Best Music Festivals of 2015

Sziget
10-17 of August, Budapest, Hungary

Sziget is a week-long summer festival and one of the largest multicultural events in Europe. Founded in 1993, Sziget is celebrating this year the 22nd edition. The festival attracts nearly 400,000 fans from more than 70 countries. On a beautiful island in the heart of Budapest, you can experience a festival holiday with a non-stop party, great live concerts and on top of that – all the tourist attractions Budapest has to offer. Sziget is an island of freedom, which can also be regarded as a separate, independent state. It combines many festivals in one, for a week non-stop with 50 lifts and about 200 points a day program. The performing bands ranging from world stars, the biggest names in international pop / rock scene to smaller bands and musicians from the metals, folk, jazz, blues, alternative and world music genre. And even classical music can be found here.

Melt!
17-19 of July, Ferropolis, Germany

Melt! is one of the most famous summer festivals in Germany and this year it opens its gates for around 20,000 guests. Melt! started out as a small stronghold for rave lovers and techno enthusiasts at the quaint Bernsteinsee Velten in 1997. It relocated to Ferropolis,a shining beacon of light, in 2000 and became a major force on the international festival circuit. The choice of the venue is what makes Melt peculiar: The live acts are played in the open air museum of lignite mining, the “Ferropolis”, in Gräfenhainichen. “Ferropolis” is a reminiscent of an old Roman amphitheater surrounded by five excavators and spreaders, 40 meters high and up to 130 meters long. Melt! starts with its pre-party at Intro Tent on Thursday before opening the gates to the festival site from Friday to Monday morning.

INmusic
22-24 of June, Zagreb, Croatia

INmusic is Croatia’s biggest international open-air festival. Party lasts 3 days on Youth Island in the middle of Zagreb’s Lake Jarun. The festival includes several genre-specific stages with internationally renowned indie rock, heavy metal and electronica artists. In 2008 The Times included INmusic among the top 20 European summer festivals. This year the Festival celebrates the 10-year anniversary with stunning line up! Florence and the Machine, Placebo, La Roux, Franz Ferdinand&Sparks, are just some of the names that you can expect to see.

Sónar
18-20 of June, Barcelona, Spain

Sónar takes place in Barcelona since 1997, and it combines music and multimedia art, often in very experimental ways. It is the largest event of its kind in Europe. This festival has reached cult status even among the spectators who are not real fans of this particular music and art scene. Renowned musicians and artists from all over the globe perform here and 80,000 people attend it every year. Festival is also specific for being divided into Day and Night Sonar which means that the party here lasts literally 24h.

Tomorrowland
24-26 of July, Boom, Belgium

It is impossible to make a list of the leading European summer festivals without mentioning Tomorrowland, the largest annual electronic music festival held in the world, taking place in Boom, Belgium. The urban fairy tale started in 2005 and since then it has grown and spread around the world. Since last year, the festival got two branches in Brazil and USA. The festival is very famous for being really hard to get into, since the tickets disappear in couple of hours (or faster). So, in order to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the festival, and to meet the high demand for tickets, the 2014 edition of Tomorrowland was organised for two weekends with almost the same line-ups.

Sea Dance Festival
15-18 of July, Budva, Montenegro

At the beginning one of the oldest festivals was mentioned, and the end is left for one of the youngest summer parties–Sea Dance Festival. This music festival is held at Jaz beach in Montenegro since 2014. The festival has been part of the EXIT Adventure, representing an additional 3 days of EXIT Festival, about which our readers already had a chance to read about. Sea Dance is a premium festival event, a must-visit for all die-hard fans of electro music mixed with the sounds of the sea. It is an epic adventure at heaven on earth, including day parties at the hottest beach of the Adriatic Sea, beautiful sunsets with some of the best electro beats and beach cocktail parties. At this year’s European Festival Awards 2014 ceremony, Sea Dance Festival in Budva has been named the Best European Medium-Sized Festival! 

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