Away You Go: Ten of the Best International Summer Music Festivals

PRIMAVERA SOUND (22-26 May, Barcelona, Spain)

As has regularly been the case since its inception in 2001, this year's Primavera Sound (and its sister festival, Optimus Primavera) has one of the best lineups of any of the summer festivals in 2013. We sent our reviewer Ally Brown there in 2010, and he reported that the only drawback of such a huge bill was the frequent set-clashes between bands one might want to see, and the sprawling series of veues and stages which house the festival, the biggest being the Parc del Fòrum, 6km outside the centre of Barcelona. 

So a surfeit of riches is the drawback – what about the positives? The first has to be Barcelona itself – an architectural psychedelic wonderland basking in the Mediterranean sun, right next to the coast with miles of beautiful beaches to explore. The second has to be the scale – with over 35,000 visitors daily, the festival is one of Europe's most popular, with a strong local following as well as a dedicated crowd from abroad thronging the dancefloors and concert halls. And if that's not enough, you can see a good proportion of the same fantastic bill in Porto, Portugal at Optimus Primavera (30 May – 1 Jun), or even do both festivals on a discounted combined ticket. Our reporter's final verdict on the 2010 festival? “Weeks like this one make life worth living.” 

DON'T MISS: Epic shoegaze on a stadium scale with My Bloody Valentine, moody Swedish electronica from The Knife, a reformed The Breeders playing all of Last Splash, the return of the mighty Death Grips to Europe, and Italians Do It Better retro-electro duo Glass Candy. 

Tickets: €175 + BF (€250 for combined ticket with Optimus Primavera) 

Flights: £99.98 return to Barcelona (Reus) from Glasgow, via Ryanair 

COACHELLA (12-14 & 19-21 Apr, Indio (California), USA)

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has certainly set the standard since its first outing in 1999, with diverse bills which offer sets from trusted rookies and returning legends under the desert sun. Our Music Editor says of the experience: “Coachella always has this really strange and unlikely mishmash of pop culture, no doubt because of its proximity to Los Angeles. It's the only festival I've ever been to that has Danny DeVito introducing bands, Roger Waters setting inflatable pigs loose and Prince making a field of folk cry at 1am. It's pretty batshit, but that's half the appeal.” You can expect “good bands, tasty (and reasonably priced) food, and a fighting chance of bumping into Wee Man from Jackass at the bar,” says Dave. “I'd recommend booking into one of the affordable motels in Palm Springs for the duration, it's a bit of a gamble pitching your tent in the desert!,” he reports. Any other advice? “I still have scars from burning my feet the first year I was there, don't piss about with the suncream!” 

DON'T MISS: Representing for Mancunian expats, The Stone Roses and New Order, rub shoulders with Warp's Anglo-Canuck duo TNGHT, Canadian alt-popper Grimes, and Brooklyn space-rap veteran El-P, not to mention the reunion of Jurassic 5 and live debut of Trent Reznor's How to Destroy Angels. Nick Cave is set to appear twice, with both the Bad Seeds and an apparent one-off reprisal of Grinderman.

Tickets: Prices start at $339, various options available to fit your travel and accommodation plans. Camping options from $85. 

Travel: A variety of bespoke travel packages are available from Valley Music Travel. Flights from £565 return from Glasgow to Los Angeles, on KLM, via Skyscanner. 

EXIT (10-14 July, Novi Sad, Serbia)

Taking place in a stunning eighteenth century fortress in Novi Sad, overlooking the Danube river as it flows through Serbia, the Exit Festival (or State of Exit as it is sometimes known) has become a minor jewel in the European festival circuit, now in its thirteenth year. “The site is an amazing array of bridges and steps, grassy banks, tunnels, archways and marquees,” reported our reviewer Tom Donohue, who covered Exit for our very first issue of The Skinny back in 2005. He also reported friendly and helpful locals, and a healthy dose of sunshine, not to mention a stellar lineup – and eight years later, with the festival's reputation in the ascendant, the 2013 lineup looks even more impressive. 

DON'T MISS: Jarvis Cocker's revitalised Pulp are always festival-pleasers, and Exit 2013 also offers rare appearances from M.I.A. and Portishead, plus a strong dance music lineup, with sets from Magnetic Man, Underworld, Girl Unit, Tiga, and Carl Craig. 

Tickets: £95 for for day ticket, plus £25 for camping pass, or an all-in-one ticket including airport transfers, camping and 5-day pass for £115. Travel: £232 return to Belgrade from Edinburgh, found on TripAdvisor. £8 bus service from Belgrade airport to Novi Sad. 

SOUNDWAVE (18-22 July, Tisno, Croatia) 
Taking place on the outskirts of the picturesque town of Tisno, a short distance from two major airports, the Soundwave festival is very much an option for those festival-goers sick of mud, rain and bloody tents. Offering 'boutique camping' and a village of small apartments for accomdation options, the setting is a sun-drenched market town overlooking a small bay in the Adriatic sea. Alongside the beach-set stages and dancefloors there are boat parties on offer, and you're more likely to need your bikini than your wellies. Soundwave offers a fantastic bill this year, with some major players along with up-and-coming acts.  

DON'T MISS: The acts lower down the bill are your real stars here, from Eliphino (whose masterpiece of danceable melancholy, More Than Me, still fills end-of-night dancefloors a year and a half since its release) to the fractious bass of Manchester producer Illum Sphere and the jaundiced, dreamy layers of Com Truise. Elsewhere, make sure you catch Ghostpoet's sultry ruminations and of course, the man, the mask, the legend: DOOM.  

Tickets: £119 + BF. Apartments £598 / £798 (7 nights). Luxury camping £665 (7 nights). Tents £30 per night. 

Travel: £234 return to Split from Glasgow, via Skyscanner. Airport transfer options on festival site. 

SONAR (13-15 June, Barcelona, Spain) 

Sonar traditionally favours electronic artists, with a focus on boundary-pushing, ground-breaking bands and producers and up-and-coming acts. With sister-festivals as far afield as Tokyo, Reykjavik and Sao Paolo, it's the Barcelona Sonar which is the original and best. A large Glasweigian contingent has always favoured Sonar above most of the European festivals, and with showcases from the likes of the Red Bull Music Academy, and the activities around SonarImage, the festival's visual and video arts strand, and Sonar D, which features conferences, workshops and 'hackathons' for music industry pros and media, it's a festival aimed at the savvy punter, or those with a toe dipped into the industry already. That said, if all you want to do is get messed up and party in the Barcelona sunshine to a heap of awesome bands and DJs, that option is entirely plausible as well. The festival's popularity, and the perception that in recent years it has moved towards the mainstream, have resulted in a strong Off Sonar party movement in and around the festival, with free parties, beach soundsystems and smaller gigs all happening in and around Barcelona – many of these events are also worth a look, if you're in town for the main event. Check our website for details of Sonar and Off Sonar events from previous years. Our reporter Ray Philp, who attended Sonar 2010, recommends the daytime gigs as the place to find the most interesting acts: “Sonar By Day, traditionally the more experimental face of the festival, has over time become less of a cupboard for curios and more of a treasure trove for all things avant garde,” he reports.

DON'T MISS: Kraftwerk's exclusive 3D show, Diplo and Switch performing as Major Lazer, experimental rockers Liars, our very own Hudson Mohawke and partner Lunice as TNGHT, with their speaker-destroying take on hip-hop/trap, alt.R'n'B stars AlunaGeorge, Harlem Shake originator Baauer, plus undergound electronics from the likes of Karenn and Fatima Al Qadiri. 

Tickets: Full festival pass 175 Euros – day passes and night passes also available. Hotels from £65 per night, via Late Rooms.

Travel: Flights from £62 return from Glasgow to Barcelona, via Ryanair 

DIMENSIONS (5-9 Sept, Pula, Croatia) & OUTLOOK (29 Aug – 2 Sep, Pula, Croatia)

Held in an abandoned nineteenth century fort, Punta Christo, near Pula in Croatia, Dimensions has a strong focus on innovative electronic music, particularly the bass-oriented kind, and boasts one of the highest-quality sets of soundsystems on the European festival circuit. Creep around the gothic arches of Fort Punta Christo as the pulsing 808s and crips kicks reverberate off the ancient stone walls, with performances starting at 8pm and finishing at 6am the following morning, allowing you plenty of time to bask in the late Summer sunshine and sleep off your hangover in your tent. Held on the same site as Dimensions just a few days earlier, the Outlook festival also caters to the European taste for bass music, with a side order of hip-hop. The soundsystems and location are pretty much the same, but the lineup places the emphasis firmly on the reggae and rap end of the bass music spectrum. 

DON'T MISS (DIMENSIONS): Detroit techno legend Juan Atkins as Model 500, the fusionista sounds of Mala in Cuba, Caribou’s beats-oriented alias Daphni, plus a full complement of Hessle Audio stars such as Pearson Sound, Pangaea, Ben UFO and Huxley. 
DON'T MISS (OUTLOOK): Hip-hop legends The Pharcyde, Pharoah Monch and Talib Kweli, drum and bass originators Goldie, LTJ Bukem, Shy FX and Andy C, dubstep from Kode 9, Zed Bias and Pinch, plus the mighty Channel One Soundsystem. 

Tickets: Prices start at £135. Camping starts at £9 a night, with hotel, caravan and hostel options also available. 

Travel: Return flights from Glasgow start at £270 via Skyscanner. Airport transfers available via the festival's website. 

SNOWBOMBING (1-6 April, Mayrhofen, Austria)  

The questions to ask yourself about Snowbombing are pretty straightforward. You like skiing or snowboarding? And you like a thrilling mixture of head-nodding beats and upfront dancefloor action? If you answered yes to both questions, then you should book your tickets immediately. The accomodation options include a five-star hotel with a spa, set times are arranged to give you plenty of time to attack the powder on your chosen method of downhill transport, and the afterparties in the chalets are the stuff of debauched legend. Our Travel editor Paul Mitchell summed up the 2011 festival: “A week-long maelstrom, involving daredevil days on the piste, and loud and lairy nights on the... oh dear.” You see where he was going with that.  

DON'T MISS: A set from big beat originator Fatboy Slim never goes amiss, DJ Shadow is unlikely to be kicked off the decks here for being 'too future,' there's a touch of indie rock on offer from The Vaccines, plus sets from DJs ever-popular with the boarding fraternity at large, such as DJ Yoda, Mr Scruff, Plump DJs and Skream, plus Glasgow's own Numbers star Jackmaster is in attendance. Our top tip though is NYC future-disco stars Metro Area, making a welcome return to the live circuit. 

Tickets: Prices, including acccomodation, start from £319, with a range of options, and a deposit of £125 required. 

Travel: The legendary Snowbombing Road Trip is the best way to reach the festival, and almost as much fun as the event itself. Alternatively, return flights to Innsbruck from Glasgow start at £830 return, with airport transfers available via the festival's website. 

ROSKILDE (29 June – 7 July, Roskilde, Denmark)  

The Grand Old Dame of the European festival circuit, often compared to Glastonbury, Roskilde has been on the go since 1971, but shows no signs of fatigue with its massive cross-genre lineup, gigantic site at the Animal Showgrounds outside of the city of Roskilde. It's also one of the longest festivals in the calendar, with a hygiene-testing 8-day duration, if you count the four 'warm-up' days. It's a multi-platform festival too, with spoken word, theatre and all sorts of supplementary activities on offer if you get bored of watching bands. With an early reputation as a hippy festival, Roskilde has become much more of a mainstream proposition, attracting visitors from across Europe and courting music fans of every stripe and orientation. It's still run by a non-profit foundation, meaning it has a relaxed and permissive atmosphere, free from much of the corporate chicanery that mars other European outings. Back in 2007, our reviewer Jon Seller deemed it “an ultimate entertainment experience.”  

DON'T MISS: Ultimate horror-metal crowd-pleasers Slipknot, the orchestral sweep of iceland's Sigur Rós, rock titans Queens Of The Stone Age, Brainfeeder darling Daedelus, Brooklyn art-rockers Animal Collective, chef-turned-hip-hop star Action Bronson, and majestic post-dubstep from Holy Other and Vatican Shadow. 
Tickets: Full festival tickets start from 1810 DKK (about £210), with other options available. Full ticket includes camping. 

Travel: Flights from £145 return from Glasgow, via Skyscanner. 

WAY OUT WEST (8-10 Aug, Gothenburg, Sweden)  

Taking place at outdoor stages in and around Gothenburg, and with the Stay Out West fringe festival taking you into the bars and clubs of the town by night, Way Out West is a relative newcomer, started in 2007, but has quickly attracted a wealth of talent from around the world, and a delirious audience of native Swedes and travellers from around the continent. There are also gallery shows, film screenings and other events in and around the beautiful city of Gothenburg – this is one festival that prides itself on embracing other forms of media, as well as pints of sun-warmed pear cider and walls of guitar noise.  

DON'T MISS: Garage-rockers The Black Keys, reunited punk agitators Refused, the neo-folk stylings of Bon Iver, Broken Social Scene alum Feist, Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore on a solo tip, the marvelous St. Vincent, Kurt Vile's indie-rockers The War On Drugs, plus hip-hop from the likes of A$AP Rocky and Yelawolf. 

Tickets: Full tickets are 1895 SEK (about £194). No camping – hostels in Gothenburg available via Hostel World from £15 a night. 

Travel: Return flights to Gothenburg from Glasgow starting at £138 from Skyscanner. 

BERLIN FESTIVAL (6-7 September, Berlin, Germany)  

As we go to print, details are still being announced for the 2013 Berlin Festival, taking place at Templehof, a former airport in central Berlin, now a city park, which houses the festival in its gigantic hangars. With Soviet fonts used on the runways, and a few vintage planes left over from the airport's days as a functioning site, it's an impressive setting for a festival which promises a strong dance lineup and some spectacular headliners in the form of Blur and the Pet Shop Boys, flanked by shoegaze progenitors My Bloody Valentine and rising art-punks Savages, and much more more to be announced. So far on the dance stages, the organisers have announced a special showcase from Ed Banger Records, with French electro stars Justice and Sebastian joining the fray. Keep an eye on The Bulletin for more news on the lineup as it is announced.

Tickets: From 81.40 Euros. Hostels from £10 a night, via Trip Advisor. 

Travel: Return to Berlin from Edinburgh from £115, via EasyJet.