European Festivals

Hit me up if you come over, I live here near Frankfurt and have already got my tickets booked for this year!
Cool I will. I got tickets for the Saturday. We're thinking about bringing a tent and trying one of the campsites, but have yet to dive into all the camping possibilities. Keep u posted!
 
some pals went last summer and said it was amazing. lots of fun in the trees. (see also Alfresco)

Oh if the weather's onnnn then it's arguably the best festival in the UK. Certainly for my musical tastes!

I'm just done doing festivals in this country. I'm too old for muddy festivals now.
 
Oh if the weather's onnnn then it's arguably the best festival in the UK. Certainly for my musical tastes!

I'm just done doing festivals in this country. I'm too old for muddy festivals now.
Exactly this! Prefer to spend my money on going abroad than spending the best part of a grand on being in a forest in the UK
 
some great global festie tips from a vastly experienced DJ Nick The Record :

“As we all looked on in horror at the recent documentary’s about Fyre Festival I figured it’s as good a time as any to give some shine to some of the many good festivals that go off so smoothly & to all the hard work that goes into making that happen.
Putting on a festival is not easy & a lot of work goes into making them run smoothly.
I’ve been lucky enough to play at some crackers over the last few years.
Here are a few good points to mention about some of them & maybe some of these things could be adopted by others in the game.

#meadowsinthemountains
is a really fun festival in a great location. It’s 4 hours travel once you land in Bulgaria but sometimes when you want to party in a special place it takes some time and effort to get there.
One detail that impressed me with Meadows is that they don’t supply any plastic cups or glasses.
They will sell you a tin cup on arrival )or you can bring your own) which you have to keep with you and all vendors will give it a rinse for you & serve your drink in your cup. It’s a small thing but it sure helps save a lot of waste.

#southernsoulfestival
is a great little festival in Montenegro located right on the beach with a slant towards the more Soulful & Jazzy side of the scene. They also had some Soulful House artists & there were a few times when there was House on both the main stages. But one great thing about it is they have an Organic stage & when I was there in 2017 I only heard Organic Sounds. So now matter how House or banging it gets on the main stages there was always the sanctuary of the Organic stage where I heard Jazz, Funk, Brazilian & plenty of Soul over the weekend. So for those moments when It all gets a bit much for you in the bustle of the main stage or Dance tent it’s good to know you can always rely on hearing some organic sounds in a (relatively) chilled area. I reckon every Festival should have one.

#houghtonfestival
it was my first time playing at Houghton this year & I had heard so many great things about it from the previous year I was stoked to get booked. The thing Houghton did that should really be taken on by every festival is the fact that there was great sound, on EVERY stage. This should really be industry standard but the sound is surprisingly sub standard at so many festivals. Of course it can pose more of a challenge to get a good sound in an outside setting but they managed it. In ALL areas. They used D&B Audiotechnik speakers which is what we use for our Tangent party and they are the best I have heard. Only downside, if you can call it a downside, was that there was almost too much choice. With 14 stages there was so much going on. When I played on Sunday afternoon there was 5 other DJ’s I would have happily gone to listen to.

#la_casella_festival
2018 was the first year of this small Festival in Umbria Italy.
It was held at a picturesque hotel & resort & the ticket price included a room & 2 meals a day of great Italian food. It was more of a party than a festival to be fair. One really nice touch was that the music was turned off at dinner time & we all ate together on a few huge tables. Not something most festivals can copy but it was a nice touch.

#kalafestival
2018 was also the first year for Kala Festival in Albania.
Another festival that was quite a mission to get to with most people getting a boat across the Adriatic from Greece. The long journey’s were soon forgotten when people saw what a great setting we had for the festival with all stages on the beach. The really cool thing others could take from this festival was that in the area I played there was no set times announced. Our area was away from the main site on an Eco campground & you had to get there by boat. It was only open for 3 days of the festival. There were 6 carefully chosen resident DJ’s for that area. So you didn’t know who would be playing when you went, you just had to trust that there would be good music just right for the time of day you were there & it worked a treat.

#FFKT
is a new festival starting this summer in Nagano Japan. It’s basically the new Taicoclub Festival, same location, same weekend, some of the same promoters.
I am lucky enough to have been resident at Taicoclub, playing the closing set every year on the Sunday.
This tip isn’t something promoters can take on, it’s more about the punters.
There is pretty much zero rubbish discarded. Everyone there respects nature and each other enough to put their rubbish in a bin. And no one would dream of leaving a tent behind because they can’t be arsed to take it down. In some ways it’s more odd that this is something worth mentioning. But we’ve all seen the shocking state most UK Festivals are left in.

#loveintfestival
no specific tip for this one. Just have to give props and tell the guys at Love International to keep on doing what they are doing. They have been at the same site for quite a few years now & they have everything pretty much at peak performance. The new DJ booth & speaker positioning on the Beach stage made a huge difference last summer to sound and atmosphere and it was a treat to sound track the euphoric atmosphere after England finally won a penalty shoot out. The video is my last tune of the night before Moxie came on.

#fieldmaneuvers
this is a great small festival with a family feel & seems to have many of the same crowd (and DJ’s) every year.
There were 3 stages over the weekend but on the Sunday they only had one stage open.
As some people always leave on Sunday this made sense. Sometimes less is more.

I have 6 festival bookings in my schedule for 2019 so far Including Kala & Gala & FFKT and some with longer names that haven't been announced yet.”
 
#la_casella_festival
Sounds really nice... I may look into this in 2020, maybe as an ibiza add-on. :twisted:

One festival that has somehow infiltrated my youtube recommendations is BOOM. I think its somewhere in Portugal. While the music (from the sets I saw) would be a bit too intense for me for 3-4 consecutive days, one great thing I noticed was that nobody was looking at a phone or even filming. It looked like something out of the 90s.
 
If anyone is looking for a nice kinda under the radar festival in The Netherlands... StrafWerk Festival is a great one.
line up for this year includes Tale of Us, Ame, Kolsch, Martinez Brothers. Location is top notch near Amsterdam.
 
Back
Top