66 festivals happening in July 2019

Local

Bristol Shakespeare Festival

July (dates TBC), Price: various, www.bristolshakespeare.org.uk

Fifteenth annual Bardular enterprise, offering Shakespeare productions in just about every imaginable corner of the city: woods, studios, theatres, parks, caves, boats and pubs. And all as you like it, Bristol: not for profit. Check website for programme nearer the time.

Bristol Pride

July 1-14, Price: donations, www.pridebristol.co.uk/day, Bristol 24/7 recommended

The big news, of course, is that Pride Day is set to double in capacity – and, quite, possibly, comfort – by moving to the capacious Downs, where attendees will be treated to performances by the likes of Boney M, RuPaul’s Drag Race’s Peppermint, Sonique and NINA. There’ll be a new stage – in partnership with DIVA mag, wellbeing and mindfulness area, and a silent disco. Plenty more going on in this tenth anniversary year, of course, including Pride Circus Night at Circomedia, Pride film festival Queer Vision at Watershed, dog show, a very fine comedy line up – including Mawaan Rizwan, Tom Allen, Jayde Adams and Zoe Lyons – and a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, with a special flag raising ceremony and events (June 28) and performance of Riot Act at the Wardrobe Theatre (July 10).

Keynsham Music Festival

July 1-7, Price: free, www.keynshammusicfestival.co.uk

Right on our doorstep, drawing crowds of 20,000, is one of the largest free fests in the country. Expect a programme ranging across all arts fields when the 2019 programme is announced.

Bristol Comedy Garden

July 3-7, Price: various, www.bristolcomedygarden.co.uk

Expect belly-full belly laughs at this annual amalgam of comedy and food. It’s not been published at press time, but history suggests a seriously strong line up will be forthcoming, last year including the likes of Adam Buxton, Nina Conti, Alan Davies Reginald D Hunter, Henning Wehn, Ross Noble, Miles Jupp, Zoe Lyons, Phil Wang, and Shappi Khorsandi.

Barn on the Farm

July 4-7, Price: £120, www.barnonthefarm.co.uk

Rural fest, big on singer-songwriters, this year headlined by Sam Fender, Maggie Rogers and Lewis Capaldi.

 

Cheltenham Music Festival

July 5-14, Price: various, lots free, www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/music

75th outing for this properly venerable, classical-leaning fest. Little of the programme has been notated as we put the guide together, but expect circa 650 performers to be in town, and high profile concerts to be augmented by talks and workshops, film screenings, and excursions into dance, world music, jazz, theatre and regular guided walks through the town. Plenty to engage young minds, too, like the community opera, composed by Michael Betteridge after visiting and collaborating with schools and organisations across the town.

 

Frome Festival

July 5-14, Price: various, lots free, www.fromefestival.co.uk

Punching well above its weight, around 30,000 people descend on this community of retired Bristol party people, with around about 200 events there for the choosing. No word on this year’s line up until May but, as a pointer, last year included music from Badly Drawn Boy, John Cooper Clarke and a hometown gig for Pee Wee Ellis; comedy from Tom Allen and Viv Groskop; historian Michael Wood; and the Frome Festival Food Feast.

 

Nibley Festival

July 5-6, Price: £55 w/e, www.nibleyfestival.co.uk

In which the lovely Cotswolds play host to a line up including the Sugarhill Gang, Melle Mel and Scorpio of the Furious Five, Cast, and Rat Boy.

 

St Pauls Carnival

July 6, Price: free, www.stpaulscarnival.net, Bristol 24/7 recommended

2018 was an immeasurably better year for the return of carnival: a spectacular, school kid-heavy procession that took four hours to get around, all the traditional sound systems, an Old School Sounds stage, the Arcadia Bug, Ghetto Force, City Rockas, etc. No specifics on this year’s event at press time, so instead we’ll happily “Amen!” to the sentiments of carnival chair, Marti Burgess: “When conversations with the authorities went ‘Can’t you move it to Eastville Park?’ we made it clear that, if you put it elsewhere, it’s not St Pauls Carnival. Fundamentally you want a fantastic procession, sound systems pushing out bass that makes your stomach move and people offering food from their gardens; it’s a community on the streets.”

 

2000Trees

July 11-13, Price: £129.50 w/e, www.twothousandtreesfestival.co.uk

Rated Britain’s Coolest Festival by Kerrang! last year, expect 100+ acts rocking up for the event’s 13th year, including Frank Turner & the Sleeping Souls, You Me At Six, While She Sleeps, Every Time I Die, Frank Iero and the Future Violents, and Therapy?

 

NASS

July 11-14, Price: £130 w/e, www.nassfestival.com

Aka the National Action Sports Show, wherein grown-ups play around on kids’ toys to a world class standard, with hundreds of globally-sourced BMXers and skaters in competition. Musically, you’re looking at the likes of Giggs, Rudimental, Cypress Hill, Loyle Carner, Hannah Wants, and Lady Leshurr.

 

Nailsea & Backwell Beer & Cider Festival

July 12-14, Price: £10 adv day tickets, www.applefest.co.uk

No details at press time, but precedence suggests that, besides the copious range of booze, you’ll find live music and all sorts of kids’ ents. More than £150,000 has been raised here for local charities over the years, including £15,000 for Children’s Hospice South West from last year alone.

 

Once Upon a Time in the West Festival

July 12-15, Price: 85 w/e, www.outwestfestival.co.uk

Party-centric gathering, this year headlined by the Wurzels, Neck, RSVP, and the Tribe.

 

Lovebox

July 13-14, Price: £115 w/e, www.loveboxfestival.com

N.E.R.D, Diplo, Bicep, Skepta and Mike Skinner are among the confirmed appearees at this dance-centric gathering, originally co-founded by Groove Armada in 2002.

 

Priddy Folk Festival

July 12-14, Price: £90 w/e, www.priddyfolk.org

28th anniversary for a properly friendly festival on our collective doorstep, based in and around the lovely, dry stone wall-ensconced village of Priddy. While roughly 150 people showed up back in 1991, today the figure is closer to 2,000. It’s a proper-job folk affair, offering demonstrations of the type of trades from which so much of the original songs drew their narrative thread, not to mention a proper-job Maypole, loads of morris sides, ceilidhs, and a children’s festival offering juggling, storytelling, puppetry, and so forth. Musical acts announced so far include Jackie Oates, Cara, and the Shackleton Trio.

 

New Order

July 18, Price: £49.50, www.colstonhall.org

In which the Colston Hall takes a breath of fresh air amid all that refurb work, and heads down to promote a brace of gigs on the harbourside. Good ones, too, opening up with New Order promoting the April rerelease of their first post-Joy Division album, 1981’s Movement.

 

The Specials

July 19, Price: £46.50, www.colstonhall.org

In which the triumphantly reformed 2-Toners serve up a perfect aperitif for HarbourFest.

 

Bristol Harbour Festival

July 19-21, Price: free, www.bristolharbourfestival.co.uk, Bristol 24/7 recommends

After a highly successful debut in 2018, the Power8 Sprints return for another thrash, as the best rowers from eight English cities race head-to-head over a 350m course in a knockout format. Bristol will hope to go one better this time around; both the men and women’s teams finished as runners-up. The rowers will be sharing the water with the huge flotillas of out-of-town boaters that drop by, trips out on all of the M Shed-moored heritage fleet,  rescue displays, and those strange water jet pack things where people in wet suits rise spectacularly up to greet the crowds on Prince St Bridge and then kind of hang there for a few awkward moments while no one knows quite where to look. All told, you can expect to be one of a quarter of a million attendees milling around the three mile-long site, from Castle Park to lovely old Underfall Yard. Watery stuff aside, you’ll find three music stages (not counting the affiliated ents in Thekla, Louisiana, Grain Barge), dance village, tons of food stalls, and Cirque Bijou’s programme of acrobatics, comedy, aerial performance, dance, street theatre and games.

 

Trowbridge Festival

July 19-21, Price: £90 w/e, www.trowbridgefestival.co.uk

No word on the line up at press time, but no matter: this is a dream location for a folk fest. Did you see that recent repeat of Wild Swimming with Alice Roberts on BBC4? That was partly filmed on the stretch of river cutting right through the site, which in turn is overlooked by a ruined 14th century castle and bordered on the other three sides by the steeply banking hills of the Frome valley and the ancient Stowford Manor Farm.

 

The Godney Gathering

July 20, Price: £30, www.thegodneygathering.com

The Feeling and Dreadzone head a musical bill spread across four stages, then there is a silent disco dome, comedy and cabaret stage, and circus skills-augmented children’s area. Camping available in advance.

 

Cinema Rediscovered

July 25-28, Price: various, www.watershed.co.uk/cinema-rediscovered

Third outing of the festival in which digital restorations, contemporary classics and film print rarities are lovingly returned to the big screen. No word on the programme at the mo, but expect it to match the breadth of 2018, which included The Apartment, Maurice, Pulp, Le Crime de Monsieur Lange, Aardman’s earliest films restored, and a shorts programme featuring the work of Madeline Anderson, the first African-American woman to executive-produce a nationally aired television series.

WOMAD

July 26-29, Price: £225 for four days, www.womad.co.uk, Bristol 24/7 recommended

Welcome to the planet of sound. While the music at most festivals is, at heart, a variation on the same thing, the stuff you’ll hear here is a stirring exception. And, as such, the cornerstone of the festival calendar for anyone with a Peel-like drive to experience something new. There’ll always be a few bores droning on about “authentic” music – essentially desiring native folk styles to be frozen in aspic – but one of WOMAD’s many joys is a programme always looking to celebrate – and demonstrate – how tradition evolves. So, for every group of venerable musicians playing tunes and styles handed down for, there are plenty more taking inspiration from an ever-more accessible global soup of sound to produce work of quite the most beguiling freshness. Lots more to be announced, but early confirmed appearees include Salif Keita, Ziggy Marley, Orbital, Anna Calvi, Orquesta Akokan, Nadine Shah, Dhafer Youssef, and Delgres. Throw in a gracious arboretum in which to relax, a steam fairground, tons for kids to do, workshops in musical styles you’ve yet to hear, the magnificent Taste the World stage (musicians interviewed while cooking up traditional recipes, before passing the fruits of their labour into the crowd), a genuinely friendly atmosphere, and you’ve got, for our money, the most exhilarating, soul-firing festival on the circuit.

 

National

 

Innervisions

July 3-7, Price: various, www.innervisionsfestival.com

Second outing of a festival which, spread across five days and a multiplicity of venues across the capital, is slightly hard to think of as a festival at all. No doubting the quality of the bill, mind: Van Morrison, Gilberto Gil, Maceo Parker, Mavis Staples, Stone Foundation, Kraftwerk, Thievery Corporation, Aloe Black, Ramp, Janet Kay & Carroll Thompson, Fela Kuti, and Monday Michiru.

 

New Forest Folk Festival

July 3-7, Price: £95 for 5 days, www.newforestfolkfestival.co.uk

Long is the list of ‘boutique’ festivals claiming homespun charm, when what they really mean is the chance to buy eye-wateringly priced granola and yoghurt. This, by contrast, is the real deal: handbuilt/self-designed stage, home-cooked food in the cafe, family members running the merch stand, all sited on a farm overseen by the same family for six generations. Strong folking line up, too, including Ralph McTell, Oysterband, 3 Daft Monkeys, Jez Lowe & the Bad Pennies, and the man whose idea this whole venture was, Richard Digance.

 

Boogie Woogie Festival

July 5-7, Price: £65 approx, www.ukboogiewoogiefestival.co.uk

It shouldn’t matter too much that only the dates are confirmed as we go to press, as the formula here is pretty much as formularised as the music it celebrates: performers with preternaturally hardened left hands arrivefrom across the globe, with lots of free street action complementing the paid-for behind doors stuff.

 

British Summer Time

July 5-14, Price: from £65-£89, www.bst-hydepark.com

A rum old mix, and no mistake. Celine Dion headlines opening night (July 5) with the rest of that weekend’s acts TBA; July 12 is veterans’ night, with Bob Dylan and Neil Young sharing the bill; Florence and the Machine pummel the vicinity on July 12, along with The National, Lykke Li, Khruangbin, and Nadine Shah; and July 14 finds Robbie Williams wondering whether he can entertain you.

 

Cornbury Music Festival

July 5-7, Price: £215 w/e, www.cornburyfestival.com

Lots more TBC, but at press time we know the bill is set to include the Specials, Keane, the Beach Boys, and a Hairy Bikers’ pop-up restaurant.

 

Glas-Denbury

July 5-6, Price: £85 w/e, www.glas-denbury.co.uk

Promising ‘A nod to the family friendly festivals of yesteryear, showcasing the best of the South-West, from its creativity to its food, its businesses to its people’. In lieu of any line up announcements, 2018 saw headline slots from the not entirely West Country-associated Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, and the Real Thing.

 

Southcider Festival

July 5-8, Price: £75 w/e, southciderfestival.com

In which adult apple juice fuels a weekend where music comes from the likes of Honeyfeet, Lionstar, One Eyed Jacks, and Balkun Brothers.

 

Let’s Rock Southampton

July 6, Price: £42, letsrocksouthampton.com

Billy Ocean, Andy Bell, the magnificent Marc Almond, Nik Kershaw, Limahl, Neville Staple Band, and the brilliant Belinda Carlisle; contrary to the overly choreographed performance you might expect, Ms Carlisle is charm itself, wont to dance mid-performance with all the glee and forethought of your favourite aunt in the small hours of a wedding reception. Warning: bill also includes Black Lace’s Conga Party.

 

Kew The Music

July 9-14, Price: from £45, www.kewthemusic.org

Brilliant at plants, erratic at festival bills. This year’s oddly scented musical potpourri comprises, in nightly order, Beverley Knight and Billy Ocean, Jess Glynne, Jools Holland & his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra (ameliorated by the presence of the splendid Alison Moyet), Craig David, Garbage, and Rick Astley.

 

Folk on the Lawn

July 11-14, Price: ‘pay what you want’ after opening night, www.folkonthelawn.com

In the shadow of glorious Tintern Abbey, the landscape in which Wordsworth looked about and realised ‘that in this moment there is life and food for future years’, comes this popular regular. Opening night features a £10 performance from a TBA headliner, while Friday-Sunday sees lower profile acoustic/roots acts gathering in the shadow at no charge.

 

Wonderfields Festival

July 11-14, Price: £99 w/e, wonderfields.co.uk

“If anyone turns around and tries to judge me for being in this amazing position, then frankly they can fuck off.” So declares Arthur Fulford, heir to the estate on which this fest is held. Older readers may recognise a chip off the old block – Arthur’s dad, Francis, was the star of sweary TV documentary The Fucking Fulfords, which followed the family as they tried all manner of means to make a buck and save their house. All of which brings us to Wonderfields, with music from festival faves Too Many Zooz, DJ Yoda, Foreign Beggars, My Baby, Krafty Kuts and The Freestylers plus a variety of activities from yoga to welly-wanging.

 

Beat-Herder

July 12-14, Price: £150 w/e, www.beatherder.co.uk

15 stages make up this hard-partying fest, this year welcoming the likes of Rudimental, Groove Armada, Basement Jaxx, Hannah Wants, the Sugarhill Gang, DJ Yoda, and Mr Scruff.

 

Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival

July 12-21, Price: various, some free, www.edinburghjazzfestival.com

No line up news as we type, but expect two big free events – mardi gras and festival carnival – and bookings similar to the class of 2018, including Jools Holland, Hot Club Gypsy Swing, Earl Thomas, Jerron ‘Blind Boy’ Paxton, Curtis Stigers, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Havana Swing, Rachel Lightbody Trio, and the Average White Band.

 

TRNSMT Festival

July 12-14, Price: £155 w/e, trnsmtfest.com

Glasgow Green hosts a festival in which Carlsberg declares itself ‘proud to be the official beer partner’ and a variable line up features the likes of Stormzy, Jess Glynne, Example, Years & Years, Richard Ashcroft, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Steve Mason, George Ezra, and Snow Patrol.

 

Folk By The Oak

July 14, Price: £38, www.folkbytheoak.com/home

Formerly of this parish folker, Jim Moray, is the patron of this leafy event, where the line up includes Frank Turner, the Staves, Seth Lakeman, and The Lost Words – Spell Songs, featuring the likes of Karine Polwart, Julie Fowlis, Seckou Keita, and Kris Dreaver.

 

Latitude

July 18-21, Price: £202.50 w/e, www.latitudefestival.com, Bristol 24/7 recommended

A mixed musical bag indeed, but the closing night should be marvellous: Lana del Rey sending out her glacial quaalude-rock across the site’s beauteous, woody, watery surrounds. Underworld play that night, too. Also confirmed at press time are Snow Patrol, George Ezra, Primal Scream and Slaves. Music is only a portion of the attractions at this properly family friendly event though, in which we find separate kids and teen areas with pond-dipping, hands-on forensic science, lake swimming, stargazing, fire shows, archaeology, tree-suspended assault courses, traditional woodland crafts, etc. Comedy comes from the likes of Russell Kane, Michelle Wolf and Jason Manford, and there’s also a very decent programme of theatre, film, literature, etc.

 

Nozstock

July 18-21, Price: £145 for 4 nights, www.nozstock.com

Seriously lovely, properly family-run fest, this year welcoming the likes of Rudimental, David Rodigan, Soul II Soul and the Skatalites. See feature on page XX for the full story.

 

July 19-20

Chagstock

July 19-20, Price: £89 w/e, www.chagstock.info

“It’s right in the heart of Dartmoor, so the fact that the stage is set in the midst of the sweeping wilderness is genuinely unlike anything you’ll see at any other festivals.” So says folkie, Seth Lakeman, who knows a thing or two about these things. “Definitely one of the most beautiful festivals I’ve ever played at.” Bill-wise you’ll find the likes of Fun Lovin’ Criminals, From The Jam, and 3 Daft Monkeys, all raising funds for the Devon Air Ambulance and Water Aid in the process.

 

Ramblin Man

July 19-21, Price: £176 w/e +£49 camping, www.ramblinmanfair.com

Because ‘Kent’ and ‘adventurous’ aren’t necessarily words accustomed to appearing in the same sentence, here comes a festival of – Living Colour accepted – meat ‘n’ two veg-shaped rock: Foreigner, The Darkness, Black Stone Cherry, The Wildhearts, and so forth.

 

Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival

July 19-21, Price: TBC, but expect £40 w/e, www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk

In 1834, west Dorset farm workers formed a – perfectly legal – union, the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers. Six leaders of its leaders were arrested and sentenced to seven years’ transportation for taking an oath of secrecy, leading to huge protests nationwide. This annual commemoration in their honour is organised by the  TUC and, though details remain TBA as we head to press, the essentials are pretty much unchanging across the years: banner processions, political discussions, wreath laying, Jeremy Corbyn, music, poetry, kids’ stuff with the Woodcraft folk, and a Methodist service. The traditional Sunday Rally Day is open to all and free.

 

Tramlines

July 19-21, Price: £69.50 w/e, www.tramlines.org.uk

Two Door Cinema Club, the Courteeners, Manic Street Preachers, Nile Rodgers, Happy Mondays, Doves and Rag’n’Bone Man top the bill here. You’ll also find a pop-up cinema, woodland workshops, circus school, and comedy stage.

 

Splendour

July 20, Price: £51.50, splendourfestival.com

Expect 20,000 to assemble for this single dayer, this year headed by Manic Street Preachers, The Specials, Rag ‘n’ Bone Man, and – hurray! – All Saints.

 

Camp Bestival

July 25-28, Price: £180 w/e, www.campbestival.net

Gosh. Sister Sledge and Nile Rodgers on the same bill? No word of it, but surely they’ll convene and get a little lost in music? Jess Glynne, Annie Mac , the Human League, and the Wailers also feature at this determinedly family affair, including a festival within a festival for young folk, boasting workshops, talks, Q&As, etc.

 

Kendal Calling

July 25-28, Price: £139, www.kendalcalling.co.uk

Mint event, this year

Sold out for the 13th year bringing forth the likes of Tom Jones, the Courteeners, Doves, Manic Street Preachers, Nile Rodgers, Orbital, and Idles.

 

Port Eliot Festival

July 25-28, Price: £175 w/e, www.porteliotfestival.com

A wonderful site hosts this multi-faceted gem of a festival – replete with estuary, viaduct and woodlands – on the ancient estate at St Germans – claimed to be the oldest continually inhabited dwelling in the country – on the Rame Peninsula in South East Cornwall. Music comes courtesy of our own Beak>, plus Adous Harding, The Orielles, Robyn Hitchcock, Stealing Sheep, Paul Simonon, and James Yorkston. This being one of the more cerebral events on the calendar, you’ll also find a spoken word programme, including wisdom – or otherwise – from Paul Mason, Emily Maitlis, Simon Farnaby, Youth, and Jon Savage. You’ll also find a wooded area run by children for children, wild swimming, areas dedicated to wellbeing, food, workshops, outdoor adventure, theatre, and art.

 

Standon Calling

July 25-28, Price: £159 w/e, www.standon-calling.com

By which time we’re wondering whether there’s been a change in licensing law, and it’s a legal requirement now that a festival must book Nile Rodgers. As well as the great, boundlessly energetic man, you’ll find Rag ‘n’ Bone Man, Idles, Wolf Alice, Roisin Murphy, Echo & the Bunnymen, Friendly Fires, and Kate Nash. Booking is also open for the (substantially more expensive, at £55 for a w/e pass) Wild Wellbeing Camp, featuring sauna and money – sorry, wood- burning hot tubs.

 

Y-Not Festival

July 25-28, Price: £129.50 w/e, www.ynotfestivals.co.uk

Elbow, Two Door Cinema Club and Foals top the bill in the beauteous Peak District, but the latest chapter in the legacy of a house party that over-spilled in 2005 and has been growing ever since.

 

Deer Shed Festival

July 26-29, Price: £155 w/e, www.deershedfestival.com, Bristol 24/7 recommended

With few exceptions, you can have genuinely family friendly festivals or you can have festivals with a genuinely strong line up, but you can’t have both. Here’s one of the finest of exceptions. Ezra Furman, Anna Calvi, Steve Mason, Akala, and Gruff Rhys are among the music providers, while a lengthy comedy bill is topped by Reginald D. Hunter, Nina Conti, and Milton Jones. No word on the spoken word line up yet, but previous its played host to the likes Owen Jones, Kate Pankhurst and ace Bristol poet, Vanessa Kisuule. The kids’ stuff remain TBA, too, but last year it included the best PG-rated theatre shows from Edinburgh Festival; den building, campfire kindling beneath the trees in Wilderwild; BMX workshops; old school playground games; and a science area so comprehensive it’s practically a festival in its own right, packed with things both old school – marble racing, slime making – and new: virtual reality, forensics, etc.

 

Indietracks

July 26-28, Price: TBA (expect £80ish w/e), www.indietracks.co.uk

The timetable has yet to be announced for this truly distinct festival, wherein steam train rides and model railways provide the alternative entertainment to indie-pop groups. Past bill have included the likes of Saint Etienne, Teenage Fanclub, Camera Obscura, The Go! Team, and Cate Le Bon.

 

Kozfest

July 26-28, Price: £95, www.electricsalad.co.uk

Ninth outing of the event formerly known as Kozmik Ken’s Psychedelic Dream Festival, and a new site at Buttermead Farm on the North Devon coast. Bristol’s too-oft overlooked eardrum assaulters, the Heads, headline a bill also including Crazyhead, Here & Now, the Cult Of Dom Keller, and Electric Moon.

 

Leopallooza

July 26-28, Price: £100 w/e, www.leopallooza.com

Expect 100+ acts at this fest’s 13th outing, though at the moment we know of just two: the Vaccines and Friendly Fires.

 

Steelhouse Festival

July 26-28, Price: £95, www.steelhousefestival.com

Ninth outing for the farm-based rock-out, located on the southern fringe of the glorious Brecon Beacons and – in what most surely be an intensely competitive field – reckoned to be ‘the UK’s highest music festival’. Thunder and Thin Lizzy are the headliners, supported by the likes of Those Damn Crows, Blackwater Conspiracy, the Temperance Movement, and Living Colour.

 

Truck Festival

July 26-28, Price: £110 w/e, www.truckfestival.com

Wolf Alice, Foals, Two Door Cinema Club and Idles are among the headliners of this landmark gathering; back in 1998, when it began, there were largely two types of festival: huge, or folk. This was among the first wave in establishing a new tradition, and still proudly self-defines as “an anti-major” – food takings, for instance, are passed along to the local Rotary Club.

 

Starry Skies

July 31-Aug 4, Price: £165, www.starry-skies.net

In which the team behind Shambala put on their seventh, entirely brilliant children-centric festival. Well, we say children-centric: “We want Starry Skies to be the place that parents finally get some ‘me-time’,” say organisers. “Time to relax, unwind and rejuvenate. Or even better do nothing, pour yourself a drink, close the zip of your tent and get stuck into that book that’s been gathering dust on your bedside table.” So, the kids get to enjoy canoeing, orienteering, giant sandpit, talent show, woodland playground, yoga, arts and crafts, storytelling, and a forest school offering drama, dance, fancy dress and a family sports day. You, meanwhile, can do what you want, including wine buff training, adult yoga, craft beer tasting, etc.

 

International

 

Hideout Festival

July 1-5, Price: £159 w/e, www.hideoutfestival.com

150 electronic artists set to perform on 18 boat parties – not to mention pool and beach – parties on the seriously lovely, pretty much sure to be sunny Adriatic. Music-wise, you’re looking at the likes of Alan Fitzpatrick Andrea Oliva Artwork Bicep, Eats Everything, Maribou State, and Camelphat.

 

Love International

July 3-10, Price: £135 eight day pass, loveinternationalfestival.com

“There’s not any chance of rain and it’s a beautiful spot,” says festival co-founder, Dave Harvey, on the joy of staging a festival in Tisno. “Crystal blue water, you can dance outside all night ’til six in the morning – having a party on lilos with this incredible backdrop is pretty breathtaking.” Back here for a fourth time, Team Love lay on a line up including Andrew Weatherall, Horse Meat, Disco, Gerd Janson, Dan Shake and Crazy P.

 

Open’er

July 3-6, Price: PLN 699 4 days + camping, www.opener.pl

The 1975, Travis Scott, Smashing Pumpkins, Anna Calvi, Diplo, Idles, and Kamasi Washington are among those playing this widely sweeping, high grade arts fest, including a fashion stage, loads of film and top line writers engaging in heavyweight discussion.

 

Exit

July 4-7, Price: £89 w/e + £30 camping, www.exitfest.org

Looking forward to playing an 18th century fort, looking down from on high onto the blue Danube, this bargain of a fest boasts a bill including The Cure, Amelie Lens and Boris Brejcha.

 

Ruisrock

July 5-7, Price: 199€, www.ruisrock.fi

Exquisitely beautiful Finnish island welcomes a goodly number of Finnish troupes, plus the more internationally recognised likes of Rita Ora, The 1975, and Travis Scott.

Bilbao BBK

July 11-13, Price: 145€, bilbaobbklive.com

Splendid mountain-surrounded hilltop location for a properly heavyweight affair. Among those almost guaranteed a sunny old time come Noel Gallagher, Thom Yorke, The Strokes, Rosalia, Suede, John Grant, Sleaford Mods, Hot Chip, Princess Nokia, loads more.

NOS Alive

July 11-13, Price: 139€ for 3 days, www.nosalive.com

Lovely looking sunny break for Idles, in the company of The Cure, Thom Yorke, Smashing Pumpkins, Jorja Smith, Vampire Weekend, Bon Iver, the Chemical Brothers, tons more.

Fib

July 18-21, Price: 155€, www.fiberfib.com/en

24th outing for a beachside, water park-adjacent festival, this year welcoming the likes of Lana del Rey, Kings of Leon, The 1975, Franz Ferdinand, George Ezra, and Jess Glynne.

OFFSónar

July 18-21, Price: from 20€, offsonar.co

Conceived in response to the rising tickets price of the original Sónar – see below – this is a seriously fine event in its own right, the panoramic views set to be enjoyed this year – among many others – Circoloco, Dixon and Ame, Carl Craig, Amelie Lens, Bonobo, Adam Bayer, and Carl Cox.

Sónar

July 18-21, Price: 185€, sonar.es

Huge, 1994-established institution, famed for line ups as high in quality as they are copious of length. Thus, a 2019 bill including the likes of A$AP Rocky, Skepta, Disclosure, Four Tet, and Underworld.