Music Festivals
 

Hi everyone.

I'm in the process of planning a year of travel for a fellowship proposal. This fellowship is incredible, because it gives you $25k to travel the world for a year and pursue a project you are passionate about.

I am passionate about music festivals, and I would love to travel around the world visiting all kinds of music festivals and interviewing the people who attend them. I'm most interested in festivals that have a strong connection to the physical place they are held.

My itinerary is fairly fleshed out at this point, but I'm wondering if anyone here has any suggestions of festivals they have been to or heard about.

Thank you all so much.

Have you heard of this one?
http://www.vacances-corses.com/2010/...sic-bonifacio/

It combines a sailing regatta from the harbour with the music festival up in the Citadel, over the course of a week to 10 days. The music is played in the streets of the walled town. Kind of hard to explain really but I would say there is a definite connection to the physical place. Musicians play on a street corner or in a square or strolling the streets. Everywhere really. The whole walled village is the venue.

http://www.google.ca/search?q=bonifa...w=1280&bih=687

I should note I attended by accident really as I was involved in the sailing side of the event. I'm not a festival fan really but this was so different I really enjoyed it.

Not just a music festival, as it is also a cultural and sporting event.

http://www.jawoyn.org/tourism/barunga-festival

I went there about 20 years ago, and it was fun. An extract from my trip report:

I was not sure what to expect at the Barunga cultural festival – anticipating a heap of tribal dancing, painted body decoration, maybe some boomerang throwing, didgeridoo playing, and wondering if it had been worth riding about 30km off the highway.


I was totally wrong. There were groups from all over the Northern Territory, Cape York, South Aus, and even the remote communities from Western Australia, Toyota 16 seat buses drawn from thousands of kilometres away, and they were in Barunga to party and catch up with friends. I’m not sure how many people were there, but at night there were little camp fires all over the place, and I think that maybe three thousand Aboriginal people were there, plus a couple of hundred Europeans. That was a new experience for me, being in an ethnic minority, and I think that the Aboriginals were much more tolerant of the Europeans than it would have been if the numbers were reversed.

So there was almost no tribal dancing or stuff like that, although a group of women from the Tiwi community did a bit of a dance. I asked one of the women what it might have meant, and she gave me to understand that it meant that tomorrow they were going into the bush to do some secret women’s business. I don’t know if she had a slight tic in her eye, or if she winked at me, but I suspect that she winked.

I was talking with a bloke, and he referred to us Europeans as “Youse ballanders” in quite a kind fashion – “ballander” is a common term for Europeans in the top end. I was to later find out where it came from – the first Europeans to reach those parts were Dutch, Hollanders, corrupted to ballander. I can visualise Dirk Hartog coming ashore, saying to the locals “we’re Hollanders, can we interest you in some clay pipes, some lace from Bruges, it’s the finest quality, or maybe a replacement shaft for yonder windmill". Met by blank looks – the Aboriginals were doing just fine before we ballanders mucked things up for them.

So the culture consisted of football matches, basket ball, boxing, both in the ring, and a few impromptu matches the were quickly broken up, and a bunch of music. Rock groups from Thursday Island, and an amazing performance by an African percussion group, and a performance by Vicka and Linda Bull. A very harmonious mob, a happy time.

Fireheart, this forum - travel tips etc - does not see much traffic, and there is more traffic on the destination forums. You might also post your question there - in Europe, Africa, South America, etc.

Sounds like a fascinating trip. There is a World Music festival in Adelaide http://www.womadelaide.com.au/

Maybe that might work for you.

Glastonbury, V Festival, Isle of Wight all in England.

That $25k is $2k/month. That's not a lot.

<i>I'm most interested in festivals that have a strong connection to the physical place they are held. </i>

Trad music festivals are probably your best bet -- there are some great ones like the Fèis Rois and Hebridean Celtic Festival in Scotland and the Urkult Näsåker in Sweden. There's also Tomorrowland and Sónar.

Since you used dollars, I guess you're probably American and so closer to home would be Electric Daisy Carnival, Floydfest, MerleFest, Coachella,and of course Burning Man.

While we are on the subject of American music festivals - consider the French Quarter Festival in New Orleans - happens every April. Jazz Fest is also in New Orleans in April (later in the month), but FQF would be my choice given your criteria. It is 4 days of music, stages are set up all throughout the French Quarter, almost all of the musicians are local to New Orleans, and there is a very wide variety of genres represented. It is very much a festival with a strong connection to where it is held. AND, it is free :)

French Quarter Festival is a great suggestion. It is most certainly a music festival that has a strong physical connection to the place it is held.

I can't believe I forgot it.

Each year Montreal is the site of the world's biggest jazz festival at the end of June. Its definition of jazz is elastic, wrapping up anything that involves improvisation, in a multitude of both free and ticketed performances. From your point of view, its location at the heart of Montreal, in the Quartier des spectacles where the big concert halls cluster, give it a special physical presence. Highlights are always the free showcase concerts that fill this urban plaza with upwards of 100,000 enthusiastic spectators who may pay no attention to this increasingly niche form of music for the other 52 weeks of the year. http://www.montrealjazzfest.com/default-en.aspx

We attended this choral/music festival in Llangollen, Wales many years ago and loved the whole experience. Seems it's now bigger than ever.
international-eisteddfod.co.uk/‎

The Newport Jazz festival in Rhode Island also comes to mind.

sounds like you'll have a wonderful adventure!

High Sierra Music Festival in Quincy, CA, 4th of July weekend. It's probably small potatoes compared to some of the others mentioned here, but people come from all over to attend. Robert Plant was the headliner this past summer.

I highly recommend CMA Music Festival in Nashville, it's in June, the 5-8 in 2014, it's chock full of concerts, meet n greets, fan club parties, it's one big party, and always a lot of fun! www.cmafest.com

Hello, I have two great ideas for you, it's Paredes de Coura, and Super Bock Super Rock both in Portugal. I advice this ones because they both have beautiful natural settings, SBSR with sesimbra zone and the meco beach and PdC with Peneda Geres national park, and a laid back feeling together with great music and rock bands. Super Bock Super Rock has bigger names while Paredes de Coura has more underground musicians mixed with big names of the industry but always, always with very good taste. I've been to both and their just really cool. And they're not as expensive as the rest of europe festivals but with the same quality of the lineup.