Jump to content

European Festivals


Guest Dunney77
 Share

Recommended Posts

Rock Werchter is good fun. Very simple, camping is in various different areas, all with their own cafe (which also serve drink til late)...there's only two stages so you generally never miss any bands. Food isn't spectacular, and the cherry beer gets pretty boring after a few hours (but you can bring spirits in as long as they are in juice cartons (weird??)...Everything's pretty organised though, and I'd definitely go again. Beni used to be OK, but unless you like Ibiza of a summer I wouldn't bother (not my scene). Primavera I haven't been to yet (mates went this year, and as glasto vets, they raved about it) Definitely on the cards for next year. Roskilde is great, haven't been for a good while, I remember it being more muddy than glasto!...much more of the heavier bands that you don't get at glasto too. Went to Lowlands when I lived in amsterdam, brilliant craic, another one I'd definitely go back to. Somewhere along the line I'd like to hit Sziget and Exit, both sound like crackin' festies. In general, any of the european festies I've been to have been pretty laid back and well organised (though Beni the last time was a pain in the h*le, vowed never to set foot in the place again).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not been for a while, but I went to Roskilde a few years back and it was great. I'd definitely recommend it, especially for Glasto's next fallow year.

I think it's closer to Glastonbury in atmosphere than others like Rock Werchter, but I'm not certain, as I haven't been to those.

There are lots of stages, and as its the one huge festival in Denmark, the line up is usually varied and with a wide range of music types and more big acts than you'd get at most other festivals: the year I went, headliners included: oldies like Roger Waters, Bob Dylan, poppier acts like Scissor Sisters Franz Ferdinand and Arctic Monkeys, heavier stuff like Guns N Roses, Tool and even rap in the form of Kanye West and spacier stuff like Sigur Ros.

There is loads to do, with small stages, tents, etc. But one area that differs hugely from Glasto is that the camping is separated from the music area (more like Download or Readling/Leeds), and you're chucked out at the end of each day. There's a great atmosphere in the camping, and stuff to do, but this is an area where I prefered Glastonbury's more open field approach.

Anyway, that's just my two cents.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ive been to Exit in Sebia and Sziget in Hungary.Quite different to each other

Exit:

Camping is right by the Danube river and theres a beach which is basically a 24/7 party.

The festival is over a big bridge , takes about 20mins to walk.The site is a huge Fortress so takes a while to walk up the winding passage to the top , its like its own little village. Theres about 10 different stages of all sizes.The Main and the Dance stage are the biggest and quite close together.The Dance stage is in front of the moat so its a massive pit with about 20,000 people going nuts its quite a sight especially when the sun comes up. You can climb up the back and look over the crowd is amazing.

One thing worth mentioning is the actual festival doesnt really start till about 10pm and goes through to 8.30am.The main stage is normally drum n bass from 3am to close. What this means is that you get back to the campsite around 9am and its already boiling hot.It must have got up to near 35degrees you could hardly move! We hardly slept the whole time and we went abit insane.I would advise anyone if you can afford it get an apartment , camping there is not for the faint hearted! I would say its got less of a "festival" feel to it , more a series of massive parties night after night.

Sziget:

Alot more of a festival feel to is everything is in the one massive site.Its huuuge! Is basically an Island in the Danube river. The main stage area is massive , the biggest crowd ive ever seen in one place.Very impressed with the sound , clear and loud.Takes a while to walk between stages so you cover alot of ground over the week.Theres a 24/7 dance tent where u can see some pretty mashed up people at all hours of the day. Lots of stalls selling these little kebab things (Gyros) which are well nice.Again very hot.Alot more things happening during the day and lots to explore then the music really gets going after the midday heat around 4pm

Theres some amazing performance art things going on and cabaret too.Toilets were all fine and no real big queues except when u first arrive.took maybe 1-2 hours but that was it. Theres a massive supermarket just outside the festival where u can get everything but i dont think your supposed to take your own booze in although everyone tries.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Went to Benicassim twice (08/09), it's not my cup of tea at all.

VERY very hot so camping is difficult, I never had enough sleep. Some people sleep on the beach but I just can't do that. Got pretty burnt even though I wore a t-shirt on the first day last year. They have large open air cold water showers in the campsites which are good.

The arena area is on a large car park so you're standing on tarmac in front of most of the stages.

I didn't like the lack of greenery - any non-tarmac ground is brown/dusty.

Think of it as a beach holiday, but with bands late evening/night and camping.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Went to Rock Am Ring in 2008, mainly due to Glasto being a rainy mess in 07 and also because Rage, Prodigy, Motorhead and Metallica were playing. Great, proper festival, everyone just camps in the forest. No restrictions on tents, space etc. they roll in their sound systems and blast out the tunes. Dont plan on getting much kip mind you. But its still the usual - people pissing everywhere etc. And its all concrete. Id only go again if there was a brilliant lineup.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My and the missus are tentatively planning on getting ourselves a van, doing it up as a camper, and then doing a festival tour around Europe in a few years time, so this is an interesting thread for me! B)

Can you take campers to the festivals mentioned above - in particular Exit, as that's one that I've heard rave reviews for from friends?

EDIT: Edited to correct school-boy grammatical errors :huh:

Edited by fdc
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sziget certainly has areas designed for Campervan's Exit Im not so sure about think it might jus be more of a carpark type of thing. I would look into if theres a separate campsite or Campervan area.

At the same time as Sziget there's another festival on in hungary called Ozora which is a massive psy trance party with a hippy kinda vibe

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Only continental festival I've been to is Eurokennes in 2006 (Glasto fallow year!) and I echo what others have said about heat!

It was baking hot all weekend, in fact I think it was even hotter than this year's glasto!

I remember leaving the arena at chucking out time about 2am with a huge crowd of people, only to find they'd only laid on two coaches, so spent about a couple of hours walking back to the campsite along a disused railway track like something out of tenko, getting back to the tents about 4am, then being woken up with the tent like a sauna at 6am! Felt washed out all weekend!

The atmosphere was very different to UK festivals, on the plus side, everyone was very well behaved, on the negative side, everyone was very well behaved ;) i.e. at the end of songs people clapped politely rather than go mental. When I hooked up with some german blokes and started slam dancing we got lots of disaproving looks! I also found people a bit off hand when I tried to talk to people, e.g. a Swiss bloke said "don't you have festivals in your own country".

Oh and whilst the French may boast the best cusine in the world, snack food they don't do well imho. The main choices food wise was pizza or tartiflette, both were a little heavy for me in that heat. And obviously no bacon rolls for breakfast :( and deffo no brown sauce ;)

I remember looking at the brochure with a picture on the cover of someone diving in the swimming pool. Looked great! Alas, when we got there it was fenced off with a bit notice saying "no swimming!".

My mates spent a week touring around France and had a great time, but the festival itself, despite having a pretty good lineup, was pretty dissapointing for me.

Then again, I'm sure someone on these very boards also went and had a great time! So horses for courses and all that!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Benicassim is an amazing festival. I am going for my 4th consecutive year on wednesday. Apart from glasto its the best festival. Basically a weeks beach holiday with a music festival thrown in at night. Music goes on till about 6am if not later and the line up is slways good. If you dont like the heat its maybe not for you but if you do i would definately recommend it. Only cost me £150 for 4day ticket and £70 for flights. absolute bargain if you ask me

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I went to Rcok Werchter in 2008, loved it. Partly because it had a pretty much perfect line up (REM, Chemical Brothers, Radiohead, Sigur Ros, Neil Young, The Verve, Beck, Jay Z and Kings of Leon to name a few) and partly because I loved the idea of 2 stages. Yes, there is less choice, but it means they can really plug their efforts into making a truly great lineup. There's no filler at the start of the day, pretty much kicks straight into well known bands. The top two bands on the main stage get headline length slots (90min+) too, so that leads to a cool dynamic where they have either one big band supporting another big band or can have a rock band followed by a dance act. It's a great idea, and makes Werchter a bit special.

And as there's only 2 stages if you're in a big group of mates it's very easy to stay together and have a great time. Other than the music there's not much, it is one of those festivals where you see the music, chill out by the campsite and then go to sleep, so bit of a bread and butter festival but I quite enjoy them. Good festival to catch up with friends you haven't seen in a while. Plus 2 stages = minimum clashes, and so no organisation or stress required at all.

Edited by fowls
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.


×
×
  • Create New...