The 10 best electronic music festival locations on Earth!

This week we bring you 10 of the best festival locations where you can catch your favourite DJs going at it! Whether it be iconic cities, unbelievable scenery or historic surroundings, we bring you 10 hand-picked events on any festival head’s bucket-list.

 

Secret Garden Party, Huntingdon, UK   

We’ll start with the only entry on the list you can hit without a passport. Like a few of the fezzies on the list, the Secret Garden Party isn’t exclusively dance music but the likes of Max Cooper, Palace, Gorgon City, Maya Jane Coles and Morcheeba will be doing their thing Friday to Sunday.

Set on the grounds of a Georgian farm house, complete with its own lake, river and landscape gardens, Secret Garden Party is a typically British fusion of modesty, style, arts and music.

 

Ultra, Miami, USA           

Ultra Music Festival is a catch-all event for molly-poppin’ yanks in Tony Montana’s own cosmopolitan back yard. As well as boasting the oxymoronical claim of ‘best’ DJs in EDM, this year’s Ultra featured a host of jaw-swinging names at the top of the house and tech game like Luciano, Loco Dice, Marco Carola, Jamie Jones and Cajmere.

What makes the location so special is its setting at the heart of one of the most vibrant cities in the Western world. Surrounded by skyscrapers and with a multi-million dollar setup, on paper this is an incredible experience, if you can handle the crowds that have flocked to see the likes of David Guetta and Tiesto.

 

Snowbombing, Mayrhofen, Austria        

Thousands of lucky buggers have sacrificed the tropical heat of places like Florida and, erm, Cambridgeshire, in favour of a weekend of skiing and debauchery in the Alps. This very night sees it all kick off proper with acts like Four Tet, Joris Voorn, James Zabiela and Midland playing in a breathtaking landscape, on snow-covered mountains.

Truly unique and in many ways the antithesis of the traditional festival experience, Snowbombing is a must-do for those who like to mix alpine sports with hardcore raving.

 

Sasquatch, George, Washington, USA   

Back to the states now as we take a look at Sasquatch Festival. As the name suggests, this three-day event at the Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington State is a huge, sweating, fucker of a festival thanks to the backdrop that the sounds of Aluna George, Boyz Noize, Classixx and Rudimental will be filling in May.

 

Dekmantel, Amsterdam, the Netherlands           

Another festival location on the list largely due to the city that hosts it is Dekmantel. Set amongst the woods of Amsterdam’s huge country park, Amsterdamse Bos, Dekmantel offers everything you’d usually expect from one of the most frequented tourist destinations in Europe, i.e. history and hedonism, as well as more quality dance acts than you could shake a pancake at. Highlights include DJ Koze, John Talabot, Levon Vincent and Marcell Dettmann.

 

Melt!, Ferropolis, Germany        

Ferropolis literally means the ‘City of Iron’ and if you’re into super-massive machinery and post-apocalyptic islands in the heartland of industrial Germany, then this is the one for you.

Set on the site of an old mine-turned-open-air-industrial-museum, Melt! features the finest German-based DJs around plus the best of the rest. Like the machines that dominate the skyline, the lineup is massive. Set to play at Melt! are Breach, Ellen Allien, Seth Troxler, Bauuer and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

 

BPM, Playa del Carmen, Mexico             

South of the border in Mexico, BPM has had its controversies this year but there is no doubting the scale of the show those guys put on. Everyone loves a beach festival, everyone loves Mexico, everyone loves huge names in the world of dance like pretty much everyone involved at Hot Creations and ViVa Music, not to mention Heidi, Scuba, Russ Yallop… there’s hundreds of ‘em!

Beautiful weather, beautiful scenery, beautiful people, BPM is the jewel of the Americas.

 

EXIT, Petrovaradin Fortress, Serbia         

EXIT was set up to promote the ideas of peace, love and unity after the former Yugoslav countries went their separate ways and it’s done it style over the last decade and a half with a reputation as one of Europe’s biggest festivals.

The Petrovaradin Fortress is a 17th century relic on the banks of the river Danube, it features a network of underground tunnels and catacombs that host intimate stages and arenas as well as the infamous Dance Arena, set deep in the dry moat that surrounds the Serbian castle.

This year will see a host of b2b sets from some of the biggest names in house and tech, including Dusky vs. Paul Woolford, Eats Everything vs. Cassy and Maceo Plex vs. Danny Daze.

 

Sonar, Barcelona, Spain        

The last festival to be listed by virtue of it being one of our favourite cities is Sonar. Sonar to us is a must-do festival for three distinct reasons. The first sees the festival kick off with Sonar by Night. The night time schedule is crazy because of the size of the stages and arenas, and the fact that said stages and arenas are indoors! Held at the biggest indoor conference centre in Europe, Sonar is unparalleled not only in the venue but also in their superb lighting and visual displays.

The second reason is Sonar by Day. In the light of the day, Sonar takes over parts of one of the most beautiful, artistic and trippy cities in the world, with open-air DJ sets and a whole host of extra artistic endeavours. The final reason is Sonar Off. Sonar Off is a shitload of semi-unofficial raves and parties at clubs and venues around the Catalan capital and often features better lineups than the festival proper.

Acts at this year’s Sonar include 2manyDJS, Todd Terje, Ralph Lawson and Koreless.

 

Iceland Airwaves, Reykjavik, Iceland       

In terms of setting, Iceland Airwaves blows the rest out the park. Iceland is one of the most surreal landscapes on earth, a mix of mountains, ice, volcanoes, geysers and hot springs; and that’s just the festival. Featuring stages where ravers are literally crowded chest-high in ice-blue, hot springs, and where the sun doesn’t set for days, Iceland Airwaves is easily the most impressive location for anything, ever. Dance acts are few and far between at the festival but there are some local DJs among the performers. Árni² is there to drop some chilled techno, Introbeats delivers a carefully curated selection of soulful house, and there’s some breakbeat courtesy of Futuregrapher.