECRET SOLSTICE
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196. ILOSAARIROCK
JOENSUU, FINLAND
195. AMERICANA INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL
Photo: Arttu Kokkonen
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 two-day unified 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, manifested 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.
NEWARK, UK
For several decades now, Americana International Festival has been the UK’s leading celebration of music, food, automobiles and culture from across the Atlantic. Unfortunately, the 36th anniversary of the festival was cancelled in 2016 due to unforeseen problems with the owner of its site. However, the organisers have since announced that the event is still alive and will continue after they decide upon a new location.
194. NATURE ONE In early August, 65,000 visitors converged on the Pydna missile base near Kastellaun for Germany’s largest electronic music festival, Nature One. Robin Schulz, Paul van Dyk, Sven Väth, Adam Beyer, Laidback Luke, Chris Liebing and Sander van Doorn are just some of the acts that performed over Nature One’s four days and three nights. All in all, the event hosted 350 DJs and live acts across 23 stages in 2016.
KASTELLAUN, GERMANY
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193. 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 150,000 digital dreamers to Goa every year 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.”
192. MYSTERYLAND
HAARLEMMERMEER, NETHERLANDS
The SFX 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 feelgood bands, this year’s line-up includes everything from commercial sensations Diplo, Martin Garrix, Sam Feldt and Afrojack to underground stalwarts such as Seth Troxler, Dave Clarke, Detroit Love, Green Velvet, Karenn, and Tom Trago. Plus there’s theatre, movies, street performers, and art installations 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.
191. CAVENDISH BEACH MUSIC FESTIVAL
CAVENDISH, CANADA
What was once a cow pasture in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island, is now the home of the largest multiday 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 offerings 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 conscientious practices such as having a full onsite recycling programme, encouraging the use of public transit and carpooling, and using renewable energy.
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190. NORTHWEST FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL
SEATTLE, USA
Photo: Daniel Watson
189. PARKLIFE
Photo: Piper Hanson
For four decades, the year-round institution of Northwest Folklife has been strengthening communities through arts & music, with core values of participation, free expression and inclusiveness. The epitome of these continual efforts and a distillation of its grassroots ethos is the free Northwest Folklife Festival, which attracts around 250,000 revellers each Memorial Day Weekend in Seattle for a celebration of roots music, hip-hop, poetry, spoken word, philanthropy, and togetherness. MANCHESTER, UK
Parklife is a two-day festival whose expansive line-ups blur the lines between hip-hop, house, techno, indie and electronica. Owing to its parentage from The Warehouse Project and Live Nation, it regularly scores a smorgasbord of innovative international talent.
188. POHODA FESTIVAL
TRENCIN, SLOVAKIA
Photo: Jason Squires
187. ROCKLAHOMA
Photo: Martina Mlčúchová
Pohoda celebrated its 20th anniversary this year with The Prodigy, Sigur Rós, PJ Harvey, James Blake, Flying Lotus, Parov Stelar, Nina Kraviz, The Vaccines, Gogol Bordello, Savages, Odesza, and many more. Michal Kaščák, CEO of Pohoda, told Insights: “Our main goal is always to make the festival better than it was a year ago. It was the same with the anniversary. We didn’t want to do some retrospective edition or an ego trip celebration. The philosophy was ‘no fireworks, but more art, better service and a more exciting experience’. It was the best birthday party I can imagine, with the best guests on the planet.”
PRYOR, USA
Rocklahoma celebrated its 10th year in 2016 with a personal record breaking 70,000 attendees. America’s biggest Memorial Day Weekend party featured a line-up of contemporary rock artists and classic bands, including Scorpions, Disturbed, Rob Zombie, Five Finger Death Punch, Megadeth, Chevelle, 3 Doors Down, Collective Soul, Sebastian Bach, and many more at ‘Catch the Fever’ festival grounds just outside Tulsa, Oklahoma. The three-day camping festival featured music on three stages each day, as well as premium onsite camping amenities and unparalleled VIP packages, living up to its motto of ‘Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Rock.’ In addition, the Rocklahoma charity guitar auction raised over $72,000 for local causes.
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186. GREENBELT FESTIVAL
KETTERING, UK Greenbelt’s remit strikes at the intersection between justice, faith and the arts – exploring the Christian and humanitarian issues alongside comedy showcases, literature, and child-friendly performances. The festival’s promotion of Christian scripture ¬– however gentle – may be off-putting to the average festival loving hedonist, but the broad appeal of its entertainment and decidedly inclusive attitude prove that a fundamentally Christian event needn’t be one solely for Christian fundamentalists.
185. ARENAL SOUND
VALENCIA, SPAIN
Clocking in at just shy of a week, the beach based Arenal Sound brings 55,000 ‘sounders’ to its annual Mediterranean gathering to enjoy a line-up composed of acts like The Hives, Steve Aoki, Crystal Castles, Crystal Fighters, Two Door Cinema Club, and Kodaline, amongst others.
184. MAIN SQUARE FESTIVAL
ARRAS, FRANCE
Live Nation founded the Main Square Festival in 2004, and this year invited Odesza, Editors, The Offspring, Flume, Boys Noize, Ellie Goulding, Disclosure, Iggy Pop, Birdy Nam Nam and more to perform during its three-day festivities.
183. NIBE FESTIVAL Deliberately limiting its capacity to 9,000 to foster its guiding principles of ‘presence’ and ‘intimacy’, Nibe Festival shares its host town’s quaint and hospitable atmosphere. Amongst its litany of impressive attributes, Nibe claims to spend an inordinate amount of money on the comfort of its guests, more so than most other festivals. Furthermore, the proceeds of its four-day festivities go towards promoting cultural life in Aalborg, and the festival shares a similarly conscientious attitude towards the environment.
NIBE, DENMARK
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182. RAINFOREST WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL
SARAWAK, MALAYSIA
The Rainforest World Music Festival is an annual three-day 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 total weekend audience approaching 30,000.
181. LA ROUTE DU ROCK
BRITTANY, FRANCE
La Route du Rock is a biannual music festival that entered its 26th year in 2016. Its most recent summer edition had a particularly weird and wonderful line-up, including the ethereal and eccentric Julia Holter, downtempo producers Gold Panda and Pantha Du Prince, returning champions of sampling The Avalanches, and seething polemicists Sleaford Mods.
180. 80S REWIND (SCOTLAND)
PERTH, UK
The three 80s Rewind festivals treat their atavistic attendees to overwhelmingly nostalgic line-ups, a human carwash disco, posh food, a funfair, and firework displays. Rick Astley, Adam Ant, Marc Almond, and Erasure’s Andy Bell were amongst the acts at this year’s festivals.
179. BEAUREGARD FESTIVAL Beauregard Festival is one of France’s biggest rock, pop and indie events. Taking its name from the incredible château whose grounds it stands on, Beauregard has amassed a huge, loyal fanbase since making its debut in 2009.
NORMANDY, FRANCE
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178. 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 IBMXFF World Championships this year, the event also featured more participatory elements such as skateboarding, freestyle mountain biking, and rollerblading. Beyond that, a wider sense of hip-hop culture is represented through street art, DJ & MC workshops, and B-boy dancing.
177. LOVE SUPREME JAZZ FESTIVAL
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 in its infancy, its alumni already includes the Robert Glasper Experiment, Bryan Ferry, Chic and Nile Rodgers, De La Soul, Jamie Cullum, Snarky Puppy, Gregory Porter, and Laura Mvula.
176. WORLDWIDE FESTIVAL
SETE, FRANCE
Conceived by British DJ, record aficionado 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 ensures that the line-ups are tastefully programmed, epitomised this year with acts like Anderson Paak, Kamasi Washington, and Four Tet.
175. FREEDOM FESTIVAL Hull’s flagship arts festival, Freedom, was founded in 2007 to commemorate anti-slavery pioneer William Wilberforce. The three-day event illuminates the City of Culture’s streets with theatre, music, dance, and spoken word. This year the festival anticipates that a horde of 100,000 will come for its diverse family-friendly programme, which includes renowned international musicians, local talent, comedy, and even some aerial acrobatics.
HULL, UK
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174. FEEST IN HET PARK
OUDENAARDE, BELGIUM
Feest in het Park is a four-day music festival held in Oudenaarde, Belgium since 1996. Last year’s line-up included Band of Skulls, Claptone, and Girl in Hawaii. It is unclear whether the organisers have plans for a 2016 iteration of the event.
173. 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-the-floor fanatics to the stately grounds of Temple Newsam each July for some of those sweet, sweet, sweet repetitive beats they all crave.
172. URBAN ART FORMS FESTIVAL
WIENER NEUSTADT, AUSTRIA
Founded in 2004, Urban Art Forms Festival has become one of Austria’s largest electronic music festivals.
171. LOKERSE FEESTEN 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 a broad church, housing everyone from thrash metal pioneers Slayer to Norwegian EDM producer Kygo.
LOKEREN, BELGIUM
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LIVING ON THE
FLY FESTIVAL INDUSTRY HOW LAST MINUTE PURCHASING BEHAVIOUR AFFECTS THE
We have all been there. Your weekend plans are sorted and your friend cancels on you last minute. So, now you need to figure out what to do with your weekend. When you’re stuck in this situation, you may turn to some old favourites – your local pub, your favourite restaurant or you may just spend the weekend inside your flat with your old friend, Netflix. But, what if you want to switch off that Game of Thrones marathon and get off the sofa to experience something fun and exciting? Is it too late to snag tickets to a festival that weekend? No, it’s not! At StubHub, we are seeing that more and more people want to buy tickets at the last minute, which we classify as the last 72 hours before event time.
Over the past three years, last minute purchases on StubHub have increased from 12% in 2013 to 18% so far in 2016, and a lot of these purchases happen over the summer. Last year, July, August and September saw the highest percentage of last minute purchases on StubHub 17% of all StubHub sales in 2015. So far this year, fans of all types of festivals including: Eastern Electrics, Wireless Festival, Standon Calling, We are FSTVL and Capital Summertime Ball have all benefited from being able to buy and sell tickets at the last minute. For festival organisers, it is important to understand the purchasing behavior for fans in this increasingly social and mobile world. Fans clearly want to be able to buy and sell tickets to festivals whenever it suits them and if something
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crops up meaning that they cannot go, they need a safe and secure place to sell those tickets to someone else. But, why do fans want to plan their festivals so last minute? Friday is the most popular day of the week for last minute purchases, indicating that people are not planning their weekends as far in advance anymore. The famous British summer weather also comes into play when booking festival tickets. Some fans may be waiting to see what the forecast is before buying event tickets. If it looks to be a nice weekend, consumers may decide to take advantage of the weather and enjoy a festival. Equally, fans who have already bought tickets may find that they do not like the look of the forecast for the following
weekend. So they will then want to resell their ticket to someone who is willing to brave the weather to see their favourite act live on stage. This is where StubHub comes into play. We allow fans to buy, sell and collect their ticket whenever it’s convenient for them, even right up to show time. We have a last minute services office located on Charing Cross Road in the heart of London, along with smaller offices across the UK. We also sometimes set up pick up points at the event so that fans can collect their tickets from the event site.
BY: ANTONIO VALERO, HEAD OF NEW BUSINESS MODELS, STUBHUB ANVALERO@EBAY.COM
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170. BEAUTIFUL DAYS
DEVON, UK Beautiful Days is the Levellers’ family music festival, organised by DMF Music and set at Escot Park in Devon. 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 Grass Roots Festival Award at the UK Festival Awards in 2015, Beautiful Days has no sponsorship or branding and does not advertise. The 13th, star themed edition of the festival hosted headliners Leftfield, James, and Levellers, plus Afro Celt Sound System, The Coral, The Proclaimers, Mariachi el Bronx, Gentleman’s Dub Club, Reef, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Terrorvision, and Billy Bragg.
169. FALLS FESTIVAL
NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA
The near-simultaneous trinity of events that fall under The Falls’ Music & Arts Festival umbrella – situated in Lorne, Marion Bay and New South Wales – all play host to the same diverse styles of hip-hop, downtempo, indie rock, disco, and whatever else that’s good.
Photo: Nick Lobeck
168. OPENAIR ST. GALLEN
ST. GALLEN, SWITZERLAND
OpenAir St.Gallen is one of the oldest outdoor festivals in Switzerland. 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.
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167. BOSTON CALLING
BOSTON, USA
Photo: Mike Diskin
The biannual Boston’s Callin’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 is expected to move to Harvard University’s athletic fields in Allston. There are two performance stages, notably featuring nonoverlapping sets, festival-wide beer experiences, and a food pavilion. The festival is produced by Crash Line Productions, a Boston-based entertainment production company that also produces Eaux Claires Music & Arts Festival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
166. SW4
LONDON, UK
For 12 years, SW4 has welcomed the world’s very best DJs and live electronic acts, evolving into one of Europe’s most respected music festivals. Last year’s edition marked its most ambitious extravaganza to date, by offering more headline talent than ever before and unveiling a colossal 10,000 capacity indoor main stage, the biggest ever indoor structure erected on Clapham Common. Following on from what the organisers describe as the best SW4 in its illustrious history, 2016’s event eclipsed all that has gone before it as it continued its quest to deliver the UK’s finest inner city electronic music festival. Headliners for 2016 were The Chemical Brothers, Dizzee Rascal, Andy C, Knife Party, Carl Cox, Above & Beyond, and Paul Kalkbrenner.
165. DIGITAL DREAMS
TORONTO, CANADA
Set against the iconic skyline of Toronto, Bud Light Digital Dreams Music Festival offers partygoers a sophisticated experience supposedly unlike any other in the Canadian music landscape.
The newly relocated Highfield provides plenty of room for its threeday festival, which features live performances from national and international acts.
GROSSPOSNA, GERMANY
Photo: Dario Dumancic
164. HIGHFIELD FESTIVAL
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163. DAS FEST
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.
162. WICKERMAN FESTIVAL
GALLOWAY, UK
As Wickerman’s name suggests, the festival climaxes with the ritualistic immolation of a colossal wicker effigy, possibly with Nicolas Cage trapped inside. Sadly the two-day event doesn’t actually involve Pagan-esque human sacrifice or Cage sprinting around in a bear costume and dropkicking people through walls. What it does involve – in addition to music – is aromatherapy, as well as yoga and qigong sessions.
161. SÓNAR REYKJAVIK
REYKJAVIK, ICELAND
The term ‘metropolitan festival’ is often a synonym for ‘multiple physically and stylistically-disparate venues temporarily united the same banner.’ Contrary to this trend is Iceland’s edition of Sónar Festival, whose entire proceedings occur in Reykjavik’s Harpa concert hall, the nation’s bastion of symphonic music. Despite the literal transparency and openness of the public building, many young Icelanders apparently consider it relevant only to the interests of the aged and affluent. Sónar’s programme of predominantly future-cognisant electronic music does a great deal to offset this notion, and demonstrates how a prestige brand can redefine itself across smaller locations and venues.
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160. SONNEMONDSTERNE
SAALBURG-EBERSDORF, GERMANY
Photo: Tony Guenther
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 chart pretty diverse territory, from South African rap rave duo Die Antwoord to wonky Brainfeeder signee Mr. Oizo and EDM antichrist David Guetta.
159. REGGAE SUN SKA FESTIVAL
BORDEAUX, FRANCE
158. VOLT FESTIVAL
Photo: Campagnie Valentin
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.
SOPRON, HUNGARY
157. BOSPOP Bospop is a cosy, old-fashioned pop-rock festival that was held for the 35th time in mid July. What began in 1980 as a small festival for the region’s amateur acts has become a platform for bands of international stature.
WEERT, NETHERLANDS
Photo: Maurice Moonen
Photo: szigetfestival.com/aliYO
Although Volt Festival draws over 100,000 fans each year, it prides itself on managing to maintain a closeknit and quintessentially family-friendly 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.
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156. BUMBERSHOOT
SEATTLE, USA
Bumbershoot began as a city-funded arts and 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.
155. SUMMERJAM
COLOGNE, GERMANY
154. GROEZROCK
Photo: summerjam.de
Summerjam annually gathers an audience of 30,000 reggae fans to celebrate Jamaica’s most celebrated musical export. Over the years, it has hosted acts like Black Uhuru, Dennis Brown, Jimmy Cliff, Lee Scratch Perry, Maxi Priest, Shaggy, Beenie Man, Sizzla, and Sean Paul.
MEERHOUT, BELGIUM One of the world’s most renowned punk, hardcore and metal festivals, Groezrock consistently brings together the scenes’ collective veterans and newcomers, this year personified in part by Rancid, Less Than Jake, Sick of it All, Mad Caddies, Four Year Strong, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, and Sum 41.
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MONTREAL, CANADA
Over the course of its lifetime thus far, Heavy Montréal has welcomed close to 300,000 fans to see the likes of Metallica, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Slayer, The Offspring, Marilyn Manson, Mötley Crüe, Disturbed, Slipknot, Anthrax, System of a Down, Mastodon, Kiss, Alice Cooper, Avenged Sevenfold, Rob Zombie, Korn, and many more. The festival is still organised by the same team who founded the festival in 2008, back when it was known as Heavy MTL. They pursue the mission of cultivating an unparalleled festival experience by producing Heavy at an ideal site just minutes from downtown Montréal; booking world-class artists from home and abroad; using only cutting-edge sound, lights, and staging; providing diverse food and drink choices; and executing all of the above with a microscopic attention to detail.
152. BILBAO BBK LIVE
BILBAO, SPAIN
Bilbao BBK Live treats its attendees to 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.
151. MADE IN AMERICA FESTIVAL
Photo: SJavier Rosa
Photo: Tim Snow
153. HEAVY MONTREAL
PHILADELPHIA, USA
Produced by Live Nation, the Budweiser-sponsored 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-up walks the line between hip-hop and radio friendly pop, with everyone from underground wunderkind wordsmith Earl Sweatshirt to RnB palm tree The Weeknd.
Tonight.
Tonight some of the greatest artists,
performers and athletes in the world will be
pouring their souls out at theatres, arenas
and stadiums across this great city.
Tonight thousands of fans will lose themselves
in a sea of like-minded strangers.
And we think you should be there.
ENTRIES 150-101
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150. SKIVE FESTIVAL
SKIVE, DENMARK
Previously entitled ‘Beach Party’, the festival now known as Skive was founded by three young men from the eponymous Danish town who shared a collective predilection for classic bands and social responsibility. Since then it has evolved in terms of programming sensibilities, capacity, duration, philanthropic efforts, and marketing strategies.
149. MOONDANCE JAM
WALKER, USA
Bill Bieloh of Walker, Minnesota conceived the classic rock festival Moondance Jam in 1992 as a way to promote the riding stables belonging to himself and his wife. The event got off to a modest start that first year with a complete reliance on regional bands, and has since developed to attract 20,000 daily visitors for acclaimed heritage acts such as Blondie, Joan Jett, and Kansas.
148. ESSAOUIRA GNAOUA
ESSAOUIRA, MOROCCO
Featuring sizeable contingents of French, Moroccan, and Senegalese musicians, Essaouira Gnaoua is one of the most successful world music festivals in existence.
Winner of multiple UK Festival Awards, the beloved Lake District based Kendal Calling is renowned not only for its music but its hospitality and comfort – a trait acknowledged by the awarding body in 2015 when granting Kendal its coveted ‘Best Toilets’ accolade. This year the festival worked with Off Axis – a pioneering gig swapping network – to host a stage of emerging bands.
KENDAL, UK
Photo: Ian Taylor
147. KENDAL CALLING
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146. GLASS BUTTER BEACH
ABERSOCH, UK
145. CALLING
Photo: Arttu Kokkonen
Veteran events company Broadwick Live recently purchased a 65% stake in Glass Butter Beach, which brings music, surfing and wakeboarding to North Wales each year. In addition to the festival’s five music stages, the audience can also enjoy paddle boarding, paint fights, themed bars, a market, street food, volleyball, surf sessions, bungee jumping and a bunch more.
LONDON, UK
Inaugurated as Hyde Park Calling, then rebranded Hard Rock Calling before parting ways with its long-term headline sponsor, Calling Festival is one of the UK’s premier classic rock festivals, with past performers ranging from Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam to The Police and The Killers.
144. ZOUKOUT Touted as the nation’s definitive annual dance festival, the flagship Singaporean branch of ZoukOut is a beach based, two-day electronic music event whose offerings extend to carefully curated food, visual exhibits and interactive activities. Owing to the nightlife brand’s continued success, it has expanded to the Philippines for a fully-fledged (albeit more intimate) festival, as well as Tokyo, where it hosts a stage at Summer Sonic.
SINGAPORE
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143. AWAKENINGS
AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS
One of Europe’s leading outdoor techno festivals, Awakenings had its 16th edition in 2016 and featured eight different stages, including two spacious and impressive open air stages representing both traditional techno and fusion styles. Almost 100 different artists graced the seminal event over the course of its 48 hours, including stage hosts Richie Hawtin, Drumcode, Electric Deluxe, and Joris Voorn. Awakenings’ worldwide conquest has thus far resulted in hosting stages at festivals in Australia and India and bringing indoor editions to New York, Santiago, Antwerp and London, with more to be announced in the coming year.
142. NOS PRIMAVERA SOUND
PORTO, PORTUGAL
Photo: Nick Helderman
141. BEST KEPT SECRET
Photo: Hugo Lima
NOS Primavera Sound is the Portuguese transplant of Barcelona’s original Primavera Sound, and celebrated its fifth 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 mainstay of Portugal’s rapidly developing festival scene, and its presence in Porto has further sealed the town’s status as a vibrant tourist destination.
HILVARENBEEK, NETHERLANDS
One of the frontrunners in The Netherlands’ quantity and qualityheavy festival scene, Best Kept Secret scores high marks in the breadth and depth of its programming, sporting both revered headliners and carefully selected newcomers. Hidden within the site’s quieter areas are enthralling secret shows and ‘pop-up’ activities – from karaoke to BBQ bashes, as well as plentiful space to soak in its scenic surroundings.
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140. STORSJOYRAN
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 self-proclaimed Republic of Jämtland. It’s the largest festival within the facetiously designated ‘micronation’, and Sweden’s second largest overall.
139. SUDOESTE
HERDADE DA CASA BRANCA, PORTUGAL
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 Martin Garrix, Steve Aoki and DVBBS in 2016. 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.
138. WILD LIFE
SHOREHAM BY SEA, UK
Named Best New Festival by the UK Festival Awards in 2015, Wild Life is a collaborative venture between festival circuit favourites Disclosure & Rudimental, SJM Concerts and The Warehouse Project. Taking place once again in Brighton City Airport, 2016’s Wild Life saw the addition of the Kopparberg Urban Forest Stage, as well as a line-up headed by the aforementioned co-founders and a bunch of the best acts borrowed from its Mancunian counterpart, Parklife.
137. WORLD CLUB DOME
FRANKFURT, GERMANY
Presenting itself as a preternaturally opulent festival experience, 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 replete with panoramic views of its 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. Upon arrival – whether they travelled by land, sea, or air – attendees were treated to three days of DJs across 15 floors of the gigantic Commerzbank Arena.
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136. GURTENFESTIVAL
BERN, SWITZERLAND
Photo: konzertbilder.ch
Staged on top of a mountain, which makes it cool by default, Gurtenfestival has been held annually in the middle of July since 1977. Its rosters are eclectic, across the years accumulating alumni from The Roots to Bad Religion, James Blunt and Portishead.
135. ROCK A FIELD FESTIVAL
ROESER, LUXEMBOURG
134. SEA DANCE
Photo: Sam Flammang
Rock-A-Field is an open-air festival primarily focused on the genre of its namesake, with the odd hiphop and electronic act interjected. Evidently not one to lose sleep over continuity, Rock-A-Field’s curator has decided to have Steve Aoki sub-headline for Pixies this year. Organised by Den Atelier, a notable Luxembourg nightclub and promoter of various rock concerts, Rock-A-Field has taken place every year since 2006 – gradually growing from a one-day to a three-day event.
BUDVA, MONTENEGRO
Photo: A Kamasi
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.
133. BUG JAM A veritable mecca for Volkswagen devotees, Bug Jam’s especially specific concept thankfully hasn’t translated to limited popularity over the years. Now welcoming 33,000 daily automobile fanatics, the VW festival also incorporates five stages of music, a kids’ zone, drag racing, an auto parts jumble sale, a talent show and camping.
WELLINGBOROUGH, UK
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132. FESTIVAL NUMBER 6
PORTMEIRION, UK
Winner of Best Small Festival at the UK Festival Awards 2015, Festival No. 6 has earned itself a devoted following for good reason. Set in the famous Welsh town of Portmeirion – modelled of an idyllic Italianate village – No. 6 boasts a multifaceted music line-up, talks from various champions of culture, long table banquets, paddle boarding, a carnival and torch light parade, workshops and lectures, and more.
131. THE BIG FEASTIVAL
CHIPPING NORTON
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 line-up of Very Agreeable acts, The Big Feastival is arguably unrivalled in its execution of the now not-soniche concept of the crossbreed festival.
130. MELT! FESTIVAL
FERROPOLIS, GERMANY
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.
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 13 years. At the tail end of August, the festival invites a myriad of musicians to perform across its five stages. 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.
PARIS, FRANCE
Photo: Christophe Crénel
129. ROCK EN SEINE
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128. 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.
127. 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. Since 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 line-up mostly consists of underground indie rock, with a few curveballs thrown into the mix.
126. NXNE
TORONTO, CANADA With the likes of St. Vincent, Run the Jewels, Vince Staples, Ghostface Killah, Danny Brown, Swans, Glasser, Tune-Yards, Oneohtrix Point Never, Pusha T and Tim Hecker in its history, Toronto’s NXNE music and film festival consistently positions itself as a top-tier curator. What’s more, its Future Land conference creates a bridge between the realms of music and gaming with a speaker series and industry panels that focus on technology, gaming, and how musicians can thrive in these intersectional industries. Its keynote speaker for 2016 was none of other than Atari founder and author Nolan Bushnell.
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125. SUMMER BREEZE
DINKELSBUHL, GERMANY
Summer Breeze strikes as an odd choice for a name, since the death metal bands it books tend to sound more like a nuclear winter than a breezy summer. But questionable branding hasn’t stopped the festival reaching its 20th iteration, and 2016’s line-up included such names as Arch Enemy, Sabaton, and easy listening trio Dying Fetus.
124. LOVEBOX
LONDON, UK
In an effort to foster the creative sprit of its fans, Lovebox offers yearly bursaries to either solo or collaborative endeavours that seek to bring art installations, camp activities or theatre to the event. Notable bookings for 2016 included a newly reunited LCD Soundsystem, Australian electronica sensation Chet Faker, and hip-hop super duo Run the Jewels. Pioneer and Powersoft also worked together to recreate the legendary Fabric nightclub onsite.
123. SOUNDWAVE
VARIOUS, AUSTRALIA
Not to be confused with the intimate Croatian hip-hop festival of the same name, Australia’s multi-city Soundwave festival historically crammed its line-up with bands that inspired a generation or two to wear dark, ill-fitting clothes and develop an ideological opposition to basic hygiene. Unfortunately the event was forced to cancel its 2016 edition due to poor ticket sales.
122. TW CLASSIC
WERCHTER, BELGIUM
The single-stage TW Classic appeals exclusively to the atavistic, transporting revellers back to an era when music was made with real instruments rather than by pushing buttons on high-tech PC computers. At least the festival does it well, with The Police, the Rolling Stones, and Depeche Mode amongst its previous performers.
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KNOWING YOUR
AUDIENCE
CUSTOMISING FAN EXPERIENCE
It’s an age old saying. You need to know and truly understand your audience.
One of StubHub’s festival partners, Cruïlla Festival, Barcelona’s Summer
This applies to all aspects of business and life, but is particularly powerful
Festival at Parc el Forum, has experienced the value of CRM. Jordi Herreruela,
when it comes to festival attendees. What do you know about them? With this
CEO of Cruïlla Festival said: “We spent eight editions of Cruïlla Festival treating
data and knowledge, how can you truly make an impact on their experience?
all of our attendees as new every year. Some of them were subscribed to our newsletters, which contained information about the line-up and ticket offers,
Increasingly, people are placing more value on their experiences, rather than
but this was all that we were doing. So, we started investing in knowing them
on material possessions. At StubHub, we believe that life is measured through
by implementing cashless, CRM and a knowledge centre.”
the memories that you make rather than the things that you have. This is why we strongly believe in making the fan experience rich and memorable.
It is not enough to just send out newsletters to a database. You need to have
We want to make the entire live event experience, from the moment a fan
a clear and effective customer relationship management strategy, commonly
purchases the tickets to buzz that they feel on the journey home, as seamless
called CRM, in place. The most effective ones bring together all of the activity
as possible.
related to the festival into one system, from ticketing, to camping. A good CRM plan will be even more beneficial for cashless festivals because you
Festivals are a truly unique live event experience, particularly those that are
will be able to track spending of the attendees, giving the organiser the
multi-day events. As a festival organiser, it is key to understand your audience
opportunity to be responsive to customer behaviour.
and to be nimble to their needs and desires. What are their spending habits? What social media channels are they using and how? What content are they
Throughout the festival, there are many opportunities to engage with the
consuming? When is the right time to talk to them? With this knowledge,
consumer and enhance their experience. This is especially true if the festival
there are limitless opportunities for festival promoters to enhance and
lasts more than one day and fans are dedicating themselves to the event
customise their experience.
in its entirety. Fans will be spending their time at the stages, at bars, at restaurants, at their campsite and more and so as an organiser, you need to
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be responsive to this behaviour to help deliver an inspiring and personalised
One of the most tangible benefits of an effective CRM system is that the
event experience for the fan.
festival organiser is left with a lot of valuable data, which can be used to improve the event next year. They will be able to
You could consider inviting the fans who spent the most at this year’s festival
understand what their consumers engaged with on social media or bought
to the next edition at a discounted price. You could also try to upsell a 3-day
on their cashless RFID bracelet. Using this data, an organiser can adapt to
pass for those fans who have only purchased a one-day pass just in the
make the fan experience better and their production more effective, taking
moment after a headliner has performed. This will help to build real and
advantage of data to provide a better understanding of the real performance
valuable loyalty with your audience. You will need to pick the right moment
of the production.
and determine the right number of contacts that you have, and consider every single opportunity where you catch their attention. This can certainly pay off
Herreruela highlights this notion. “We are proud of the fact that we have
if done correctly.
been able to make thousands of people cheer for Damien Rice, we’ve delivered a cake for those celebrating their birthday at the festival and held
In terms of ticketing, understanding your consumers is even more key. Ticket
a private party for fans over 65 years old. But we have also increased the
sales cycles for festivals vary significantly from that of a normal concert. Fans
fan experience and engagement. We have grown our audience significantly,
tend to buy tickets for festivals based on a number of different factors, from
improved the turnover of bars at the event and removed queues from our
the line-up to loyalty to the festival, so it’s important to consider who your
festival. And this is just the beginning. Every single interaction we create gives
customers are so that you can deliver them the right message at the right
us new insights to increase the reach of our brand.”
time. For example, if you have a customer who has attended the event for the past 5 years but has not booked tickets for this year, you may want to remind
You’re probably now thinking twice about what you actually know about
them to book tickets. This will be a different message to a super fan of one of
your festival attendees. With the right CRM system in place, you can make
the headline acts who is considering coming to the festival.
their next experience even more memorable.
BY: ANTONIO VALERO, HEAD OF NEW BUSINESS MODELS, STUBHUB ANVALERO@EBAY.COM
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121. BOARDMASTERS
NEWQUAY, UK
120. SUMMERBURST FESTIVAL
Photo: Darina Stoda
Owned and organised by Vision Nine Group, Boardmasters is an annual music, surfing and skateboarding festival usually held over four days in mid-August. The event’s heritage dates back to 1981, and with a current capacity of over 30,000 it qualifies as one of the UK’s biggest festivals.
STOCKHOLM / GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN
Taking place in both Stockholm and Gothenburg, Summerburst is an EDM festival and recent acquisition of Live Nation. Its past bookings include David Guetta, Avicii, Eric Prydz, Deadmau5, Tiesto, and Alesso.
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 2016 welcomed Sia, New Order, Massive Attack, FKA twigs, Iggy Pop, Anohni, The Last Shadow Puppets, Jamie xx, M83, Chvrches, Descendents, Four Tet, Hercules & Love Affair, 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.
HELSINKI, FINLAND
Photo: Jussi Hellsten
119. FLOW FESTIVAL
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118. 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 brings in 135,000 yearly visitors. A colossal celebration of music and visual arts, Osheaga has given itself the objective of discovering local and national emerging talent, offering the opportunity for them to play alongside some of the biggest international artists in the business, including Coldplay, The Killers, Iggy & The Stooges, Sonic Youth, The Roots, Arcade Fire, and Eminem.
117. ROCK IN ROMA
ROME, ITALY
With its schedule stretched across a month or so, Rock in Roma is arguably more of an event series than a festival. Now on its eighth edition, its previous seven have boasted a combined attendance of approximately 1,270,000 people.
116. LOLLAPALOOZA BERLIN
BERLIN, GERMANY
Photo: Stephan Flad
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.
115. BALATON SOUND The 10th Balaton Sound, organised at Lake Balaton in Hungary, racked up a total visitor count of 157,000, smashing all of its prior attendance records. The Saturday of the Mastercard-sponsored event was completely sold out, while the remaining four days of the festival came closer than ever to achieving the same feat.
ZAMARDI BEACH, HUNGARY
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114. BOOM FESTIVAL
IDANHA A NOVA, PORTUGAL
Recently crowned with an ‘Outstanding’ award from A Greener Festival, the biennial Boom Festival is a pioneer in the implementation and promotion of environmentalist practices, and is also respected for its partnering of groovy visual art exhibits with equally groovy beats. Its sustainability ethos and self-established designation of a ‘transformational festival’ prompt comparisons to Burning Man, although this festival offsets the associated pretension by acknowledging that it’s a festival and not a ‘temporary city’.
113. EUROSONIC NOORDERSLAG
GRONINGEN, NETHERLANDS
The European emerging talent festival Eurosonic Noorderslag celebrated its 30th anniversary in January 2016. Staying true to its ethos of stimulating the circulation of European music, the festival showcased 345 European acts, among which 34 were from the 14 countries within the year’s CEE focus region. During the day, 124 international professionals from 40 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.
112. 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, but has remained consistent in attracting metal and rock fans with headliners from The Cure to Korn, always peppering in incongruous names like Jamiroquai to keep things interesting.
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111. BPM FESTIVAL
PLAYA DEL CARMEN, MEXICO
The BPM Festival is an annual 10-day and night electronic music festival, founded by Craig Pettigrew and Philip Pulitano, and 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. BPM parties are hosted both day and night at multiple venues in Playa Del Carmen, a picturesque beach town that runs along miles of soft white sand beaches and sparkling turquoise waters on the Mayan Riviera. The town offers a variety of luxurious and affordable boutique hotels and condos, and endless options for dining and tourism, including: ancient Mayan ruins, cenotes, aquatic sports, and ecotourism.
110. LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE
LOS ANGELES, USA
World-renowned as California’s premiere camping, music, and art boutique 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 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 years in a row. Similarly trailblazing is its work with the Zendo Project, a psychedelic harm reduction specialist that disseminates objective drugrelated information and testing kits to attendees to ensure their safety.
109. RUISROCK FESTIVAL
TURKU, FINLAND
The 46-year-old Ruisrock is the oldest festival in Finland, and the second oldest continuously running rock 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.
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108. CORNBURY MUSIC FESTIVAL
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 campsites nestled in the estate’s rolling hills.
107. MOUNTAIN JAM
HUNTER, USA
Photo: Torey Harding
Mountain Jam is a four-day, multi-stage event set on New York’s Hunter Mountain, featuring approximately 40 bands across its three stages. Set in a pristine natural amphitheatre, its 12th episode took place this year.
106. BARCLAYCARD PRESENTS:
BRITISH SUMMER TIME HYDE PARK
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, a clear layout, and a central metropolitan location, it’s easy to see why the series of one-day festivals sells 55,000 tickets to each. Insights wrote a feature on BST Hyde Park in 2015, which commented on the fantastic food available at the event: ‘I’d definitely picked the wrong time to start eating right, what with the litany of amazing eateries onsite – mostly locally sourced. The convenience of being located in central London meant that concessions such as Bad Boy Brownies, who would usually struggle to operate in remote non-metropolitan venues, were able to tempt me into continuing the endless endeavour of making my physique even less impressive.’
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 its critically acclaimed music acts, the intimate and charming event includes workshops, comedy, film, and wellness activities.
WILTSHIRE, UK
Photo: Sonny Malhotra
105. END OF THE ROAD
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104. LONGITUDE
DUBLIN, IRELAND
Running simultaneously with its sister event – Suffolk’s much-lauded Latitude Festival – Dublin’s Longitude retains some of its overseas sibling’s indie rock proclivities but sidesteps its shadow by delving far deeper into hip-hop and underground electronic music. Undermining the familial resemblance set by acts like Father John Misty, The National, and Perfume Genius this year were Kendrick Lamar, Run the Jewels, Kelela, Ryan Hemsworth, Jamie xx, and Section Boyz.
103. NUITS SONORES
LYON, FRANCE
Photo: Nathalie Nizette
102. COULEUR CAFÉ
Photo: Gaetan CLEMENT
For five days and nights a year, Nuits Sonores transforms the city of Lyon into a playground of scattershot electronic expression, from the sonic to the visual. Celebrating new and local talent as well as the already established, the 85,000 capacity festival utilises Lyon’s most interesting venues – including a pre-WWI light bulb factory – to showcase its artists’ creative works.
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. 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.”
101. ALLMEND ROCKT Presented by global metal festival brand Sonisphere, the Swiss open-air festival Allmend Rockt is a bastion of blast beats and general sonic brutality. Opting for quality over quantity, its programmes are relatively succinct but filler-free. This time around the two-day festival had headliners Iron Maiden and Rammstein, with a supporting cast consisting of thrash metal founders Slayer and Anthrax, Sabaton, Gojira, Apocalyptica, and Shakra – which sadly wasn’t an accidental misspelling of ‘Shakira’.
LUCERNE, SWITZERLAND
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100. BOTTLE ROCK
NAPA, USA
Kicking off the US festival season from the heart of the legendary Napa Valley, Bottle Rock combines music with a wealth of wines and craft beers, world-class muralists and sculptors, a culinary stage, and a host of VIP options for an exceedingly luxurious festival experience.
99. WOMADELAIDE FESTIVAL
ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA
98. CAPRICES FESTIVAL
Photo: Steve Trutwin
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.
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 last year, Caprices Festival continues to switch things up and thrive after 12 years on the scene.
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, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, and Stan Getz. This year the festival featured more than 1000 musicians, spread out over 150 performances across 13 different stages, upping the number to 25,000 visitors per day. Refusing to confine itself to its titular genre, some of its most recent bookings include The Roots, Earth, Wind & Fire, Flying Lotus, James Blake, Anderson Paak & The Free Nationals, Simply Red, Jill Scott, and Buddy Guy.
Photo: Ian Taylor
97. NORTH SEA JAZZ
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96. NOS ALIVE (FORMERLY OPTIMUS ALIVE!)
LISBON, PORTUGAL
95. ØYA FESTIVAL
Photo: Hugo Macedo
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 origins. 2016’s edition of NOS Alive saw performances from Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Tame Impala, Foals, Father John Misty, Hot Chip, M83 and more.
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 Jannelle Monáe, amongst others.
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.
GDYNIA, POLAND
Photo: Tomek Kaminski
94. OPEN’ER FESTIVAL
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93. FAIRPORT’S CROPREDY CONVENTION
CROPREDY, UK
Photo: Nicola Arber
Founded by seminal British folk rock band Fairport in 1980, this 20,000-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’ – 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, Steve Winwood and Buzzcocks over the years.
92. HELLFEST
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 nothing, 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.
91. SUMMERSONIC
OSAKA, JAPAN
Osaka’s Summersonic Festival is much like Tokyo’s, except it’s in Osaka.
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90. SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS
BYRON BAY, AUSTRALIA
Unwilling to settle for a similar line-up to its national counterparts, Splendour In The Grass this year continued to establish its individual character through exclusive Australian performances from The Strokes, The Avalanches, and Sigur Rós, plus a wide assortment of those currently killing it, from James Blake to Flume and At The Drive-In. Aside from the main programme, the festival incorporates several other areas, including The Tipi Forest – an immersive outdoor dance space full of interactive art, underground sounds and alternative beats.
89. GREENFIELD FESTIVAL
INTERLAKEN, SWITZERLAND
Greenfield is an annual music 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 welcomed Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Prodigy, Volbeat, Deftones, NOFX, Nightwish, and The Offspring to perform at this year’s edition.
88. ROCK ON THE RANGE
COLUMBUS, USA
Rock On The Range is one of the largest and most acclaimed rock festivals in the United States, and celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2016 at Columbus, Ohio’s MAPFRE Stadium. Its line-up this year featured Red Hot Chili Peppers, a newly reformed Disturbed, Rob Zombie, Shinedown, Five Finger Death Punch, Bring Me The Horizon, A Day to Remember, Lamb of God and At The Drive-In. The latest edition of the festival sold out over two months in advance, marking the fourth consecutive advance sell-out for Rock On The Range.
87. VOODOO EXPERIENCE
NEW ORLEANS, 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 more than 65 bands over three days, Voodoo is one of the most successful festivals in a city whose musical heritage rivals that of any other.
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86. 80S REWIND (SOUTH)
OXFORDSHIRE, UK
The three 80s Rewind festivals treat their atavistic attendees to overwhelmingly nostalgic line-ups, a human carwash disco, posh food, a funfair, and firework displays. Rick Astley, Adam Ant, Marc Almond, and Erasure’s Andy Bell were amongst the acts at this year’s festivals.
85. NEW ORLEANS JAZZ FESTIVAL
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA
Each year, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, presented by Shell, celebrates the music and culture of New Orleans and Louisiana with the biggest names in rock, blues, jazz, R&B, gospel, Cajun, zydeco, folk, Latin, rap, country, bluegrass and 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 seven-day extravaganza that keeps Jazz Fest an annual can’t-miss destination.
84. PRZYSTANEK WOODSTOCK
KOSTRZYN, POLAND
Named after its legendary American ancestor, the Polish incarnation of Woodstock Festival is an annual ticket-free rock event that has reached average attendance figures exceeding 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 feature performances by roughly 30 bands per year.
83. ZÜRICH OPENAIR Zürich Openair offers a blend of top acts and promising new talent, from indie rock to electronica. The metropolitan festival, equidistant between the city of Zürich and its neighbouring airport, has become a big player on the Swiss festival scene.
ZÜRICH, SWITZERLAND
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82. MYSTERYLAND (USA)
BETHEL, NEW YORK
Taking place on the site of the legendary ’69 Woodstock over Memorial Day Weekend, Mysteryland is an arts & culture festival that draws electronic music fans from around the world by showcasing internationally renowned artists over multiple stages and creating immersive art environments. It has been recognised by Julie’s Bicycle its efforts to reduce the environmental footprint of the event, and also engages in a range of philanthropic efforts.
81. SOUTHBOUND
BUSSELTON, AUSTRALIA
Southbound is Western Australia’s largest major music and camping festival. This year’s event featured a DJ set from Hot Chip, plus live performances from Ladyhawke, Catfish and the Bottlemen, and a band called Hideous Sun Demon.
80. SXSW (SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST)
TEXAS, USA
Inaugurated in 1987 as both a conference and music festival, South by Southwest took advantage of Austin’s cosmopolitan populace and music scenes to stage what has now become a multimedia hive of activity that annually attracts an international influx of fanatics like bees to a clichéd simile. With overlapping gaming, film, comedy and music exhibitions, a job market and the aforementioned conferences – SxSW offers more than your standard phoned in sets from ubiquitous indie rock bands and terminally formulaic EDM DJs. Case in point: in 2013 the experimental hip-hop group Death Grips patched their drummer in through Skype for their Boiler Room performance, with each of the group’s members recording the event through homemade cyberpunk Google Glass knockoffs. It was neat.
Southside is the southern counterpart and big sister to Germany’s Hurricane Festival, and shares a nearly identical line-up.
MUNICH, GERMANY
Photo: Diana Mühlenberger
79. SOUTHSIDE FESTIVAL
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78. HIDEOUT FESTIVAL
ISLE OF PAG, CROATIA
Boasting pool and boat parties on iridescent waters – 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.
77. MOVEMENT ELECTRONIC FESTIVAL
DETROIT, USA
76. RHYTHM & VINES
Photo: Bryan Mitchell
It’s only right that the birthplace of techno should have an annual celebration of its indelible mark on electronic music. However the genres represented are anything but singular, with some of the most interesting hip-hop, dubstep, downtempo, electro, and house artists in attendance.
GISBORNE, NEW ZEALAND
Taking place in the Waiohika Estate vineyard, New Zealand’s Rhythm & Vines originated as a way for a few university friends to celebrate the arbitrary point of personal renewal and redemption we call New Year. Now a three-day event, Rhythm & Vines excellently curated lineups comprise the best of underground hip-hop, future beats, trap, and pop music.
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75. TINDERBOX
ODENSE, DENMARK
74. SUMMERSONIC
Photo: Morten Rygaard
Taking its name from a poem by Odense wordsmith Hans Christian Anderson, Tinderbox is a 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.
TOKYO, JAPAN
According to Summersonic’s official website: ‘Sparrow mechanic our notorious will listen to you!’ which concisely demonstrates why you shouldn’t ever use Google Translate. In addition to the adorable promise of an attentive, anthropomorphic sparrow mechanic, Summersonic features a casino, and a stage dedicated to the celebration of Asian music.
73. GRASPOP METAL MEETING Despite only having a perimeter of roughly four kilometres, Graspop Metal Meeting somehow manages to funnel 45,000 visitors through its site every day 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 four stages.
DESSEL, BELGIUM
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TICKET TOURISM AND ITS IMPACT ON THE
EUROPEAN
FESTIVAL SCENE The summer period is one of the most popular times of year to travel. With school holidays and warmer weather, people use this time of year to take a break from work on go on a holiday. Tourism is an extremely important sector for the global economy. According to the World Tourism Organisation, tourism is one of the growing industries for our economy. In 2015, 1.184 million people travelled abroad and this is expected to reach 1.8 billion by 2030. Clearly, this is not a sector to be ignored and there are major implications and opportunities for the festival industry. With more people travelling than ever before and the ease of access to the internet by mobile phones and tablets, fans can enhance
their travel experience by going to a local event, such as a festival. In fact, at StubHub we have identified a new trend called ticket tourism. This is the notion that fans plan their holidays around specific events. It enables them to experience live events with the locals. It also gives them the opportunity to experience something beyond the typical and often already-seen tourist destinations. For example, instead of going on a weekend getaway to Belgium to see the main tourist sites, a ticket tourist will plan a whole holiday around the Tomorrowland Festival. They will then
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add some other tourist attractions as part of that holiday, but they are principally travelling because of the festival. As a festival organiser, it is important to consider the idea of ticket tourism, as it could open up a whole new audience for the festival. It will also help to build your brand across borders. Through technology like mobile ticketing and cashless RFID bracelets, going to festival as a tourist is much easier than it ever has been before. Local towns and cities value large festivals because they help to drive the local economy. The more overseas visitors that you can attract, the more people will be staying in local accommodation, use the public transportation networks and
dine in the local restaurants, cafes and bars. So, who is a typical ticket tourist? They have usually already covered the typical tourist circuits and key destination cities. They have been to Rome to see the Colosseum; they have seen Big Ben in London; and they have climbed to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. But now these ticket tourists want to revisit these cities to see a more local side and experience a local event. This interest combined with a broad and deep passion and appreciation for culture, music and sports makes them likely to get a relatively short flight to enjoy a live show in another city. So, don’t forget about the tourists when thinking about your festival audience.
BY: ANTONIO VALERO, HEAD OF NEW BUSINESS MODELS, STUBHUB ANVALERO@EBAY.COM
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72. NORTHSIDE FESTIVAL
AARHUS, DENMARK
71. ELECTRIC FOREST FESTIVAL
Photo: Jonas Svendsen
The seventh version of NorthSide occurred this June and presented acts like Beach House, Beck, The Chemical Brothers, Deftones, Duran Duran, Iggy Pop, Jamie xx, Lukas Graham, Sigur Rรณs, and approximately 30 others, who helped 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 social dining philosophy. 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 painters, bicycle enthusiasts, student groups, and many more, who help build an event unlike any other in Denmark. ROTHBURY, USA
Having wrapped up its sixth 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 into carefully crafted art pieces and creatively themed environments, while colourful interactive characters and storylines blend with eclectic performing artists and musicians.
Openair Frauenfeld is one of the largest festivals in Switzerland, boasting a capacity of 100,000 and past bookings that represent everyone from Rammstein to Wu-Tang Clan to Pink.
FRAUENFELD, SWITZERLAND
Photo: Martin Audio
70. OPENAIR FRAUENFELD
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Photo: Bennett Sell-Kline for Insomniac 3
69. ELECTRIC DAISY CARNIVAL
MILTON KEYNES, UK
EDC UK stays true to its international franchises and EDM culture at large by making spectacle the operative word in its philosophy. Between its extravagant staging, production, rides, art installations, dancers, aerialists, and circus performers – the appeal is as dependent on visuals as it is on sounds.
68. DOUR FESTIVAL
DOUR, BELGIUM
Dour Festival might be a bit of a misnomer considering the vibrancy of the artists it chooses to showcase, with everyone from Pixies to DJ EZ, The Bronx to SOPHIE, and The Prodigy to Mbongwana Star 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.
67. SLOTTSFJELL FESTIVAL
TANSBERG, NORWAY
Photo: Christian Hassum
Founded in 2003, Slottsfjell Festival takes place on the site of a 1,000-year-old Viking fortress and welcomes 14,000 daily visitors for five stages of music every July.
66. ROCKNESS Citing the one-two punch of the World Cup and Commonwealth Games as the fatal causes, RockNess cancelled its 2014 event and unfortunately has yet to return.
LOCH NESS, UK
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65. HANGOUT MUSIC FESTIVAL
GULF SHORES, 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 as extras as watching main stage acts from hot tubs, eating gourmet food prepared by acclaimed chefs, getting rides to stages on golf carts, and experiencing a number of assorted surprises.
64. WOODFOOD FOLK FESTIVAL
WOODFORD, AUSTRALIA
Roughly 130,000 attend Woodford Folk Festival’s six-day and night forest getaway, which 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.
63. WAY OUT WEST
GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN Taking place in Sweden’s music capital of Gothenburg every August, Way Out West celebrated its 10th anniversary this year with a myriad of international talent. The line-up included Sia, PJ Harvey, Morrissey, Grace Jones, CHVRCHES, Haim, Skepta, Jamie xx and many more. What’s more, its nighttime programme, Stay Out West, once again gave revellers a chance to see acts of the highest calibre play in the best and most unique venues across the city. The festival also prides itself on its environmental credentials. In 2012 Way Out West announced that all food served to artists, staff and visitors during the festival would be vegetarian and this year it stopped serving dairy – offering oat substitutes to further help save the planet.
62. PALÉO FESTIVAL
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.
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61. FURTHER FUTURE
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA
60. BOOMTOWN FAIR
Photo: Jacob Avanzato
Combining music, technology, gastronomy, wellness, visual art, and discussion, Further Future hopes to evoke social and cultural progress through its examination of new ideas, inspirational creative works and a communal ethos. As much for entrepreneurs and technologists as it is music fans, attendees can experience virtual reality and immersive sound installations onsite, and can gain insights from visionaries across each of the aforementioned fields.
WINCHESTER, UK
Extending its capacity to 60,000 this year, 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, its nine districts comprise everything from cyberpunk dystopias to pirate infested port towns. There’s also a child-friendly zone replete with workshops, music, and interactive games.
59. 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 to debate and exchange ideas, an Art Symposium, an artisanal market, as well as areas to learn about sustainability and African culture.
Photo: Christopher Nelson
58. SASQUATCH! FESTIVAL
GEORGE, USA
Named after one of the five greatest mythological forest-dwelling ape-men 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, this year including Sufjan Stevens, Grimes, Chet Faker, Four Tet, Purity Ring, Baroness, Tycho, Vince Staples, Digable Planets, The Internet, Mac Demarco, and Yo La Tengo.
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57. ELECTRIC PICNIC
STRADBALLY, IRELAND
Photo: Paulo Gonçalves
The self-professed ‘festival of good intentions’ saw 10,000 punters attend its inaugural event in 2004, and now boasts attendance figures exceeding 40,000. Its success comes as no surprise, considering its consistently strong music programming, beautifully constructed stages, interactive theatre, creative workshops, immersive spa experiences, all manner of artistry, and – of paramount importance – great food.
56. NOVA ROCK
NICKELSDORF, AUSTRIA
Nickelsdorf’s Nova Rock successfully endeavours to represent acclaimed international acts alongside local ones, with metal and hard rock leanings as the common thread between them.
55. WIRELESS
LONDON, UK
Taking place in London’s Finsbury Park, Wireless presents a range of hip-hop, grime, RnB and EDM acts across its three days, with 2016’s event featuring Boy Better Know, Calvin Harris, Future, Vince Staples, Action Bronson, Miguel and more.
Photo: Kasper Hornbëk
54. SMUKFEST
SKANDERBORG, DENMARK
Smukfest, which takes place amidst a beech forest, 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. The festival has a pretty preternatural 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.
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53. BENICASSIM
BENICASSIM, SPAIN
Aficionados of beaches, bangers and beers will no doubt thrive at Benicassim, as long as they’re somehow immune to heat stroke. Ostensibly 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.
52. BYRON BAY BLUESFEST
BYRON BAY, 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. Speaking of Inception, the organisers launched Boomerang Festival in 2013, a fully-fledged 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.
Photo: Frank Embacher
51. HURRICANE FESTIVAL
SCHEESSEL, GERMANY
Hurricane 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 the objectively awful title ‘It’s Rocking in the Heath’. Hurricane, its spiritual successor, was born in 1997. 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.
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50. BRÅVALLA
OSTERGOTLAND, SWEDEN
Despite starting out as recently as 2013, Bråvalla has already become one of Sweden’s largest and most popular festivals. With six stages, a rising amount of tickets sold year-on-year, and headliners such as Rammstein, Kanye West, and Muse, it’s clear that the FKP Scorpio-organised event will continue to thrive.
49. OUTSIDE LANDS
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA
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 Bacon’ for those who like their meals tautological, an entire land of chocolate aptly titled ‘Chocolands’, and 4505 Meats – who may or may not serve 4505 different kinds of meat. With a 2016 line-up that included Radiohead, LCD Soundsystem, Chance the Rapper, Grimes, and Vince Staples, only the cynical and tasteless could have had anything approaching a bad time.
Photo: Florian Matzhold
48. ROCK IN VIENNA
VIENNA, AUSTRIA
Besides timely and obvious tributes to David Bowie and Lemmy at this year’s Rock in Vienna, the festival also paid homage to the city’s own Nobel laureate and cat enthusiast Erwin Schrödinger, neatly exemplifying its unusually cerebral undertones. Last year, this academic aspect was represented through dedicating stages to psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and symbolist painter Gustav Klimt. As for the music, it’s mostly metal centric – with the exception of acts like Iggy Pop, Anti Flag, and The Subways.
47. LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL FESTIVAL Self-professed 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, and sharing inspirational online articles to help its fans subdued 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, so expect Life is Beautiful to rocket up this list in the future like a rocket, or something similar to a rocket.
NEVADA, USA
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46. ROCK WERCHTER
WERCHTER, BELGIUM
Rock Werchter was inaugurated in 1977 as 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. It also didn’t take long for it to change its name to something a little less generic, doing so in 1980.
45. STEREOSONIC
VARIOUS, AUSTRALIA
Held in Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Sydney, and Melbourne – Stereosonic is a collaboration between two of Australia’s largest promoters: Hardare and the SFX Entertainment-owned Totem Onelove. The organisers took a break in 2016 in order to ensure that 2017’s event is as spectacular a spectacle as possible.
44. SWEDEN ROCK FESTIVAL
SOLVESBORG, SWEDEN
If 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’ playing this year, if there was any confusion on the intended demographic.
43. LOWLANDS
BIDDINGHUIZEN, NETHERLANDS
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 music, cinema, street theatre, cabaret, stand-up, ballet, and literature.
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42. 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 mega-spectacle 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.
41. SECRET GARDEN PARTY
HUNTINGDON, UK
As boutique as festivals come, the not-so-clandestine Secret Garden Party is a miasma of paint, mud, fire, light, fireworks, sunflowers, water, and other fun things. Its line-ups are the opposite of mainstream, simply because it’d rather entertain its fans by playing to its strengths, namely its surroundings and sense of discovery. There’s an onsite lake that you’re free to swim (or sink) in, clothing-optional jelly wrestling, some kind of demonic spectacle entitled ‘the Dance of the Horned Gods’, and clothing-optional jelly wrestling.
Photo: Eric Pamies
40. PRIMAVERA SOUND
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. 2016’s roster was replete with inventive and influential artists, from the inimitable deconstructionism of Holly Herndon to a reunited, raw-as-ever LCD Soundsystem. The site – which offers the Holy Trinity of Sun, Sea, and Sand – is a stark contrast to the swamplands that British ‘summertime’ festivals are synonymous with. Sadly camping isn’t an option, so you’ll either have to find a hotel, sleep on the streets, or not sleep at all, depending on how hardcore you are. In addition to the main weekender, the Primavera umbrella encompasses a few sister events, such as the concurrent industry conference dubbed ‘Primavera Pro’, and the simultaneous inter-city ‘Primavera Club’ nights.
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39. 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’, and ‘Wake Up!’
38. GOVERNORS BALL
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK
Over the past six years Governors Ball has conquered a notoriously difficult market for music festivals, survived a historic tropical storm, 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.
37. ROCK IM REVIER
GLESENKIRCHEN, GERMANY
Launched in 2015, Rock im Revier is a sister festival to fellow Festival 250 debutante, Rockavaria. Although the fledgling festival has the backing of veteran festival promoters, it hasn’t rested on its laurels – with the second edition of the heavy metal festival switching from a metropolitan to an open-air configuration.
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36. ORANGE WARSAW FESTIVAL
WARSAW, POLAND
Taking place at Warsaw’s Sluzewiec Horse Race Track, the relatively young Orange Warsaw Festival has grown massively in the mere seven 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 hours.
35. ROCKAVARIA
MUNICH, GERMANY
Featuring an identical line-up to its sibling that you just read about, Rockavaria this year featured Iron Maiden, Nightwish, Apocalyptica, Garbage, Slayer, Gojira, and many more.
34. SUIKERROCK
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 rosters 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. Puzzling as that combination may be, Suikerrock is clearly attracting a very specific and very loyal demographic year upon year.
Eurockéennes is an independent festival in Eastern France that awakens for three days and three nights on the first weekend of July. It is produced by the non-profit association, Territoire de Musiques, and is nestled on the Malsaucy peninsula – a protected and unspoiled location surrounded by two stretches of water. The festival is 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.
SERMAMAGNY, FRANCE
Photo: Sacha Radosavljevic
33. EUROCKÉENNES
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32. LATITUDE
SUFFOLK, UK Since 2006, Latitude has been an exemplar of the boutique festival movement. Whereas a myriad of other festivals have hosted all manner of non-musical mediums on their rosters, none have given them equal credence in the way Latitude has. Comedy, spoken word, poetry, theatre and music share an equal amount of the spotlight, engendering more cerebral, chill vibes than your average adolescent blowout. Its serene woodland backdrop, pop-up performances and exploratory, at-your-own-pace atmosphere perfectly complement this ethos. 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.”
31. PINKPOP
LANDGRAAF, NETHERLANDS
Since 1990, Pinkpop has been designated the oldest continuous pop festival by the Guinness Book of Records. 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 29th time in 2016.
30. PUKKELPOP
HASSELT, BELGIUM
Pukkelpop is a three-day festival organised by Leopoldsburg’s Young Humanists. It started life as a small, local music event in 1985 before becoming an outdoor alternative festival of international renown. Almost 300 current musical sensations, living legends and visionary alternative artists all come to perform across its ten 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.
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Photo: aLIVE Coverage for Firefly Music Festival
29. FIREFLY MUSIC FESTIVAL
DELAWARE, USA
Firefly may play host to a litany of established names, but it’s the promotion of emerging artists that sets them 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.
28. AUSTIN CITY LIMITS
TEXAS, USA
27. WOMAD
Photo: Bryan Mitchell
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 having your fat stacks stolen by bandits over the weekend. Offsetting worry seems to be a prominent theme in the ACL M.O., as it also offers a ‘tag-a-kid’ policy. It’s way less sinister than it sounds, I promise. 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 so that the silly bugger won’t become complicit in a tribal massacre (if they’re cool) or get crushed by a boulder (if they’re not).
WILTSHIRE, UK WOMAD is a self-professed bastion of multiculturalism with 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 170 festivals in more than 30 countries, and remains the most successful and highly regarded world music festival on the planet. Perhaps the most cosmopolitan festival in existence, WOMAD’s truly singular endeavour to represent as many cultures as possible has led it into its 34th consecutive year as both a bona fide British institution and international phenomenon. WOMAD 2015 hosted 120 artists from 53 different countries, continuing the festival’s tradition of restlessly innovative programming. Over the course of its history, WOMAD has helped to make international stars out of acts such as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (Pakistan) and Toto La Momposina (Colombia), as well as showcasing some of the biggest names in global music such as Youssou N’Dour (Senegal), Neneh Cherry (Sweden), Ravi Shankar (India), Gil Scott Heron (USA), Gilberto Gil (Brazil) and Toots & The Maytals (Jamaica) to name but a very few.
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26. ULTRA MUSIC FESTIVAL
FLORIDA, USA
Photo: Adam Caplan
Inaugurated as a closing event of Miami’s Winter Music Conference, Ultra Music Festival has enjoyed consistent growth as America’s premier importer of European rave culture. Besides the main event, it 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 seldom-serviced nations like Taiwan, Columbia, Paraguay, Bolivia, Puerto Rico, and Peru.
25. MAWAZINE
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 – dwarfing the city’s actual population by a factor of three. Economically positive – albeit infrastructure-annihilating – 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; homegrown talent increasingly permeates the lineups, almost single-handedly establishing Morocco as a player on the global festival scene.
24. WACKEN OPEN AIR
HOLSTEIN, GERMANY Promising ‘Faster’, ‘Harder’ and ‘Louder’ offerings than the competition, Wacken Open Air justifies such superlatives with a nine-year sold out streak. Dubbed the ‘Mecca of heavy metal culture’, the journey to Wacken has become an annual pilgrimage for bands and metalheads alike. What began in 1990 as a local festival within a small, sleepy North German village is now a virtually peerless metal institution.
23. SNOWBOMBING 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.
MAYRHOFEN, AUSTRIA
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HOW TO IMPROVE THE
FAN EXPERIENCE
THROUGH SMART
CORPORATE
BRANDING
Every year, various brands work with festivals to position themselves in a
your favourite acts and messaging your friends (when you can get signal)
positive way with key audiences for the business. It is too easy to just put
to find each other. It is very easy to use up all of your mobile battery and
some logos of the brand at strategic areas of the festival. But, is there a
have trouble getting signal, leaving the fan completely disconnected for the
smarter, more effective way to position a brand at an event?
remainder of the festival.
The smartest brands create both fun and practical activations to enhance the
EE developed the Charging Bull where fans could recharge their mobiles. This
fan experience, which we strongly believe in at StubHub. In order to have a
activation was brilliant because it required fans to use an EE product, the
brand activation that stands out, it needs to either be unexpected or practical
EE Power Bar. You brought the bar to the bull for a quick top up on power.
for the festival fan. We have pulled together some of our favourite activations
However, if you needed a fully charged bar, you could trade it in for a fully
of the past few summers.
charged one. EE also set up multiple public Wifi hotspots for fans to use during the festival and stay connected throughout the duration.
EE at Glastonbury When you’re at a multi-day festival, there are two eternal problems that
This worked particularly well because it solved a customer need, but was also
we all face – no mobile network coverage and draining the charge on your
authentic for the brand. The activation also required fans to truly engage with
mobile battery within a few hours. You are taking tons of selfies, videos of
the brand, by purchasing the power bar to use at the charging bull.
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Strongbow at Parklife and Isle of Wight festivals
Telenet at Tomorrowland
Festival fans love to enjoy a nice cold drink, especially on a hot summer day.
Playing on the idea that fans may miss their families and the comforts of
Strongbow tapped into this idea and created a 12-metre tall tree activation
home during the festivals, Telenet developed an area called Mariette, a typical
which they used at Parklife and Isle of Wight festivals in June 2015.
name for a grandmother in Belgium to help solve some of the small problems that you face at festivals because you are not at home.
Inside the tree, fans enjoyed music at an apple-shaped DJ booth where they were treated to music by top DJs, a seating area where they could rest and
In the Telenet area, fans could do their laundry, with help from Mariette; store
relax, as well as a bar to grab a drink. Strongbow had a new product coming
their valuables and even get free Wifi. This was a clever activation because it
out, so used this opportunity to provide samples of
stands out from the typical brands who provide free food and drink. It also
Strongbow Cloudy Apple to the guests.
worked for the younger audience who valued the support from Mariette.
This worked well because it was as a completely natural fit for the brand and
The next time you attend a festival, take note at what brands are doing to
the festivals. It also gave fans the opportunity to sample a new drink and
stand out from the crowd. Have they created different and useful activations
helped Strongbow to widen their audience. The apple theme was also carried
that enhance the fan experience? Fans value these activations and they can
through and executed well, without being cheesy.
truly make an impact on their experience.
BY: ANTONIO VALERO, HEAD OF NEW BUSINESS MODELS, STUBHUB ANVALERO@EBAY.COM
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
22. EXIT FESTIVAL
PETROVARADIN, SERBIA Exit Festival takes place within an 18th century fortress and has roots in Serbian student activism, which makes it instantly cooler than just about anything else on this list. 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 showcased the likes Wiz Khalifa, The Prodigy, Ellie Goulding, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, Bastille, David Guetta, The Vaccines, Hurts, Stormzy, Skrillex, Richie Hawtin, Dave Clarke, Jackmaster, Marco Carola, Nina Kraviz, Wilkinson, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Solomun and Sigma.
21. SZIGET FESTIVAL
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY
Situated 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.
20. LEEDS FESTIVAL
LEEDS, UK
Photo: Tim Borrow
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. In recent years the pair have introduced the BBC 1XTRA stage to champion both UK grime and US hip-hop. One notable fixture of Leeds Festival that its counterpart lacks is the Relentless Stage, a joint venture between the eponymous 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 Andy C, Jaguar Skills, and Hannah Wants this year, amongst others.
19. ROCK IN RIO In 2015, Rock in Rio turned forty. But unlike most forty year olds it didn’t spend the occasion putting on a brave face around the family it settled for whilst secretly ruminating about its acceleration towards the inevitable embrace of oblivion. Nope, existential crises are for the weak, so Rock in Rio celebrated in characteristic fashion by putting on seven days worth of legendary rock acts and setting off an obnoxious amount of fireworks.
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL
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18. CREAMFIELDS
DARESBURY, UK
Photo: Anthony Mooney
Never one to rest on its laurels, Creamfields has been rolling out improvements and pollinating new territories year upon year. With not totally humble 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 the 60,000 capacity site in Daresbury, with additional franchises in Malta, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Peru & Abu Dhabi.
17. SÓNAR
BARCELONA, SPAIN
16. FM4 FREQUENCY FESTIVAL
Photo: Ariel Martini
Sónar – in each of its international incarnations – exists at a nexus between creativity, entertainment and technology, heralding tomorrow’s musical and new media trailblazers with astonishing prescience. Since 2002 the Sonar brand has been responsible for over 50 worldwide events, each engaging with its local community to celebrate the talent fostered there. Insights attended the 23rd Sónar festival, which consolidated its commitment to exploring new formats and content – both in its musical offerings and in the showings of its interdisciplinary, technology-centric conference Sónar+D. ST. PÖLTEN, AUSTRIA
Established in 2001 and set amidst what looks like an up-scaled model city, FM4 Frequency Festival invites you to chill out on the banks of the river Traisen or your way across the tantalising ‘food mile’ when you’re not getting excessively rowdy to that band you really like. Nine Inch Nails infamously referred to FM4’s crowd as the worst of its 2007 tour, whose inattention was chalked up to the band’s placement on the line-up between two, apparently more worthy, German acts.
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 copy and pasted canals, including a multitude of conferences and gear playgrounds, an art arcade, a stop-motion workshop, and feedback sessions for aspiring producers. ADE also pushes boundaries in areas that most other festivals don’t even consider, like partnering with ACS Custom to produce officially branded ear protection.
Photo: Henri Blommers
15. AMSTERDAM DANCE EVENT
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14. BESTIVAL
ISLE OF WIGHT, UK Few festivals have managed to develop an aesthetic as distinct and bold as Bestival’s, thanks in part to the organisation of husband & wife super duo Rob and Josie da Bank. Thematically diverse but always exuberant, the self-proclaimed boutique event is dripping with character and charm, exemplified in part by en-masse fancy dress, finger-on-the-pulse line-ups, an oxymoronic but nonetheless impressive landlocked port, and a psychedelic ambient forest. Bestival doesn’t so much walk its own path as it does skip down it in technicolour garments adorned in excessive sequins and bells. Festival Insights spoke to Bestival’s Creative Producer Katie Madison at 2014’s event, and she summed up the spirit of the festival as such: “What sets Bestival apart is the time, care, and attention that goes into what it looks and feels like. It’s all driven by Rob and Josie; everything stems from their vision and it keeps the festival’s personality true. Bestival still provides the same experience as it did in year one, only now it’s much bigger.”
13. V FESTIVAL (STAFFORDSHIRE)
STAFFORDSHIRE, UK
12. V FESTIVAL (CHELMSFORD)
Photo: Sam Akinwale
A clear dichotomy is emerging in the festival market between those who drop the majority of their budget on the line-up and those who direct their focus towards everything but. V Festival pretty comfortably belongs to the former camp, having ushered in a wealth of indemand talent to its two stately park sites since 1996. From Ian Brown to James Brown, the acts remain consistently world class.
CHELMSFORD, UK
Occurring concurrently with its Northern twin, Chelmsford’s V Festival usually shares an identical lineup. For its 21st birthday in 2016, however, the two incarnations welcomed different DJs to grace their Radio 1 Summer of Dance takeovers – with Eric Prydz and DJ EZ holding things down in Chelmsford. Another commonality between the two Versions is the roster of commercial partners, which includes headline sponsor Virgin Media, as well as MTV, Carling, Smirnoff, JBL, Aussie, Weetabix, Volt and more.
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 perfectly microcosmic of Giddings’ maverick status within the industry.
ISLE OF WIGHT, UK
Photo: Callum Baker
11. ISLE OF WIGHT FESTIVAL
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10. ROCK AM RING
NURBURG, GERMANY
Aside from the occasional exclusive appearance, Rock am Ring and Rock im Park could be considered identical twins. In a refreshing twist on the commercial rock festival, the two German goliaths do their best to expose crowds to new and homegrown talent.
9. BONNAROO MUSIC & ARTS FESTIVAL
TENNESSEE, USA
In 1974, the ridiculously prolific New Orleans rhythm and blues demigod Dr John released Desivitely Bonnaroo, a record whose title consists of two characteristically zany neologisms. The latter of which – supposedly meaning ‘the best of the street’, or alternatively ‘a really good time’ – was adopted by Tennessee’s Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, and it’s not hard to see why. Sprawled across 700 acres of land dubbed ‘The Farm’, bound by a decree known as ‘the Code’, and populated by 80,000 ‘Bonnaroovians’, you couldn’t be blamed for suspecting the organisers are building towards some sort of cultish eschatological endgame. Considering that it has soldout every year since its inception, they’ve probably got a loyal enough following to pull off something like that. So if someone offers you some Kool-Aid there, don’t drink it.
8. T IN THE PARK
STRATHALLAN, UK
Recently relocated to the grounds of Strathallan Castle, T in the Park is Scotland’s biggest music festival and this year invited Calvin Harris, The Stone Roses, and Red Hot Chili Peppers to headline. Its dedicated techno stage, in association with and curated by Soma Records, injects a little volatility into its otherwise safe but formidable line-up, and brought Jeff Mills, Nina Kraviz, Richie Hawtin, and Seth Troxler for 2016’s edition.
7. QUEBEC CITY SUMMER FESTIVAL The marathon is a very different discipline to the sprint, and Quebec City Summer Festival is a master of the 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, whilst the bigger stages play host to all things chart-topping.
QUEBEC, CANADA
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6. DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL
DONINGTON PARK, UK
Photo: Kennerdeigh Scott
From the entry-level to the decidedly obscure, The Festival Formerly Known as the Monsters of Rock consistently champions the most skeletal system-bombing metal, punk, and rock acts from the deepest recesses of the Earth’s core. Tanked up on an impossible amount of Jägermeister and adorned in unnecessary spikes, a horde of revellers converges upon the site once every 12 lunar cycles to engage in ultraviolent dance and the ritualistic worship of brutal riff-slingers through quasi-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.
5. READING FESTIVAL
READING, UK
Photo: Christian Hjorth
4. ROSKILDE
Photo: Marc Sethi
With an unprecedented five headliners on this year’s line-up, Reading & Leeds 2016 saw 170,000 festival fans treated to sets from Foals, Disclosure, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fall Out Boy and Biffy Clyro, alongside hundreds of performances from an array of artists, bands, DJs and comedians across August bank holiday weekend.
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 five most successful festivals in the world. In tandem with its financial backing of human rights and humanitarian organisations, Roskilde promotes an inclusive and humanist ethos onsite through various means. Its conscientious worldview permeates everything from its security policies to the annual theme, which this year was ‘Equality: Stand Up for Your Rights’. The two bookings that best exemplified this agenda were Damon Albarn & The Orchestra of Syrian Musicians, and Danish activist duo The Yes Men’s live interview with exiled US whistleblower Edward Snowden via satellite.
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3. FUJI ROCK
NIIGATA, JAPAN With half of its inaugural event cancelled owing to an inexorable typhoon, the Mount Fuji-based debutante got off to a [morally reprehensible pun incoming] rocky 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. ‘Independence’, ‘cooperation’ and ‘respect of nature’ are apparently the core tenets to fully enjoying the proceedings, alongside the possession of an umbrella in case that particular typhoon happens to be out there still, biding its time. Its 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.
2. GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL
GLASTONBURY, UK
Photo: Nikki Jahanforouz, Courtesy of Coachella
1. COACHELLA
Photo: Andrew Allcock
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 swarming with clusters of bourgeois fashionistas appropriating various cultures’ traditional headdresses. Cynicism notwithstanding, Glastonbury is an internationally recognised cultural phenomenon and it will most likely maintain its pre-eminence well into the future. CALIFORNIA, USA
Following the invention of the Internet in 2007, festival organisers rapidly began to consider how to engage with the information super-highway. Coachella – or the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival if you’re not into the whole brevity thing – has benefitted hugely from its prolific use of YouTube. Its annual live-streams attract millions of viewers who can utilise the comments section to complain about how static the crowds are or argue about the Israel-Palestine conflict or whatever. But back to Coachella: this focus on the digital has allowed it to transcend the insularity of its physical limitations, becoming a truly global showcase of the most acclaimed acts imaginable. Booking such a diverse and revered set of artists ensures that tickets for both consecutive weekends sell out fast, like twenty minutes flat fast.
CONTACT Michael Baker Festival Insights - Editor +44 (0)161 476 8389 Tom Lawson Festival Insights - Advertising +44 (0)161 476 8380
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