Summer rhymes with rock festivals. Hundreds of thousands of young and old who move from one part of Europe and the world to another in search of the right gig. Tours that overlap and overlap with the sole purpose of capturing the most dedicated and passionate audience. From Coachella to Tomorrowland, from Glastonbury to Primavera Sound. The summer festival journey has just begun. The next meeting is scheduled from 10 to 15 August near Budapest (more precisely, on the island of Obuda). The Sziget festival is the largest in Europe and focuses on electronic music, techno, trance, house, pop, rap, theatre, circus, street parades and sports. Billie Eilish, David Guetta, Florence + the Machine, Imagine Dragons, Lorde, Macklemore and Mumford & Sons will be the main guests. Space also for Italian music with the long awaited performance of our Lazza. However, many other appointments have already ended. Among them is Coachella. In mid-April, the Empire Polo Club fields in Indio, California turned into an open-air runway for Bad Bunny, Blackpink and Frank Ocean. For the British public, the Glastonbury Festival has become a national monument. This year’s Pilton Festival ran from June 21st to 25th and guests included the Arctic Monkeys, Guns N’ Roses, Elton John, Lizzo, Lana del Rey and Lil Nas X.
A separate chapter deserves electronic music festivals, giving scope to the most experimental avant-garde trends of the modern scene. Such is the case with Primavera Sound, one of the most diverse festivals on the European scene. Given the proximity to Barcelona, the presence of the Italian public was remarkable. Thus, the latest edition set another record: compared to 2019, the presence of our compatriots increased by 64%. For the first time, Primavera Sound took place at the Parc del Fòrum in Barcelona and at the Ciudad del Rock in Madrid. All the names on the poster were of the highest caliber: Kendrick Lamar, Blur. Rosalía, Halsey, FKA Twigs, Skrillex, Calvin Harris, Depeche Mode, New Order, Alison Goldfrapp and Sevdaliza. Finally, there is Tomorrowland, an iconic Belgian festival that has become a meeting point. The event takes place in Schorre Park, near the city of Boom, and includes several stages where artists and DJs perform, even simultaneously. This year the festival program was divided into two weekends. It started on Friday, July 21, but revived from July 28 to 30. Artists include The Chainsmokers, Tiësto, Afrojack, Alesso, Lost Frequencies, Martin Garrix, Nina Kraviz, Hardwell, Steve Aoki, Armin Van Buuren and Paul Kalkbrenner. And Italy isn’t watching. Our country has hosted, among others, the Festival of Music Without Borders on the lakes of Fusine, the Nameless Festival in Annone di Brianza, the Summer Festival in Lucca, Rock in Rome and I-Days in Milan.