June 2014 Lonely Planet Traveller 105

SummerSoundS of the Finnish folk, Icelandic jazz or Montenegrin house – whatever your

musical stripes, turn over to find a festival to suit this summer

1KauStinen folK MuSic feStival

FINLAND2Sea dance

feStivalMONTENEGRO

ONE FOR THE PLAYLIST Lledeman by the Niger-based band Etran Finatawa.

INSTANT EXPERT Traditional European folk often uses medieval ‘modes’ rather than scales, resulting in a distinctive, drone-like sound.

PACK A ukulele (failing that, a tambourine) for impromptu jams.

GO IF You know your melodeon from your mandolin.

WHO GOES? The world music buff: a keen musician, their home is full of old copies of Songlines magazine and instruments brought back from their travels.

An unassuming village in central Finland near the Gulf of Bothnia, Kaustinen (normal population 4,000) is the unlikely setting for the largest and oldest festival in the Nordic countries. Now in its 47th year, the folk extravaganza welcomes hundreds of performers (and around 100,000 visitors) from around the world. The week of song, dance and storytelling spans every variant of the hyphen-friendly genre under the summer sun (which,

incidentally, doesn’t set until 11.30pm in July). This year, musicians from the Finnish lakelands share the stage with Portuguese klezmer bands, British balladeers and folk ensembles from Vietnam, Niger and Nepal. Most will play at the festival’s main venue, a huge tent in Kaustinen’s park, but there’s music-making to be found all around town, from performances

in shops and service stations to impromptu fireside sing-alongs.l 7–13 July; day tickets from £12, week ticket from £115; kaustinen.net.

ONE FOR THE PLAYLIST White Knuckle Ride by Jamiroquai.

INSTANT EXPERT The Guinness world record for the fastest tempo in a single is held by Moby for his 1,000-bpm track Thousand.

PACK Swimwear – there are 17 beaches around Budva and water activities galore.

GO IF ‘House’ is not just where you live.

WHO GOES? The DJ devotee: possessing over-sized Beats headphones, a full repertoire of dance moves and impressive stamina.

With more than a dozen stages set among the ramparts and cobbled streets of an imposing fort, Serbia’s EXIT festival has fast become the stuff of legend. It’s marking its 15th edition with typical panache, with headliners including Rudimental (below), and the opportunity to continue the festivities in neighbouring Montenegro with a second, seaside event just days after its finishes. The Sea Dance Festival brings a stellar dance music line-up to Jaz beach – a secluded sweep of sand just outside the lively town of Budva. The music will also ring out from a second stage in the old town, a medieval citadel that juts above the Adriatic. If you don’t take up the Exit Adventure Package, consider catching the train from Belgrade to Bar (near Budva) – one of the most scenic railway

journeys in Europe.l EXIT Festival 10–13 July in Novi Sad,

Serbia; Sea Dance Festival 15–17 July in Budva, Montenegro (exitfest.org). The Exit Adventure Package includes tickets to both festivals, transfers and accommodation

(from £165; exittrip.org).

3in the WoodS feStival

ENGLANDONE FOR THE PLAYLIST Deep Green by Marika Hackman.

INSTANT EXPERT The oldest guitar-like instrument is from ancient Egypt, but the acoustic guitar as we know it developed in 15th-century Spain.

PACK A bumper pack of marshmallows, the perfect bonfire snack.

GO IF You’re constantly raving to friends about your new favourite band (which changes every week).

WHO GOES? The grass-roots guru: driven by an insatiable appetite for new music, they like bands long before they’re cool; collects vinyl.

In the Woods is a little bit different from most festivals. For a start, it keeps its location and line-up top secret until the last moment. But that’s all part of the magic of this intimate event, held in a Kentish forest setting that can rightfully be described as ‘enchanted’. At two stages set amid oak and laurel trees strung with fairy lights, the 900 attendees are privy to sets by up-and-coming indie and acoustic musicians; elsewhere they can peruse art hidden in the woods or tuck into home-made food and local ales. The music is often exceptional – the organisers are band mates who started

the festival as a party for friends, and their ear for music means they’re good at spotting future stars. The party continues long after the last song, with a silent disco and huge bonfire to welcome in the dawn.l 30 August, with arrival from Friday 29;

Kent (exact location TBC); tickets £75; inthewoodsfestival.co.uk.

ONE FOR THE PLAYLIST Another Love by Tom Odell.

INSTANT EXPERT Though rock’n’roll was born in the US, the three greatest-selling rock bands of all time are British – the Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.

PACK An English-Hungarian phrasebook.

GO IF You like your music festivals served up with a side order of city break.

WHO GOES? The European explorer: they love nothing more than meeting new people on their travels, and their Facebook friends post in 12 different languages. A huge festival that draws top rock and indie acts, Sziget is the Glastonbury of Hungary (and even has Michael Eavis’s personal thumbs up). Rather than the muddy field that’s the (literal) stomping ground for Glasto-goers, Sziget takes place right smack in the middle of Budapest. Founded in 1993 by two friends, following the demise of socialist summer camps, Sziget now welcomes nearly half a million people to an island in the Danube, where, this year, the likes of The Prodigy and OutKast (below) will top the bill. More than 50 venues offer ‘Szitizens’ a wide range of musical and other attractions – best of

which must be the riverside beach, a rather fine place to sip a cocktail in

the sun. And don’t forget to explore beyond the festival gates – the beautiful city of

Budapest lies just across the water. l 11–18 August; Hungary; five-day pass from £165, week

pass from £190, including camping; szigetfestival.com.

4Sziget feStival

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June 2014 Lonely Planet Traveller 107Lonely Planet Traveller June 2014106

8berlin feStival

GERMANYONE FOR THE PLAYLIST Little by Little by local boy Fritz Kalkbrenner.

INSTANT EXPERT The term ‘indie’ originally referred to bands without major label backing. The best-selling indie album ever is Smash, released by US punk-rock band The Offspring 20 years ago.

PACK Glow sticks.

GO IF You’re equally at home in a club as at a gig.

WHO GOES? The Good Bye Lenin! obsessive: has been to Berlin seven times but never tires of it. Their Instagram feed is full of hazily filtered pictures of beach bars and the Berghain nightclub.

The past is everywhere in Berlin, so it’s fitting that the German capital’s premier music festival eschews a boring old park or stadium for the uniquely grand venue of Tempelhof airport – site of the Berlin Airlift in the 1940s. For a wildly intense 48 hours each year, the monumental ’30s complex, which closed six years ago, hosts dozens of mainstream and more left-field acts on its vast airfield, while two of its aircraft hangars morph into clubs. With the likes of Björk (above), Editors and Chase and Status playing this year, indie, pop and dance lead a musical variety to do a Berliner proud, and there’s also poetry, spoken word and a sizeable art showcase. Whatever you do, stick around for the end, when quiet descends on Tempelhof and 10,000-plus revellers don headphones and dance till (near) dawn at one of the world’s largest silent discos.l 5–7 September; Flughafen Tempelhof, Berlin; tickets from £65; berlinfestival.de.

5red rooSter feStival

ENGLANDONE FOR THE PLAYLIST Rather You Shot Me Down by The Urban Voodoo Machine.

INSTANT EXPERT From the phrase ‘blue devils’, meaning sadness, the blues emerged in 19th-century USA from the call-and-response work songs of slaves in the rural South.

PACK A hip flask – nothing toasts the blues like bourbon.

GO IF You dream of a road trip through the American South, a harmonica on the dashboard of your Cadillac.

WHO GOES? The retro rockabilly: they have a vintage wardrobe straight out of the ’50s, a penchant for hard liquor and some serious moves.

When a group of music-mad travellers found themselves pining for the sounds (and tastes) of the Deep South, there was only one thing for it: create their own guitar-twanging, rib-gnawing corner of America back home in ‘Suffolk County’, England. Over a weekend in June, the Red Rooster Blues Festival will feature top rhythm and blues, Americana and country musicians – such

as the Dylanesque Pete Molinari and riotous Jim Jones Revue (left) – in the grounds of an impressive stately pile. Kicked off with a night of DJs and drinks, it’s accompanied

throughout by Southern specialities, from BBQ to Cajun dishes like gumbo soup. On

Sunday, things wind down with a farmer’s market and country fair – this is, after

all, England.l 6–8 June; Euston Hall, Euston, Suffolk. Two-day ticket £45, with free parking and camping; Sunday £10; redrooster.org.uk. ph

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June 2014 Lonely Planet Traveller 109Lonely Planet Traveller June 2014108

6Secret garden party

ENGLANDONE FOR THE PLAYLIST Love More Worry Less by Bipolar Sunshine.

INSTANT EXPERT Secret Garden Party is inspired by Nevada’s Burning Man Festival, an artistic spectacle and alternative community event in the Black Rock Desert.

PACK Face paint.

GO IF You’re always the first person through the door at the latest pop-up, speakeasy bar.

WHO GOES? The highbrow hedonist: a multimedia artist and sometime DJ, they recently swapped their east London flat for a houseboat.

If Lewis Carroll’s looking glass had deposited Alice at a music festival, it might have looked something like the Secret Garden Party. Each July, a Cambridgeshire farm with its own lake, river and gardens plays host to four days of music and revelries within a landscape of storybook surrealism. Here, performers might play from within a fairytale tangle of branches, on a pagoda in the middle of the lake or in a Deep South ‘voodoo’ bar. Paint fights and dance-offs in a hay-bale ‘Colisillyum’ take their place alongside debates and demonstrations, and a typical evening might include a secret party in the woods or the ceremonial burning of a life-size galleon. It’s an all-round spectacle, but the music takes centre stage, eclectic and full of new and established indie talent, such as Beans on Toast and Little Dragon (right).l 24-27 July; Abbots Ripton near Huntingdon, Cambridge; tickets £180; secretgardenparty.com.

ONE FOR THE PLAYLIST Travelling Riverside Blues by The Pedrito Martinez Band.

INSTANT EXPERT Jazz emerged in turn-of-the century New Orleans; its gifts to the world include the words ‘cool’ and ‘hip’, and the modern drum kit.

PACK A good camera to capture the landscapes around the city.

GO IF You can talk about tritone substitutions all day long.

WHO GOES? The cultural connoisseur: proud of their sophisticated tastes, they spend many an evening listening to their (obscure) favourites through top-of-the-range Bose speakers and over a glass of wine.

For centuries, Iceland’s isolation meant that global musical trends passed it by, but happily, the country is now making up for lost time with some gusto. Amid a packed calendar of events is August’s Reykjavík Jazz Festival, which brings Icelandic and international artists of all jazz-based stripes to concert halls, cafés and public spaces around the city. Artists such as Cuban rumba maestro Pedrito Martinez and the virtuoso Polish violinist Adam Baldych will play in venues such as the historic home of Iceland’s first PM and the Harpa, the country’s flagship concert hall. The rest of the time, there’s the world’s northernmost capital to explore – post-concert, plonk yourself in a geothermal pool before joining the runtur (pub crawl) through the city’s clubs and bars, an ideal way to see out the long summer nights.l 14–20 August; festival pass £80; reykjavikjazz.is.

7reyKJavÍK Jazz feStival

IcELAND

ONE FOR THE PLAYLIST Les Plus Beaux by French-British band Frànçois & the Atlas Mountains.

INSTANT EXPERT Released in January 2006, indie band Arctic Monkeys’ first album is the UK’s fastest-selling debut ever.

PACK A picnic blanket – just add cheese, a baguette and a bottle of wine.

GO IF You want to experience the big line-ups of Britain’s major festivals (alongside some French discoveries) – without the accompanying price tag or the too-cool-for-school attitude.

WHO GOES? The metropolitan music lover: a lifelong city dweller, they have a hard time reconciling their taste in music (and Hunter wellies) with their deep-seated dislike of mud.

For many indie fans, the UK’s August bank holiday is synonymous with the Reading and Leeds festivals, but it’s also possible to join in a big-city blowout by hopping on the Eurostar and spending le weekend in Paris. Now in its 12th year, Rock en Seine brings big names to the landscaped gardens of the Domaine de St Cloud, a stately

park and former palace on the Seine just west of Paris. Its indie rock credentials are solid – Oasis split up here five years ago after a fight just before their set – and this year its four stages will host global stars such

as Arctic Monkeys, Blondie (left) and Janelle Monáe (above). Best of all, it’s all

yours for much less cash than its British equivalents.l 22–24 August; one-day ticket

£40, three-day ticket from £100, plus £50 for three nights’ camping;

rockenseine.com.

10eden feStival

ScOTLANDONE FOR THE PLAYLIST Ring Ring Ring by De La Soul.

INSTANT EXPERT Ceilidh is a Gaelic word that once referred to an informal gathering involving music and storytelling.

PACK The juggling equipment that’s been languishing in a box for 10 years – here’s a chance to finally master the diabolo.

GO IF You’re excited by the idea of making your own fanciful costume.

WHO GOES? The creative family: the couple met at Bestival and are now accompanied by their five-year-old dressed as a dragon.

Southwest Scotland’s Eden Festival does small but perfectly formed to a tee: headliners perform on a hand-built tortoiseshell stage, the DJ booth is styled like a vintage bus, and revellers get to lounge in hammocks

inside an Indian wedding marquee. The music is equally carefully chosen, with nine stages hosting a broad spectrum of acts – from hip hop veterans De La Soul debuting new tracks, to indie bands rocking out from a ’50s truck and ceilidh groups

making merry in an old-style tavern. And that’s not to mention the horseback cabaret and the

brave performers on the ‘nude is good’ stage. Like all the best boutique events, there’s

more than music – festival-goers can learn circus skills, catch a show

at the on-site theatre or slip into a classic car for a movie night at the drive-in cinema. There’s also a raft of activities

to keep the kids occupied.l 12–15 June; Raehill Meadows near Dumfries; tickets from £95; edenfestival.co.uk.

9rocK en Seine

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