Stop, hammock time … the Garden Resort in Tisno, Croatia, hosts the Love International festival.
Photograph: Tim Ertl
When it comes to cool sounds in the summer sunshine, continental Europe
is your playground. We pick the best (mostly) affordable parties from
Iceland’s Secret Solstice to Croatia’s Love International
Love International, Croatia
As the Croatian festival scene bidding farewell last summer to its
founding father, the Garden Festival, which bowed out after 10 years of
magic, it now falls to Love International to carry the torch. Run by the
team behind Bristol’s Love Saves the Day
(with the Garden’s Nick Colgan also involved), the festival takes place
at the Garden Resort in Tisno, in a natural amphitheatre with a private
bay for cooling dips. It also features the kind of line-up to generate
heart-throbbing party moments, with some of the most discerning house
and disco selectors around: Prosumer, Bicep, Horse Meat Disco … Just
thinking about it is making us want to shoot confetti in the air and
spill our drink hugging a stranger. • 29 June-6 July, full week pass £120, loveinternationalfestival.com
Photograph: Ross Silcocks
Maxing out on Iceland’s out-of-this world landscape, midnight-sun
fest Secret Solstice has announced the world’s first live performance
from inside a volcano as a side-event for this years’ festival weekend.
OK, at £1,380 a ticket and with only 20 available, the volcano gig
sounds like a ridiculously overpriced novelty. More affordable (though
still not cheap at £80-£200) are a series of DJ shows in a glacier and a
thermal pool . But the main festival itself is a lot of fun, with a
line-up headlined by Radiohead (they’re back!) and freaky-as-you-like-it
Die Antwoord. Now in its third year, the festival is a great
opportunity to visit to Reykajavik – where it’s located - and the rest
of the country. •16-19 June, weekend pass £144, secretsolstice.is
Photograph: David Zuber
Celebrating its 10th anniversary, Edge of the Lake (Week-end au Bord
l’Eau) remains an incredibly chilled-out proposition. Taking place on a
beach on the Lac de Géronde, east of Sion and surrounded by hills and
vineyards, it’s as much about hanging out and enjoying the setting as it
is about the music. Though the line-up doesn’t compete with the bigger
festivals, you’ll still find the likes of Lindstrom, Deetron and Ninja
Tune DJs on the bill. At just £60 for the weekend, including camping,
it’s one of the most affordable festivals around. •1-3 July, weekend pass €40, with camping €72, aubordeleau.ch
Photograph: Nicole Zaddach
We had our eye on this low-key festival when it launched last year:
it’s a tranquil village fête-style affair in the leafy north German
countryside, not far from Hamburg. This year’s line-up shows that the
organisers have ramped things up a bit: Sigur Rós, Garbage, Fat Freddy’s
Drop and José Gonzalez are among the acts on a bill that leans towards
dreamy, psychedelic, folksy acts. Billy Bragg, of course, will be in
attendance. The festival – essentially a big family-friendly chill-out
session – has a big performing arts contingent, too: dance, theatre and
spoken word, as well as workshops from acro yoga and Japanese tea
tasting to finger knitting and didgeridoo. Alles klar, dude, alles klar. • 10-15 August, four-day pass with camping €169, asummerstale.de
While the attraction of Croatian music festivals has always been a
fusion of some kind of party + beach-chill holiday, it was probably only
a matter of time before someone decided to up the “chill” element.
Enter Obonjan. Co-founded by Dan Blackledge, who was behind Hideout and
Unkown, this new event is part festival, part resort, with a two-month
long programme of music, arts and workshops on a long-abandoned island
in the Adriatic. Music headliners include Roy Ayers, DJ Shadow, Dilated
Peoples and Matthew Herbert. It’s open from July-September and visitors
can just explore the events around the island at their leisure. It’s
like a pick-your-own adventure, but the adventures are always relaxing. •18 July-10 September, from €73pp pn, including accommodation in tents or lodges and entertainment, otokobonjan.com
There’s nowhere like eastern Europe for partying in dramatic industrial ruins. There’s Tauron Nowa Muzyka in an old Polish coal mine, while in Germany – not far from Leipzig in the former GDR – Melt!
is held in a huge open-air museum dominated by gigantic industrial
machines. Let’s be honest, it goes pretty damn well with techno. Colours
of Ostrava is run on similar (production) lines, transforming the Dolní
Vítkovice ironworks into a spectacular festival venue. The line-up has
broad appeal but focuses on artists with discerning sounds. Congolese
electronic rhythm-makers Mbongwana Star are on the bill, as is LA punk
band’s Bronx’s Mexicana’s side project, Mariachi el Bronx. Between
performances, play among the heavy machinery (showing due care,
naturally), and there’s also a climbing wall, bike rental, bars and
cafes. The festival also deserves credit for the support it offers to
disabled visitors to make sure everyone can enjoy the festival to the
max. •14-17 July, four-day ticket €84, weekend camping €10, colours.cz
Techno DJ Ben Klock will be performing at this year’s Weather Festival. Photograph: Robbie Golec
When it comes to Europe’s city-based electronic festivals,
Barcelona’s Sonar usually gets most of the attention. But over the past
four years Weather has been building its profile and attracting the
biggest names in techno and house, while also injecting new energy into
Paris’s club scene. Taking place at Le Bourget airport, in the
north-east of the city, it will welcome campers for the first time this
year, which will no doubt foster a stronger sense of community among the
crowd. As for the line-up, expect the best of Berlin techno (Marcel
Dettmann, Dixon, Ben Klock, Len Faki); underground party starters Motor
City Drum Ensemble and The Black Madonna; and a whole lot more DJs who
know exactly what they’re doing. It’s run by the team behind Paris venue
Concrete, so it’s no surprise the curation of artists is so good. •3-5 June, three-day ticket €84, weatherfestival.fr
Photograph: Alamy
From psychedelic trance implosion to Europe’s leading alt-eco
gathering, Boom festival brings a touch of the Burning Man spirit to
Europe. Taking place every two years, Boom creates a spiritual, shamanic
community that fosters unity and respect. There’s also a lot of people
on acid, and the physical environment is very much geared up for a
tripped-out mindset: expect warped art, visually stimulating
installations and all kinds of creations to play around with/think very,
very deeply about. The programme goes way beyond trance (and music, for
that matter); the talks, yoga classes and healing workshops are as much
a part of Boom as the dancing with thousands of beautiful people
dressed as mythical creatures. •11-18 August, €180, boomfestival.org
Photograph: Jordi Vidal/Redferns via Getty Images
While Sonar has, over 22 years, built a vast international reputation
for pulling together the best of the world’s electronic music,
Barcelona’s other major festival, Primavera Sound, has been rapidly
growing as a broad-spectrum festival with an enviable programme of
international acts. In 15 years it has gone from a two-day event
attended by 8,000 to a five-day party for 190,000. In many ways it has
followed a similar expansion to Sonar, launching a smaller off-shoot – NOS Primavera Sound in Porto – as well as a programme of meetings, workshops and conferences in the form of PrimaveraPro.
This year’s headliners are Radiohead, LCD Soundsystem and PJ Harvey,
and the bill ranges from garage rockers Parquet Courts to Balkan brass
folksters Beirut. All this is backed by a solid list of electronic acts
and DJs from Hudson Mohawke, Floating Points and Optimo. •1-5 June, week ticket €195, day tickets €80, primaverasound.es
Photograph: Andrej Isakovic/AFP/Getty Images
Formed by Serbia’s student movement as the country moved into the
post-Milošević era, Exit has grown into an astonishing international
event that transforms Novi Sad’s Petrovaradin Fortress into a party site
for 200,000 people. The award-winning festival, which retains a social
mission to support young people in the Balkans, has dozens of stages and
sound systems around the castle site. This year’s line-up has acts from
Ellie Goulding to Stormzy, Bastille to Wiz Khalifa – and be sure to get
sucked into the notorious dance arena, too. Be prepared to party hard
in the Balkan sun and – trust us – remember to pack sunscreen. •7-10 July, four-day pass from £79, camping pass £25, exitfest.org
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