No doubt about it, rock fests are distinctively part of summer. A good festival can be a highlight of any music lover's whole year. When you put together a group of friends, a group of bands, and a bit of outdoor atmosphere, a pungent palette of odors, and present it all over the course of a day, a weekend, or even longer, and you've got the makings of a great event.
There are several websites devoted to these festivals. Check out Melodytrip or Spacelab to find out about festivals near or not so near you
Of course, rock fests are just one kind of music fest. Jazz, indie, alternative, hard rock - they will all have at least one festival this year. As I write this, the New Orleans Jazz Festival is in the middle of its second and final weekend for this year. John Mayer and John Legend were among the acts performing tonight. Tomorrow Joss Stone and Harry Conick, Jr. will be part of the last day, and guaranteed you'll here some great zydeco.
You may have already made your plans of one or more of the festivals for this summer. Good on you if you have. If I had my choice of one fest to go to this summer, it would be this one http://www.rockwerchter.be/RW2007/fase2/live.asp. Rock Werchter is June 28-July 1 in the town of Werchter, Belgium. Would this not make a great week? Hop on a flight to Brussels, drive out to Werchter, spend 4 days listening to Lilly Allen, Arctic Monkeys, Beastie Boys, Cold War Kids, Pearl Jam, Marilyn Manson, and two of my very favorites, My Chemical Romance and The Killers. They're all part of 60 acts total that will be there. Then, head back to the States and enjoy the rest of your Independence Day activities. While still munching on Belgian chocolates you brought back among your souvenir's. That's a week you wouldn't soon forget.
Another big fest held outside the States is the Glastonbury festival in England. It bills itself as "the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world". I'm not sure if that's true or not, but some evidence that it's a pretty big time festival could include some daytime fun from the Dandy Warhols:
And some nighttime mellow from Mr. Paltrow and Coldplay
(Of course, if you can't get to Great Britain, there are alternatives:
Here's the Arctic Monkeys at Rock Werchter last year:
Looks like it's gonna be another good summer of music!
