In April 2012, my husband and I are going to the French Quarter Festival in New Orleans and then to the Jazz Festival in San Jose (August). Based on these two events, we've decided that 2012 should be the Year of Live Music. 2011 is the Year of Beer (have gone to a few beer festivals already this year and will be going to Germany and Czech Republic next month on a beer pilgrimage trip) so we figured that 2012 should have a theme too. We are also considering a trip to Singapore in 2012 for a music festival that some friends of ours are involved with. We don't know if we will be able to swing that trip though. Depends on the timing, finances, etc.

So, with that in mind, I am looking for recommendations for other music festivals. We live in San Jose, CA, so festivals on the west coast will be easiest for us to get to, but we don't mind going farther to attend a festival, esspecially if there are other things of interest to see and do - we'd likely make long weekends out of the trips to attend the festivals and see the general area too.

We like pretty much every type of music except country. Our particular interests are rock, blues, jazz, r&b, reggae, and hip hop.

Thanks for any recommendations you have. And, while we are at it, if you know of any beer festivals in the 4th quarter of 2011 that are within striking distance of San Jose, let me know, in case we haven't had our fill by the time we get back from Europe

Does Classical Music interest you?

Yep - we like classical too, although opera doesn't really do it for us.

No opears; well, off the top of my head are:

Tanglewood in Lenox, MA (in the Berkshires). The Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home during July & August each summer. There are also non-classical concerts too, particularly a jazz weekend each summer.
http://www.bso.org/bso/index.jsp?id=bcat5240070

Aspen Music Festival
http://aspenmusicfestival.com/index...._plugin=0,10,0

Bard Music Festival
http://fishercenter.bard.edu/bmf/2011/

Ravinia Festival (summer home of Chicago Symphony Orchestra)
http://www.ravinia.org/

As for jazz, I don't know well but Montreal Jazz Festival comes to mind. there's also a Newport Jazz Festival (Newport, RI).

This NYTimes article from May listed all the major summer Classical music festivals in the US. You can get some ideas for 2012:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/ar...is-summer.html

Milwaukee's Summerfest (late June-early July) bills itself as the world's largest mustic festival.

south by southwest in Austin, March every year. Sxsw.org

Austin City Limits Music Festival late sept/early oct, depending on UT football schedule AclfestIval.org

Fabulous suggestions everybody. Thanks so much. I will look into them.

Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas hosts international acts, national championships for instrumental performance such as bluegrass banjo & old time fiddle, and well over 100 food, crafts and music venders. http://www.kansastravel.org/walnutvalleyfestival1.htm

A list of just some of the things going on in Oregon this fall.
http://www.guidetooregon.com/html/events-fall.html
There is lots of great beer brewed in central Oregon-mostly in Bend.

november_moon, I'm planning to go to the French Quarter Festival next year too! You probably already know this, but the granddaddy of New Orleans music festivals, and a considerably bigger event than FQF, is the Jazz and Heritage Festival, which happens shortly after the FQF: http://www.nojazzfest.com/

If you're looking for the biggies, I think you'd have to include the aforementioned Tanglewood and the Newport Jazz Festival. There's also the Newport Folk Festival, which is of some historical importance, widely known as the event where Bob Dylan was booed when he appeared with an electric band in 1965, supposedly offending the purists in the crowd who just wanted him to appear alone with his acoustic guitar.