Don’t miss the chance of enjoying best live music with music lovers all over the world
1. Glastonbury Festival
With a history of more than 40 years, Glastonbury Festival is now one of the biggest music festivals in the UK and beyond. About 135,000 music lovers attended the festival in 2015. It is so popular that the tickets for 2016 were sold out in 30 minutes in October 2015. There may be a re-sale of returned or cancelled tickets in this spring. Make sure you are registered on the website if you are still targeting this year’s event, also next year’s.
Location: Pilton
Date: 22 – 26 June 2016
Tickets: Sold out
Line-up: Muse, Coldplay, ELO, PJ Harvey, etc.
Camping event: Yes
Travel info: Official guide
2. V Festival
Take place annually in August since1996. ‘V’ represents ‘Virgin Group’, the sponsor of the festival. In recent years, more pop artists started to perform at V Festival, attracting broader audiences than before. Early bird pre-sale for 2016 has already ended. Get tickets right now if your favourite artists will perform on stages.
Location: Western Park, Staffordshire; Hylands Park, Chelmsford
Date: 20 – 21 August 2016
Tickets: Official website
Features: World-class artists performing at national parks
Line-up: Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Sia, David Guetta, Little Mix, etc.
Camping event: Yes
Travel info: Official guide
3. Reading & Leeds Festival
A pair of famous annual music festivals held in Reading and Leeds, sharing the same line-up in two cities. Main genres for the events are: rock, punk, indie, alternative and metal.
Location: Richfield Avenue, Reading and Bramham Park, Leeds
Date: 26 – 28 August 2016
Tickets: Reading, Leeds
Features: World’s oldest popular music festival still in existence
Line-up: Foals, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fall Out Boy, Biffy Clyro, etc.
Camping event: Yes
4. Isle of Wight Festival
Widely acknowledged as ‘Europe’s equivalent of Woodstock’, Isle of Wight Festival is one of the major music festivals in the UK. Originated in 1968, the festival did not continue from 1971. It was finally revived in 2002, and has now become a famous annual rock festival.
Location: Newport, Isle of Wight
Date: 9 – 12 June 2016
Tickets: Ticketmaster, Viagogo (International customers)
Features: Music festival for all ages, including teen tickets and family-friendly areas
Line-up: Queen, Adam Lambert, Stereophonics, Faithless, etc.
Camping event: Yes
Travel info: Official guide
5. Download Festival
Download Festival has been held annually at Donington Park in June since 2003. Donington Park, with a history of hosting music events for more than 20 years, is named as ‘the spiritual home of rock’. As a rock festival, Download Festival mainly focuses on genres like: heavy metal, punk and alternative rock.
Location: Donington Park
Date: 10 – 12 June 2016
Tickets: Official webiste
Features: UK’s premier Rock Festival
Line-up: Korn, Nightwish, Iron Maiden, etc.
Camping event: Yes
Travel info: Official guide
6. Green Man Festival
Started from 2003, Green Man Festival is an annual independent festival combining music and arts held in Wales. It won Best Festival at the Live Music Business Awards in 2015. The festival includes multiple areas to hold different events, for example, ‘little folk’ as children’s safe area, and ‘fortune falls’ for discovering new bands.
Location: Brecon Beacons, Wales
Date: 18 –21 August 2016
Tickets: Official website, Ticketline
Features: Welsh food & culture; multiple forms of events (music, film, literature, etc.)
Line-up: Belle & Sebastian, James Blake, Wild Beasts, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, etc.
Camping event: Yes
Travel info: Official guide
7. Dim Sŵn Festival
Sŵn Festival, founded in Cardiff nine years ago, turned into a smaller one-day version called Dim Sŵn in 2014. For its 2016 event in April, more than 30 groups of artists have already confirmed to perform at five venues in Cardiff city centre. More artists or venues will be announced in the following days. Early bird tickets are unavailable at this stage. Get the standard ticket right now if you don’t want to miss these shows.
Location: Multiple venues in Cardiff city centre
Date: 9 April 2016 12:00 pm – 10 April 2016 4:00 am
Tickets: Dim Swn website (Wristbands grant entry to all the venues)
Features: Full day-and-night creative festival, new music
Line-up: To be continued
Camping event: No
Travel info: Official guide