Check out some of the best music festivals in the world. These cover various music genres, from EDM to jazz and everything in between.
Top Music Festivals in the World
Donauinselfest
Vienna has long been home to several musical geniuses, including Mozart. A city with a rich music history, Vienna is home to the biggest festival in the world. Held on an island in the middle of the Danube River, Donauinselfest is an open air and free music event.
Where: Vienna, Austria When: Annually in June Website: Donauinselfest.at</p>
Summerfest
The largest music festival in the USA, Summerfest is also one of the cheapest and celebrated over a period of 11 days.
Where: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA When: Annually in late June to early July Website: Summerfest.com
Top Music Festivals in the UK
UK festivals are among the most renowned in the world for their creativity and some of the coolest acts are performed here. UK also happens to be the most saturated festival markets in the world.
The audience, although most from the UK, also consists of several international students (UK attracts several foreign students every year).
Here are top best music festivals that every music fan living in the UK (or visiting the UK) should check out.
- Download Festival, Donington Park, Derby
- Glastonbury Festival, Pilton, Somerset
- The Great Escape, Brighton, Sussex
- Green Man Festival, Brecon Beacons, Wales
- Isle of Wight Festival, Newport, Isle of Wight
- Latitude Festival, Henham Park, Southwold
- Lovebox, Victoria Park, East London
- Reading & Leeds, Little John’s Farm & Bramham Park
- Secret Garden Party, Mill Hill Field, Cambridgeshire
- Shambala, Secret Country Estate, Northamptonshire
- South West Four, Clapham Common, South West London
- T in the Park, Strathallan Castle, Perthshire, Scotland
- Wilderness Festival, Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire
- Wireless Festival, Finsbury Park, London
- Headliners (2016): Fatboy Slim, Steve Angello, Jamie Jones
Source: festicket
British Music Gear Industry Gears Up to Address the Impact of “Brexit”
Several businesses operating in the British Music Gear Industry feel that the UK leaving the EU would be like a major step backwards for the business, and one that they would need to address.
With Brexit, the business community in UK have been taking about the the economic consequences, and the musical instrument industry is no exception.
Here are some of their concerns:
- For some music gear manufacturers and distributors, logistical hurdles would emerge as a result of operating in a non-EU country.
- Eastwood Guitars set up in the UK to service Europe… it took all complications and guesswork for EU customers out of the equation. Having the ability to ship with no hidden or surprise costs used to be a big advantage. But now, the company feels that in addition to increased shipping costs, more borders and layers of bureaucracy would increase import duties and other fees, and extend shipping timelines.
- The weakening of the pound is an important issue facing the British economy.
- A weaker pound will make UK more attractive to overseas customers, but it will also cost them more to buy stock from outside the UK.
- A weaker pound also means lower cost products to US and EU countries, and increased sales to those locations.
- Lower production costs would ultimately lead to increased margins for most music instrument companies.
- Another benefit of domestic manufacturing is the ‘saved’ money that goes to Europe can be spent in the UK on UK companies.
- Many anticipate a downturn in UK business as a result of the almost inevitable recession. Those who have bought a fair bit of overseas stock lately, may be insulated in the short term.
- Those who have established music industry professionals as customers may be in a slightly better position, as they will need music/recording gear irrespective of the economic situation.
More Music Festivals
SPOT Festival
SPOT is an annual music festival held in the city of Aarhus, Denmark. The festival is essentially Denmark’s answer to South-By-Southwest or The Great Escape, and showcases up-and-coming Danish and Scandinavian/Nordic talent.
For exact dates of SPOT, please visit official website.
Since 1994, SPOT Festival has been a platform for several upcoming bands and artists, from The Raveonettes and Mew, to M0 and Efterklang, who all used SPOT Festival to launch their international careers. Most of the local bands who perform here, go on to become a household name outside of their native Denmark.
The performances at SPOT include acts by debutantes at SPOT as well as by the more established bands who are deemed potentially interesting for either Danish or international labels, publishers, music business people as well as other parts of the cultural industry and media.
Spoleto Festival USA
Spoleto Festival USA is America’s premier performing arts festival. Every year (during spring) the festival fills Charleston, South Carolina’s historic theaters, churches, and outdoor spaces with performances by all kinds of artists and performers in opera; theater; dance; and chamber, symphonic, choral, and jazz music.
Charleston is known for its stunning natural beauty, an impressive array of historical architecture, and a wealth of charming performance venues.
Where: Charleston, South Carolina Website: https://spoletousa.org/
Recyclable Cardboard Tents Reduce Waste at Music Festivals
Multi-day music festivals are a great experience, but usually, at the end of the festival, organizers have to deal with a large amount of unrecyclable waste, as most fans leave their tent behind at the end of the festival.
Festival organizers now have a solution, and that is to ask the music fans to get their own tents!
With KarTent cardboard tents, its easy to set up your own temporary tent, and surprisingly, the company that makes these cardboard tents, claim it to be waterproof for 3 days.
Each cardboard tent comes flat-packed, allow 2-persons to stay inside, have doors and windows, and can also be printed on (advertising for sponsors).
A recent survey revealed that 25% of music festival visitors leave back their tents at the venue, after the festival is over. Now, using a cardboard tent is definitely a much cleaner option (can go to the paper recycling industry), easier to dismantle and get rid of when not needed.
We hope more music fans would consider using cardboard tents, now that a better alternative exists!
Security at Music Festivals: Needs Complete Overhaul
After the Las Vegas shooting, security at musical festivals is under the magnifying glass. Police are now paying attention to the surrounding areas as well, and there will be a high presence of law enforcement at music festivals.
A gunman took the lives of at least 59 people and injured more than 500 innocent country music fans at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas. A man gets killed in shooting in a T.I. show in New York, a nightclub in Orlando gets completely taken over by a gunman, a midsized venue in Paris is taken over by radical Islamics. These incidents suggest that music venues and clubs are an easy target for terrorist activities.
The bodycount in Orlando was high, but unless major changes in security happens, the next target could claim much more victims, simply because it’s not so difficult to get weapons into a music venue these days.
The concert industry needs to wake up to the problem and acknowledge that they have a genuine security problem. the security at most venues is very lax…in some places they just check some ID and that’s it.
Other places do a bit more, but not sure if that’s enough.
Here’s an interesting post that suggests how the security should be at any music festival. While the suggestions are good (most of those points are implemented at airports), I’m not sure how feasible would it be to implement those security measures.
Having said that, there’s definitely a need to overhaul the current security measures at most music venues.
KeytarHQ editorial team includes musicians who write and review products for pianists, keyboardists, guitarists & other musicians. KeytarHQ is the best online resource for information on keyboards, pianos, synths, keytars, guitars and music gear for musicians of all abilities, ages and interests.
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