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Looking for an EU festival for 2015.


Guest Dom Wall
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Hi,

I'm looking for an EU fest to go to in 2015; looking for one with a stellar lineup, but also a decent atmosphere and for it to be in/near a city so I can explore in the day (e.g. I went to Optimus Alive! in 2013 and 2014 and could wander round Lisbon in the day).

What are my options? Looked at Sziget/Werchter/Rock en Seine so far:)

Thanks,

Dom.

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Hi,

I'm looking for an EU fest to go to in 2015; looking for one with a stellar lineup, but also a decent atmosphere and for it to be in/near a city so I can explore in the day (e.g. I went to Optimus Alive! in 2013 and 2014 and could wander round Lisbon in the day).

What are my options? Looked at Sziget/Werchter/Rock en Seine so far:)

Thanks,

Dom.

If you are looking for a stellar line up forget about Sziget and Rock en Seine. Your best options are Roskilde, Pinkpop (if it follows the same direction as this year) and Werchter.

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If you are looking for a stellar line up forget about Sziget and Rock en Seine. Your best options are Roskilde, Pinkpop (if it follows the same direction as this year) and Werchter.

Yeah, I'd looked at ReS, but the lineup wasn't exactly setting the world alight. What's Roskilde like? The lineups look great, but haven't read much about the festival itself? Think Werchter is top of the list at the moment.

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Yeah, I'd looked at ReS, but the lineup wasn't exactly setting the world alight. What's Roskilde like? The lineups look great, but haven't read much about the festival itself? Think Werchter is top of the list at the moment.

Went to Werchter last year and it was brilliant. The festival itself has a stellar line up every year as you know and the music goes on until 1-2am. Quite similar to Reading in that it's just about the music but the atmosphere around the place was great with everyone in the party mood. The campsite (Hive) was very clean (inc. toilets). There is a shuttle bus to and from Leuven which we used to chill in the city in the morning and grab some food as it's just the standard overpriced shit at the festival.

Overall i'd highly recommend RW. It's very easy to get to on the train with the Eurostar to Brussels too.

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Depending on what sort of music you are into, you could look at Primavera Sound - Barcelona and Porto are both great places to explore during the day.

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Rock en Seine had pretty much the best lineup out of anywhere this year for me. Same for most years actually. Gets a bulk of the Reading lot but filters out the crap like Blink-182 and replaces it with decent stuff like Portishead or St Vincent. Plus it's cheap and Paris is LOVELY. Definitely considering it next year.

Worth looking at Best Kept Secret as well. Had a great lineup last two years and it's easy to bolt on a couple of days in Amsterdam beforehand too.

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We did Primavera Porto last year, and would definitely do it again, with the right headliners. We stayed near the coast, and could get a bus into the city and an inexpensive cab to the festival site. Porto is a beautiful city, the festival is really friendly and drink prices were quite reasonable compared to other festivals.

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Did Rock en Seine this year although stayed in a hotel about five minutes from the site.

Most people also stayed off site so seemed more like a series of one day events with a bit of camping thrown in.

Excellent for the siteseeing though - 20 minutes max on the metro into centre of Paris and everywhere apart from the obvious attractions pretty quiet due to all locals buggering off to the south of France for the whole of August.

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Sorry to hijack this thread, but anybody been to Pinkpop recently and would you recommend it? I'm going to be busy throughout the main festival period so need a festival early-mid June and the line-up last year was excellent.

I've been the last three years (all be it, just with a day ticket this year, as weekend tickets sold out in 25 minutes, thanks to the Rolling Stones!). I actually moved from the UK to the Netherlands and live about a 10 minute walk from the site. It's a decent little festival and I would definitely recommend it if you want a fairly laid back festival experience. It's a relatively small festival site, on an old oval horse racing course. There's a main stage at one end and the second stage at the other end, and a tent stage to the side of the main stage. They stagger the band times, so that when there is a band on the main stage, there isn't a band on the second stage or the tent. It's a good idea in principle as you shouldn't ever miss a band on the main stage, but it does mean that about ten minutes from the end of most bands' sets, people start moving to the other stage, which can be a bit annoying.

It's in the middle of a town, so there isn't room for one big campsite. There's four dotted across the town. There's one right next to the arena, but the others are a 15-20 minute walk away. I'm not sure what the campsites are like, as I just sleep in my own bed!

The atmosphere in the arena tends to be fairly relaxed. The Dutch don't really have the drinking culture that the Brits do, so it doesn't tend to get too messy and there's always a massive queue at the free water stands, if the sun comes out - the Dutch tend to be pretty sensible! Beer is reasonably pricey in the arena. I think it's 2.5 Euros, for a beer (which is a European size 250ml). It's much cheaper in the shops, but you can only take this onto the campsite and not into the arena.

If you have any other specific questions, then feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer.

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WIthout wanting to sound like 'Mr-I've-been-to-all-the-festivals'! I went to BBK in 2012, if that's recent enough for you. Decent little festival, in a stunning location on top of a mountain looking out over the city of Bilbao. I wasn't massively impressed with the festival organisation. They basically, sort of, close off the top of the mountain, although you don't need a ticket to get onto the mountain, just into the main arena. You can camp almost anywhere on the mountain - or at least people were after a couple of days, as there was no proper camping space left! That included camping on steep slopes and tarmac football pitches. There didn't seem to be much in the way of security, except a few young guys sitting around smoking, so I got the impression anyone could walk in, which I'm never too happy about.

The festival arena doesn't open until late in the afternoon and goes on into the early hours of the morning. The heat woke us up pretty early each day, so we ended up with little sleep and a lot of time on our hands during the day. There is a bus down into Bilbao, but there was a massive queue for it everyday, so we walked into the town. It's quite a long, steep walk, so be prepared for some exercise if you do that! I seem to remember there not being very many food stalls in the arena (yet, strangely a stall selling Seat cars!?), but there is a restaurant on top of the mountain, outside the arena, that sells good, reasonably priced, meals - along with mini kegs of Heineken!

I don't know whether it was just me, but I found the locals not to be all that friendly, especially compared to other European festivals I've been to. They seemed to take themselves very seriously. There was a lot of standing around with arms folded going on, when bands were playing. At one point, I heard a local guy, quite aggressively having a go at a young girl, because she'd, quite innocently, commented that she was in Spain (which, technically, she was) - he gave her quite a strong lecture about how she wasn't in Spain, but was in Basque country!

Anyway, if you have any specific questions, I'll answer if I can.

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Has anyone got any input on Best Kept Secret festival? The line up was pretty good this year and they'd picked out a lot of smaller bands who normally go well under the radar...next to a lake as well??

Went in 2013. Lovely festival. Quite small scale (there was only a 15,000 capacity the first year), with a very relaxed atmosphere. Half on a sandy beach by a lake; half in the woods.

Great music, clean flushing toilets, the best festival food I've ever come across, and you pay a deposit for the drinks glasses, which effectively means no litter. There's nothing about it not to like as far as I'm concerned*. Had to miss it this year for family reasons, but will definitely be back in 2015.

*Edit: Oh yes, I remembered something negative: The shuttle buses to/from Tilburg aren't free, but that's my only gripe...

Edited by Trufflehound
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"Stellar lineup" is such a subjective thing.

I went to Sziget this year and thought it was brilliant - For me it had a good mix of guitar stuff, electronic, occasional hip hop... And a great vibe. It definitely also fulfills your other requirement of being near a nice city - Budapest is awesome and just the other side of the river.

I also think it's one of the best value for money festivals out there, as it lasts like 7 days but costs similar to a normal fest. And if you go from the UK, the forint to pound exchange rate is very favourable to us.

Not sure where I'll be going next year yet. Rock Werchter sounds like it might be good, but Sziget will be hard to beat for me. Also thinking of keeping it local and trying for Glasto tickets.

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Was at Werchter, Rock En Seine and Rock a Field (luxembourg) this summer.

Werchter was an amazing festival as always but musically it lacked for me apart from Pearl Jam.

Rock En Seine was better line for me personally - how had i not heard of St Vincent - didnt even watch the prodigy.

Rock A Field in luxembourg very good line up and cheap early bird tickets on sale now think 85eur for wend.

Edited by Stretchryan
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Sziget's always the best choice. Perfect combination between good music and good mood, great atmosphere, low prices (2,10€ for a 0,5l beer), people from all over the world (this year from 87 countries), long lasting party (after the 3rd day, which means the end of a normal festival, at sziget you're not even half way through the festival), it's surrounded by a wonderful city, it's not all about the music (art, circus, sports, relax, theatre, etc...) but if you only want music you can find it everywhere 'till 6am, you can find almost every kind of music, no violence at all (in 6 years in a row I never saw a fight). What else? :D

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sziget's always the best choice. Perfect combination between good music and good mood, great atmosphere, low prices (2,10€ for a 0,5l beer), people from all over the world (this year from 87 countries), long lasting party (after the 3rd day, which means the end of a normal festival, at sziget you're not even half way through the festival), it's surrounded by a wonderful city, it's not all about the music (art, circus, sports, relax, theatre, etc...) but if you only want music you can find it everywhere 'till 6am, you can find almost every kind of music, no violence at all (in 6 years in a row I never saw a fight). What else? :D

This was pretty much my experience at Sziget too.

The lineup doesn't look as impressive on paper but then at most major festivals I end up missing a lot of what I want to see through clashes. For me, Sziget offered a great mix of bands I love, big names I watched out of interest as I'd probably not pay to go to their own gigs and small bands i'd never heard of but still enjoyed. Then there's all the other non-music entertainment too. Atmosphere was fantastic and the beers were cheap (cocktails/spirits & mixers not so great).

If it wasn't so expensive to get to (an over-priced flight from Newcastle to London was needed for me to be able to get a cheap flight from London to Budapest as direct flights from Newcastle didn't fit my own or the festival's schedule) I'd happily go back.

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So - I was thinking about an alternative festival. A friend had told me about a festival in Souther France (maybe near Cannes) on the beach, which was basically a couple of stages, one on a pier, one just a bit inland.

Does this ring a bell with anyone? I can't remember the name...

p.s. For the above thread, am v surprised there's less mention of Roskilde. Amazing festival. Made a little worse since they separated camping/festival areas though.

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So - I was thinking about an alternative festival. A friend had told me about a festival in Souther France (maybe near Cannes) on the beach, which was basically a couple of stages, one on a pier, one just a bit inland.

Does this ring a bell with anyone? I can't remember the name...

p.s. For the above thread, am v surprised there's less mention of Roskilde. Amazing festival. Made a little worse since they separated camping/festival areas though.

Sounds a lot like La Route Du Rock festival. Although it's in Bretagne (to the north of France), it has a class alternative line up, with one stage on the beach and one stage a bit inland.

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