Missed your chance on the Glastonbury resale? With cheap ticket prices and guaranteed sun, Europe’s boutique festivals are your answer
BE SURE TO ALSO CHECK OUR NON-GLASTONBURY UK FESTIVAL GUIDE HERE
The Garden Festival
Croatia, 1-8 July
To the extent that some describe it as a serious rival to Ibiza and Miami, Croatia has become a hotbed of dance music festivals, with one pretty much every week from June until September. The amazing thing is that it took so long to happen on this scale, and the second most amazing thing is that it is continuing to happen on this scale with an absence of David Guetta and Maguluf-style, 24-blowjobs-for-a-beer-type behaviour.
The one that started it all is The Garden Festival, which this year is “going out with a bang” after 10 seasons in the village of Tisno on the Adriatic coastline. It lasts a week, and there are boat parties, secret island parties, open-air club parties and beach parties that go on as long as you need them to. Even better: you can choose from camping, posh camping or a proper apartment, or the beach (you didn’t hear this from us). Basically, it’s not to be missed, and this is the last year in which you can miss it.
Biggest acts: Nightmares On Wax, Crazy P
Price: £120
Book:thegardenfestival.eu
MS Dockville
Germany, 21-23 August
Three-dayer in a hipster district of Hamburg – easy and cheap to get around. Good if you’re too old for camping.
Biggest acts: Interpol, Caribou, Dan Deacon (pictured) and a lot of local talent
Price: From £42, rising to £71 nearer the time
Book:en.ms dockville.de
Positivus
Latvia, 17-19 July
The tiny port of Salacgrīva boasts the kind of quaintness you’d expect of a town whose population is just over 3,000. There is a huge food court, an ‘arts and nature’ stage (theatre, dancing), a vintage market and a leftfield cinema.
Biggest acts: Kasabian, Robert Plant, Placebo
Price: From £47
OFF festival
Poland, 7-9 August
A nice green valley in the city of Katowice provides the backdrop, and there’s a larger percentage of local attendees and local bands than there are at most European fests these days, which is obviously a plus point, as Polish people – and Polish bands – are brilliant.
Biggest acts: Ride, Patti Smith, Sunn O))), Run The Jewels
Price: From £78
Book:off-festival.pl
Secret Solstice
Iceland, 19-21 June
Runs in tandem with summer solstice: based on Norse religion and mythology, so things promise to get weird.
Biggest acts: Wu-Tang Clan, Kelis, Haim (pictured below)
Price: £93 (plus £45 for camping)
Book:secret solstice.is
Mysteryland
Amsterdam, 29-30 August
After spreading to Chile and the US, this Dutch dance date still offers the best in electronic music and goes in hard on the extras: Mad Hatter tea parties, Day Of The Dead DJ, Zen gardens and oversized balloon parties.
Biggest acts: Nero, Alesso, Knife Party
Price: Day tickets start from £44, weekend from £86
Book:mysteryland.nl
Sunscape
Gozo, Malta, 3-5 July
Claiming to be ‘Europe’s most intimate island festival’ – not hard given that Gozo’s population is about a third of Glastonbury – this Ramla Bay affair is back for its second year. By day, it hosts the likes of painting workshops. At night, it transforms into a pit of drum’n’bass, house and techno revelling.
Biggest acts: Fabio, Grooverider, Livio & Roby
Price: From £46, with standard camping from £14
Book:sunscapefestival.eu
Weekend at the Edge of the Lake
Switzerland, 26-28 June
You could go to the Edge Of The Lake 9.3 times for the price of one Glastonbury ticket. That name isn’t a con designed to lure you in, either: camping is actually next to the idyllic Geronde Lake in Sierre.
Biggest acts: Bonobo, Fakear
Price: Just £24 for three days
Meadows in the Mountains
Bulgaria, 12-14 June
Lush, rolling hills above fields of wild flowers and misty sunsets. On top of a mountain. In the middle of nowhere. But if you stay in the village below it’ll be a 850m trek up (there’s also the shuttle bus/cart and horse). Offers art, music and lost-in-the-woods weirdness.
Biggest acts: Resurgent UK garage queen Kele le Roc will be making the trek alongside Binh, Mo Kolours and Quantic
Price: £150 for three days, death slide and zip-line included
Price:meadowsinthemountains.com
Southern Soul Festival
Montenegro, 25-28 June
Somehow sick of Croatia? Montenegro is your answer. Now in its third year, you’ll get more bang for your buck at this sun-drenched festival. Two stages look onto the Med’s longest sandy beach.
Biggest acts: Fatima & The Eglo Live Band, Romare (no, us neither, but everything from soul to jazz, funk, house and disco is on offer)
Price: From £46
Don't Forget The Big Boys
Benicassim, 16-19 July
Fancy 40-degree heat in your tent and a 10-minute walk to the beach? Blur, The Prodigy and Portishead headline Spain's answer to Reading and Leeds.
Exit, 9-12 July
For the history-loving festival-goer: the Balkans' answer to Glastonbury is housed in Serbia's 17th century Petrovaradin Fortress - the perfect setting for pounding electronica.
Primavera Sound, 28-30 May
Set in the heart of Barcelona, there's tapas, sunshine and the likes of The Black Keys and Alt-J at this year's show.
Open'er, 1-4 July
Polish behemoth in a military airfield with Drake, The Libertines and Alabama Shakes bringing noise.
(Images: Khris Cowleyn/David Bowen/Frank Hamilton/Pearcey Proper/Aubordeleau/Aaron Klein)
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