Best music festivals 2017: Top Europe picks, from Primavera to Waves

There have never been more summer music festivals than there are this year. Christopher Beanland sifts through the best

Far out: look beyond the UK for some of the best line-ups this summer (Christophe Crénel/Rock en Seine/Facebook)

Europe’s summer music festivals have long been a rite of passage. This year there are more boutique bashes, bigger classic festivals and huge headliners gracing stages from Aarhus to Zadar and everywhere in between. So why bother with wellies and motorway madness at home when you can have a festival travel experience that rises beyond the mundane? We’ve picked out some of the best.

Big hitters

Europe isn’t short of huge festivals. So if you fancy something different from Glastonbury, why not try Denmark’s Roskilde (24 June – 1 July; roskilde-festival.dk; 1995 DKK (£227))? It takes place within striking distance of Copenhagen and features performances from The Weeknd and Foo Fighters. Oh and there’s a “naked run” if you have the guts to hurdle hay bales around the site in your birthday suit.

Paris’ big pop party of the year is undoubtedly Rock en Seine (25 – 27 August; rockenseine.com/en; €99 (£84)), which takes place over the August Bank Holiday weekend. The site, on the edge of the city, is pretty special: the storied grounds of Château de Saint-Cloud. Expect big name headliners including PJ Harvey and The xx, and lots of cool cats in the crowd wearing Breton stripes and smoking furiously like characters from a Godard film.

In Norway, one festival stands out: Oya (8 – 12 August; oyafestivalen.no/en; 2684 NRK (£243). Lana Del Ray and MØ will be worth seeing. Plus you can explore Oslo afterwards as the festival site is a stone’s throw from the city centre.

Outliers

Hamburg’s most famous street comes alive as the eponymous Reeperbahn Festival (20 – 23 September; reeperbahnfestival.com/en; €95) brings the newest, coolest bands to a wider audience. The street – in the heart of the red-light district – is really like nothing else in Europe, mixing sleazy and glitzy in a potent beer-based cocktail of debauchery. Not far away are the transformed docks and the city’s somewhat more rarefied Elbphilharmonie classical concert hall, which has just been completed.

Aarhus is European Capital of Culture this year so why not head up and check out the highly-regarded Northside (9 – 11 June; northside.dk; 1545 DKK) there? You’ll be rewarded by seeing a Radiohead headline set.

In Finland, Flow is one of Europe’s most stylish festivals (11 – 13 August; flowfestival.com; €175) – from the hot Finns to the cool design touches around the Helsinki site, which used to be a power station, and of course the midnight sun as well. Aphex Twin headlines.

Primavera consistently books some of the most interesting line-ups of any European festival. You’ll be hard-pushed to see the leftfield likes of The Make Up, !!!, Pond, Royal Trux and Death Grips at many other Eurofests this summer. The Barcelona edition (31 May – 4 June; primaverasound.com; €175) is the biggie but why not check out the newer, little sister event in Porto (8 – 10 June; €100) too?

Exit takes place in the Serbian fortress at Novi Sad (Exit/Facebook)

Something different

For those who want things a little more eclectic, Europe offers tons of choice. Timisoara’s Electric Castle (July 12 – 16; electriccastle.ro; €98) is set in a spooky Romanian castle and features acts like Moderat. Fans of Latitude, Green Man and Bestival could easily fall for the likes of family-friendly A Summer’s Tale (2 – 5 August asummerstale.de/en; €114) with films, literature, craft workshops and Franz Ferdinand headlining near Luhmühlen in the countryside between Hanover and Hamburg in Germany, or Melt (14 – 16 July; meltfestival.de/en; €140) the huge post-industrial dance extravaganza – including Bonobo, Ellen Allien and Phoenix – at a former open-cast mine near Berlin. There’s even Waves (28 – 30 Sep; wavescentraleurope.com; €45) – a beautiful little boutique celebration of new music from around Europe, which brings good vibes and great tunes to the bohemian quarters of Vienna to round off summer in style.

One of the summer’s longest festivals takes place in the enigmatic country of Georgia. Georgia Electronic Music (GEM) Fest is in Anaklia on the Black Sea coast (14 July – 14 August; gem-fest.com; €196) and promises a slew of electronica by the beach including Steve Aoki and GusGus.

Sun and fun

One of the main reasons we travel for a festival is to chase the sun, the fun, the hot weather vibes and the beach beers. You can find all that and more at festivals like NOS Alive (6 – 8 July; nosalive.com; €129), which has become a solid fixture in Lisbon’s annual calendar. With the Portuguese capital dripping in new museums and hotel openings this year, and sets from Wild Beasts, Depeche Mode and Warpaint, it’s absolutely the right time to visit the city.

Budapest hosts one of Europe’s most famous and long-running festivals (incidentally it’s also long running in the sense that the bash itself goes on for a whole week, so pack the Berocca). Sziget (9 – 16 August; szigetfestival.com; £90) has a great riverside location on an island in the Danube; Bad Religion and DJ Shadow will be coming aboard this summer. Further along the Danube in Serbia, Exit (6 – 9 July; exitfest.org; £98) has another mind-blowing setting inside a castle on the outskirts of the intriguing city of Novi Sad. Take ear plugs – it’s loud – and be prepared for the heat. Forget camping in the castle grounds; stay in a dirt cheap B&B in town instead. On the Exit website you can also pick up a ticket that allows you to have the biggest summer party ever with entry to Exit’s sister event Seadance in Budva on the coast of Montenegro straight after the main Exit festival in July.