Top 5 Upcoming European Festivals
by Katharina Withelm posted on July 15, 2009Melt! is set to take place this coming weekend (17th-19th of July) for the 11th time in the Iron City Ferropolis and as I told you all yesterday – I for one can’t WAIT to go!
2) Festival Internacional de Benicàssim
Also this weekend (16th–19th of July) the cracking annual music festival, FIB, takes place in the port town of Benicàssim at the Spanish mediterranean coast between Barcelona and Valencia. It focuses mainly on alternative rock and electronica artists and has other media elements including short films, theatre, fashion and art. The Benicàssim that we know today owes as much to its sun, surf and sand as it does to Oasis and Leonard Cohen as much to its peculiar mountain range, polka-dotted with caves, crags and cliffs, as to the magic of Björk and the howling of Jon Spencer as much to the Las Palmas desert as to the Festival’s concert venue. Today’s Benicàssim is synonymous with FIB Heineken.
The festival has taken place for 15 years and it’s guests are again invited to nine days of free camping next to the concert venue. This years line-up has plenty to offer including the likes of The Killers, Kings Of Leon, Franz Ferdinand, Jet, Boys Noize, Lily Allen, Peaches, TV on The Radio and Lykke Li amongst others.
The absolutely stunning location at the sea is hard to top too!
At this festival the Hungarians party for an entire week! Sziget festival takes place from 12th-17th of August at Hajógyan-sziget island in Budapest, a leafy island of 108 hectares on the Dabube. The word Sziget translates to the world, island.
Currently, the festival boasts more than 1000 performances each year.
For me, this would be way too much to take in but I think there are enough party keen people out there – all of which have helped to make it one of the largest festivals in Europe and more recently the world. The all-time peak year was 2005 with 385 000 visitors.
As the list of acts is miles long, please check their website for further info…
As I know from a Belgian friend whom I met in Tel Aviv, there are some good festivals in Belgium. Well, who would have thought??
Pukkelpop takes place from 20-22nd of August and is an annual music festival that takes place in Kiewit, Belgium.
The festival began in 1985 and has expanded steadily over the course of its establishment. To date it is one of the largest music festivals in the country, with an attendance of approximately 152,000 in 2008.
This year’s line-up includes the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Kraftwerk, Beirut, Klaxons, Booka Shade, Dizzee Rascal, La Roux, Paul Kalkbrenner, Yo Majesty, Little Boots…
Ok, I know, this festival took place last weekend, but its really worth to be mentioning here.
Every year it‘s a hard choice for me to decide whether to go to Splash! or Melt! festival, as for years now they have both taken place on sequential weekends and I have only once managed to go to both!
Splash! is definitely one of the leading European hip hop festivals and always brings the big guns in terms of an uber-line up!
This year the crowd were rocked by Atmosphere, Boys Noize, German high flyer Clueso, Dizzee Rascal (❤), Hilltop Hoods, Jedi Mind Tricks, Method Man & Redman, Santigold, Sick Girls, Roots Manuva, The Streets and many many more…
Due to a financial crisis caused by heavy rain in 2005 and 2006, the past two years has seen the festival take place in the Pouch peninsula in Bitterfeld, instead of Chemnitz as it had the 8 years before. The special thing about Splash! this year was that it took place at the City of Iron Ferropolis, (Melt! festival‘s location) for the first time ever.
Please login or register to add a comment!