Welcome to this new series of music festivals we cannot wait to attend.
Whether you have been here for a while or this is your first time you honor us with your presence, you might have noticed that – even when this blog’s main focus is on travel – every Summer we stop our country-hopping around the globe and dedicate our time to festivals and music events mainly. It is not that we stop working hard on building this site or delivering content as often as we can, but the subject slightly morphs into music festivals. Because let’s say it like it is: our generation is a hedonistic one and we simply love them so much not to drive ourselves into a few of them – or as many as we can – every year.
Over the course of the next few weeks, we will bring you some of the best names – mainly in Europe – in a few different genres. From rock to indie, reggae, electronic music, and a few others in between; let us please start with one of our favorites: Techno.
If you have danced till dawn and beyond to techno tunes for a few days in a row, you already know. Techno magic resides in the atmosphere sound, visuals, the DJ and its audience create. The tunes envelope and transport you to a usually dark world where flashes of light and visual goodness led music lovers in a difficult to explain for the not trained eye communion. Those who have lived and enjoyed it once tho, want to echo it all over and over.
Whatever it has, one can’t deny Techno’s wizardry. Here are five Techno festivals to calm your thirst for this tremendous and complex genre:
1. Kappa Futur Festival – Torino, Italy
July 2018
To be honest, it wasn’t until last year when we came to know about this one. Mainly, due to this Nina Kraviz viral short clip:
From then on, we became obsessed with Futur Festival. It is in Torino, a cool city not absorbed yet by the touristy madness that is Italy in Summer, its lineup is pretty epic and the scene is as industrial as it gets.
2018 edition, wait for us!
More info: Futur Festival
2. Festival Forte – Montemor-o-Velho, Portugal
24th – 26th August 2017
Soon you will realize that we have a thing for unique locations – perhaps a travel-derived obsession mania, but Festival Forte in Portugal ticks all the boxes TBH.
It all happens for three days at the end of August in Montemor-o-Velho castle, near Aveiro (yes, in an effing castle! like the epic Electric Castle in Romania). As a matter of fact, we love Portuguese music festivals (been attending Paredes de Coura for six years in a row and had a peek into others as well like the Algarve’s Sudoeste Festival) and we can’t get around the fact that it’s been going on for four years already and we have not attended it once yet. This needs to change ASAP!
2017 edition will see Clark, Jeff Milles, Oscar Mulero, and many other great names. But there’s more to it. Performing arts and visual goodness take also place in places like a chapel, lush gardens, or a glasshouse gallery.
Thursday and Friday night plus a 23-hour techno bonanza from Saturday to Sunday night guarantee a festival like no other.
More info: Festival Forte
3. Sonar – Barcelona, Spain
14th – 16th June 2018
A Spanish classic. Like the big ones, special parties and other locations have been implemented all across the world during its lifetime. I attended a Sonar festival in Coruña six or seven years ago, and it was already well worth it but the original will always prevail.
We will have to wait till the 2018 edition, in June, for more Sonar and advanced arts all across the city. Will we see you there?
More info: Sonar Festival
4. Awakenings – Spaarnwoude, Netherlands + Sonus – Pag Island, Croatia
We know. We are cheating on this 4th spot. Crossed feelings about these two for being somehow everything we hate about some huge music festivals (ie Tomorrowland) where music criteria fail and there’s simply way too many of us to be enjoyed properly. However, something tells us there’s still a chance for them both to be really great.
Awakenings
June 2018
Spaarnwoude, Netherlands
This one has carved a name in the techno festivals world as big as Glastonbury or Coachella. That’s both frightening and appealing as 70000 people attended it this year.
If we have a look at the DJs that performed there this year, we are somewhat relieved: every big name is there. From Maceo Plex to Sven Väth, Chris Liebing, Marcel Dettmann, Ricardo Villalobos, and many more up to 100 DJs. Pre-registrations for the 2018 edition are open already.
More info: Awakenings Festival
Sonus Festival
20th – 24th August 2017
Zrce Beach, Pag Island – Croatia
On a tranquil otherwise Croatian island of the Adriatic sea, Sonus has all our love for its location already but we are missing some of the darkness that makes us love techno so much.
Something that is also missing our 5th choice. However, they have boat parties! We’d need to see how that works out without turning into a pseudo-EDM colorful and smiley big party (nothing wrong with those either, just not what we are looking for when we go to a techno festival).
All in all, their lineup has nothing to envy to the massively populated Awakenings one. More times than not, it looks like the biggest names in the industry share their Summer agendas to be almost everywhere. Again, Carl Cox, Chris Liebing, Maceo Plex, and their friends will delight beach bums this August in Pag.
More info: Sonus Festival
5. Oasis Festival – Marrakech, Morocco
15th – 17th September 2017
For four days, an unlikely spot – a resort on the outskirts of Marrakech – will host the second edition of this house and techno festival next September.
The first thing that crossed my mind, as when I visited Morocco in 2009 those were the dates of Ramadan, was: ‘how dare they?’ and right after: ‘there will be trouble’. But after a quick search, I learned that Ramadan this year happened a couple of months back already so bring it on!
All the reviews we read talk wonderfully about what the organizers managed to put together there last year and indeed, it all seems so exotic that we are dying to have a peek. Are you with us?
More info: The Oasis Fest
Luckily, this is not the end. Check out the following articles as well and start scheduling your own music festivals lineup:
- Best Music Festivals around the World
- Best Music Festivals in Europe
- Best Music Festivals in Spain
- Best Music Festivals in Galicia