Sonar 2007 photo by Q-BEE

When I started to put together a list of all the music festivals worth catching for Kickin’ It Fridays on the Flight Centre Blog, I quickly realized two things: 1) I really could make a full time career of being festival addict (if only the Music Gods would so bless me!!) and 2) You would have to an amazing attention span and the patience of a sweet sweet cherub to make it through my list. So I obviously had to shortlist but what a task! How could I possibly choose between so many countries, genres and downright deserving venues? With a few beads of sweat and pile of nerves, I present to you this weeks shortlist in handy-vacay planning chronological order: The European Festivals!

Sonar
The Sonar Music Festival describes itself as an advanced music and digital arts festival held in the heart of Barcelona, Spain each July. The festival is a 3-day feast for the senses displaying both contemporary multimedia art and electronica performances by today’s most forward-thinking artists. This year’s festival is taking place June 18 – 20 and the lineup includes Orbital, Grace Jones (fresh off her first release in 15 years), Animal Collective, Crystal Castles, Late of the Pier, Deadmau5 and so many more.

Oxegen

Rage Against The Machine Black & White photo by nathamanath

The Oxegen Music Festival is a relative new kid on the block, as far as big European rock mash ups go, but don’t let its tender age of 5 trick you into thinking that Oxegen isn’t up to the task of impressing.

The festival runs July 10 – 12 in Punchestown, Naas County Kildare and is another environmentally-conscious festival that completely offsets its carbon emissions and highly encourages attendees to be equally green. As if that isn’t impressive enough considering most music festivals look like post-apocalyptic war zones, this year’s playlist features the King’s of Leon, Nine Inch Nails, Pet Shop Boys, Jane’s Addiction, Glasvegas, Lily Allen, TV on the Radio (must see!) and one of my favorites Mogwai.

Mud People of Glastonbury photo by davespilbrow

Glastonbury
I simply couldn’t skip over Glastonbury. It is the biggest and most noteable of the European Music Festivals also the most difficult to get tickets to. Simply put, if you don’t have tickets already then you’re not going. Not this year anyway. If you do have tickets then the Rock and Roll Gods have blessed you and deemed you worthy to experience the muddiest, most diverse performing arts festival along with the likes of Lily Allen, Fleet Foxes, Neil Young, Blur, Bruce Springsteen,The Doves, Franz Ferdinand, The Ting Tings, and Kasabian. And thats just the beginning…even though the festival has been sold out for months, the full lineup won’t be announced until a month before.

Sziget
The last music festival on my shortlist is the Sziget Music Festival held on August 12 – 17 in Budapest, Hungary. This festival pretty much has it all and is one of the more affordable of the lot. Its super convenient location (on an island in the middle of the city) makes it a great option for those who are less inclined to camping and though this lineup is also still a work in progress is already contains the likes of The Offspring, The Prodigy, Snow Patrol and The White Lies. But seriously, one of my favorite perks of this festival is simply that its in Budapest which has to be close to the top of the list of European cities you need to visit.

All right. There you have it, folks. My much-wrestled shortlist of the European Festivals. Next week I’ll tackle a similar feat across the Atlantic.

Barcelona, Spain is highlighted on the Flight Centre travel map.

Jennifer Maley is an International Travel Consultant based in Victoria, British Columbia and can be reached at 1 866 604 6340.

Categories: Off The Beaten Path

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