Music Festival

The Woodstock Music and Art Fair was an event held at Max Yasgur's 600 acre (2.4 km²; 240 ha) dairy farm in the rural town of Bethel, New York from August 15 to August 18 1969. Bethel (Sullivan County) is 43 miles (69 km) southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, which is in adjoining Ulster County. The festival exemplified the counterculture of the late 1960s - early 1970s and the "hippie era". Thirty-two of the best-known musicians of the day appeared during the sometimes rainy weekend....

The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or Glasto, is the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world. The festival is best known for its contemporary music, but also features dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and many other arts. For 2005, the enclosed area of the festival was over 900 acres (3.6 km²), had over 385 live performances and was attended by around 150,000 people. In 2007, over 700 acts played on over...

Roskilde Festival is held south of Roskilde in Denmark and is one of the three biggest annual rock music festivals in Europe (the other two being the Sziget Festival and the Glastonbury Festival). It was created in 1971 by two high school students, Mogens Sandfær and Jesper Switzer Møller, and promoter Carl Fischer. In 1973, the festival was taken over by the Roskilde Foundation, who has since run the festival as a non-profit organisation for development and support of music, culture, and...

The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is a four-day annual music festival, created and produced by Superfly Productions and AC Entertainment, first held in 2002. It was recently named “Best Festival” by Rolling Stone Magazine, calling it "the ultimate over-the-top summer festival." The festival is held on a 700-acre (2.8 km²) farm in Manchester, Tennessee, 60 miles southeast of Nashville, Tennessee. The main attractions of the festival are the multiple stages of live music, featuring a diverse...

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (commonly known as Coachella) is a three-day (formerly a one or two-day) annual music and arts festival organized by Goldenvoice held at the Empire Polo Fields in Indio, California. The event features many genres of music including alternative rock, hip hop, and electronica as well as large sculptural art. The event has several stages/tents set-up throughout the grounds, each playing live music continuously. The main stages are: Coachella Stage,...

The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festival that take place in Reading and Leeds in England and are run by Festival Republic. The events both happen on the bank holiday weekend in August (on Friday, Saturday, Sunday), and share the same bill (usually with one or two exceptions). Between 1998 and 2007 the dual festivals were known officially as the "Carling Weekend" until parting ways with their sponsor Carling in November 2007. Reading Festival, the world's oldest...

Oxegen is an annual music festival, held since 2004, sponsored by Heineken International. It was previously called Witnness, which ran from 2000 and was sponsored by Guinness. Oxegen was originally a two-day festival but for 2008 will be expanded to three days. It takes place at the Punchestown Racecourse in County Kildare, Ireland and has an average attendance of around 80,000 a day, with around half of these camping on site for the duration, and the rest travelling to the site each day. The...

The Viljandi Folk Music Festival is a music festival in Estonia with a central focus on European folk music. It is traditionally held in late July, when the otherwise quiet city of Viljandi is completely transformed as the small city center is suddenly flooded with people. The main attraction of the festival is the friendly atmosphere. In the year 2006, over 24,000 people attended the concerts, but many more just came to take part in the festivities. As such, it is the largest annual music...

Curiosa is the name of a 2004 concert tour in the United States, organized by Robert Smith of The Cure. It began with a concert in West Palm Beach, Florida on July 24 and ended in Sacramento, California on August 29. The headlining bands were The Cure, Interpol, The Rapture, and Mogwai. The concert had two stages, with the same main-stage line-up for the entire tour, and a rotating set of bands on the second stage (four per show). The second stage bands included Muse, Cursive, Thursday, The...

The V Festival is an annual music festival in England, the first to be held simultaneously at two sites - currently Hylands Park in Chelmsford and Weston Park in South Staffordshire. Originally, the festival took the name of the current year, with the first festival being named "V96". Since 2003 it has been known as simply the V Festival. The idea for V came in 1995 when Pulp's front man Jarvis Cocker announced he'd love to play two outdoor venues in two days. Pulp's promoters got together...

The Area Festival was a music festival founded by popular electronic musician Moby, who asserted that he was "in large part, inspired by the ethos of Lollapalooza", and wished to create a similarly "genuinely eclectic, interesting, alternative music festival". Moby organized the first such festival, called Area:One in 2001, and the sequel tour Area2, in 2002. The festival is currently on indefinite hiatus. The festival featured diverse genres of music. Besides headliner Moby, the main stage...

EXIT (also known as State of EXIT) is an annual summer music festival in Petrovaradin fortress of Novi Sad, Vojvodina, Serbia. It is staged annually since 2000 and usually lasts four days (since 2003). Held in the picturesque setting of an eighteenth century fortress by the Danube, the festival quickly grew in stature and reputation. From its grass roots political beginnings, over to occasional problems with financing, and ending with wide praise it's lately receiving, EXIT tries to stick to...

Hultsfred Festival (Swedish: Hultsfredsfestivalen) is an annual music festival held in Hultsfred, Sweden. It takes place during three days in the middle of June, from Thursday to Saturday, with camping available from the beginning of the week. Since the first festival in 1986, its attendance has increased from less than 7000 visitors per year to nearly 30,000 people paying to enter in 2005. With its seven different stages, the Hultsfred Festival hosts a large number of bands per year (159 in...

The Vallenato Legend Festival is one of the most important musical festivals in Colombia. The Festival features a vallenato music contests for best interpreter of accordion, caja vallenata and guacharaca, as well as piqueria (battle of lyrics) and best song. It’s celebrated every year in April in the city of Valledupar, Department of Cesar. Its origin dates back to 1968 when the celebrated vallenato composer Rafael Escalona, the then governor of the state of Cesar and former president of the...

Tibetan Freedom Concert is the name given to a series of rock music festivals held in North America, Europe and Asia between 1996 and 2001 to support the cause of Tibetan independence. The concerts were organized by the Beastie Boys and the Milarepa Fund. The idea for a Live Aid-style concert for Tibet was conveived by members of the group during the 1994 Lollapalooza Tour. Organized in June 1996, the first concert was held in San Francisco and featured acts such as Smashing Pumpkins, Cibo...