Rock on at Europe’s Hottest Summer Festivals

Summer’s here and the time is right for dancing all over Europe. Though Southern California’s Coachella Festival gets all the headlines, the truth is that Europe is full of dozens of music festivals featuring thousands of bands, from the Gulf of Bothnia to the Mediterranean and from the Atlantic to the Adriatic. All music is covered, from heavy metal to jazz and from rap to local folk music, very often at the same festivals. Here’s a list of five of the best music festivals coming up in the summer of 2011.

Roskilde Festival, Denmark
June 30-July 3, Warm-up June 26-29

The Roskilde Festival was created in 1971 by two high school students and it has growing ever since. As the festival is a non-profit organization supporting the development of music and culture, you know your ticket money is going to a good place. Originally a haven for hippies, the musical styles have branched out and its wide range of musical styles can be seen in a sampling of the 2011 line-up. Acts will include MIA, PJ Harvey, Iron Maiden, Killing Joke, Kings of Leon, Big Boi, Bright Eyes, Ice Age, Yemen Blues and hundreds more. In 2007 the festival boasted 80,000 guests who watched 180 bands and enjoyed the work of 3,000 artists. Like most festivals, Roskilde provides the opportunity to camp. But if you’d like to crash in a bed with four walls and a ceiling around you, there are plenty of Roskilde hotels to accommodate you. Though you should be sure to book early.

Oxegen Festival, Ireland
July 7-10

Somewhat newer is the Oxegen Festival, which has become Ireland’s largest, with a 2008 daily attendance of 90,000. Though its previous incarnation, “Witnness” was sponsored by Guinness, the festival is now put on by Heineken. Known as the greenest festival in Europe, Oxegen is a 100% carbon neutral event and takes place at the Punchestown Racecourse in County Kildare, just 32 kilometres from Dublin. As always, 2011 will feature some big names among the 100+ acts, including Foo Fighters, Coldplay, Black-Eyed Peas, Arctic Monkeys, the Strokes, the Script, deadmaus, the National, Weezer, Pendulum, Plan B, Primal Scream and Bright Eyes. If you want to sleep in the open with 80,000 other attendees, there’s camping available. The nearest hotels are just a few kilometres in the town of Naas, and after three nights of camping, a night spent in a Dublin hotel can serve as a nice transition back to civilization.

Benicàssim Festival, Spain

July 14-July 17

What do you get when you mix rock music the blue waters and golden sands of Spain’s Mediterranean coast? The Benicàssim Festival! Known locally as the Festival Internacional de Benicàssim, this four-day party is set in the beachside holiday town of Benicàssim, which is an hour from Valencia in one direction and two hours from Barcelona in the other. Though the festival focuses mostly on pop, rock and electronica music, many other arts are represented as well, from theatre to short film to visual arts and fashion. The 2011 line-up includes The Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes, Primal Scream, Arcade Fire, Portishead, Jack Beats, The Juan MacLean, Logo, Lori Meyers and The Marzipan Man. Camping is offered here as well, but if you’d like to mix festival-style fun with beach resort luxury, then check out one of the many resort hotels in Benicàssim and in Castellon de la Plana, 16 kilometres away.

Sziget Festival, Budapest

August 8-15

The Isle of Wight Festival isn’t the only one held on an island. Of course what makes the Sziget Festival unique is that the island is right in the middle of the Danube, right in the middle of the Hungarian capital of Budapest. This is the biggest party in Europe, features a whopping 1,000+ bands and artists, performing on 55 different stages. The variety of music is also mind-boggling, allowing you to choose (and with all those stage, choose you must) between pop, rock, metal, hip hop, dance, world music and more. There’s also much non-performance fun to be had, from bungee-jumping to movies to belly dancing and Hungarian lessons to karaoke to swimming and football. Oh, and then there’s the music, which this year will include Amy Winehouse, Deftones, Flogging Molly, Good Charlotte, Judas Priest, Kasabian, Pulp, Smashmouth, The Chemical Brothers… and hundred more. Though camping out on the island is a unique experience, you might want to pencil in one night in a Budapest hotel, many of which offer the unique experience of visiting one of the city’s famed thermal baths.

Pukkelpop, Belgium

August 18-20

With fall approaching, the Pukkelpop Festival, one of the season’s last, is getting in full swing. Though the line-up has not yet been announced (you can jot down your requests on the festival website), 2010 featured Placebo, Iron Maiden, Queens of the Stone Age, Snow Patrol, Blink 182, Limp Bizkit, The Flaming Lips, Bad Religion, The Black Motorcycle Club, Fake Blood and 200 more. The festival boasts eight stages, including the unforgettable Chateau Crapule. It’s held in a large enclosure of fields and forests close to the city of Hasselt in a tiny village of Kiewit, whose population increases exponentially once a year when the Pukkelpop crowd of 180,000 descends upon it. If you want to skip the camping or are looking for some post-festival decompression, hotel rooms are available in Hasselt and 40 minutes away in the medieval Dutch river city of Maastricht.