Melody of summer: Pick your favorite festival!

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Europe

“Music is the medicine of the mind.”

The Strawberry Music Festival has spread its wings from Beijing to cities across China over the past decade, enticing generations of youngsters to flock to the country’s leading live music event and experience the raw exhilaration of a festival atmosphere.

Yes, when you put yourself amid a huge crowd of tents, surrounded by a warm summer breeze and like-minded young friends with a beer in hand — that’s the moment to let a piece of rock or folk music enter your ears and deliver feel-good vibes straight to your heart.

Here are our picks among the world’s best summer music festivals: from small, local gigs to week-long mega productions. Check it out!

Glastonbury: World’s largest outdoor festival

Photo via official website of The Glastonbury Festival

Glastonbury is a legendary outdoor music festival that attracts celebrities, punters and the world’s biggest bands to the mud of rural Britain every year.

More than a traditional music extravaganza, Glastonbury has evolved into a performance art festival: comedy and poetry compete with politicians and circus acts on the festival’s various stages, with musical superstars an ever-tuneful backdrop. And don’t forget your tent and boots, the festival takes place on a farm and is notorious for rain!

Glastonbury’s hundreds of thousands of festival-goers played a major part in a live music success story in Britain last year, with live music fans contributing four billion British pounds to the economy in 2016.

Glastonbury will take a gap year in 2018 to give the farm and locals a break, so a brand new BBC music festival is set to be held across the UK’s four nations in its place.

Rock the South: Learn to give back

Photo via official website of Rock the South

Rock the South is a relatively young music festival that celebrates Alabama’s recovery from a series of horrific tornadoes that ripped through the US state in 2011.

Mainly featuring southern music and culture of the US, the festival symbolizes what it means to give back — over 400,000 US dollars has been donated to local charities from the event’s proceeds, according to its official website.

Nathan Baugh and Shane Quick, co-runners of the festival, said ticket sales have grown more than 18 percent each year since the first Rock the South in 2012, and the two-day event has also become a major tourism driver for the city of Cullman.

Montreux Jazz Festival: ‘Rolls-Royce of music festivals’

Photo via official website of The Montreux Jazz Festival

Switzerland’s Montreux Jazz Festival celebrated its golden 50th anniversary last year. It has evolved from a strictly jazz-only collection back in the early days to pop, R&B and any music — with a little soul — nowadays.

Located on the eastern end of Lake Geneva, the half-century-old festival can literally be accessed by boat. Music lovers can truly connect with the artists and music on the lake, not to mention enjoy the splendid lakeside scenery along the way.

Bob Dylan showed up in 2012, while other legendary lead singers and songwriters have performed over the past years.

The legacy musical event has actually seen a successful fusion with modern technology – the Montreux Jazz Lab, an interactive platform, was launched to bring audiences a brand new audiovisual experience, along with other immersive and innovative devices.

Golden Plains Festival

Photo via official website of Golden Plains Festival

The biggest point of difference between the Golden Plains Festival and others is that it has no commercial ethos, sponsors or signage on the site — it is now established as one of the coolest music festivals in Australia.

This year, the festival in the rural town of Meredith has upgraded with a new sound system, campground, and more food options.

Fuji Rock Festival

Photo via official website of Fuji Rock Festival

Possibly the cleanest festival in the world, Japan’s Fuji Rock first took place at the base of Mount Fuji in 1997 and later relocated to Naeba ski resort.

It is said that after a midnight performance by Muse this year, thousands of fans departed without leaving a single piece of waste or cigarette butt – they queued for almost two hours to dispose of rubbish in different recycling bins later on.

Volunteers and locals gather every year at the Fuji Rock site to help festival attendees maintain and preserve the forest, where the toilet paper is made into recycled paper cups.

Istanbul Music Festival

Photo via official website of Istanbul Music Festival

Location has never been so important – this is the only festival that straddles the continents of Europe and Asia. The 2017 theme also seemed particularly pertinent to the city, Istanbul: “Unusual.”

Organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, over 600 major international artists and emerging Turkish talents were included in the event that took place at the end of May. Eight venues out of 15 were used for the first time this year.

Photo via Weibo

Live music in the world makes a massive contribution to global culture, breaking down barriers to advance diversity. And yes,

“Music is the universal language of mankind.”

What else do you expect? Take off your headphones, go outdoors and discover a new world of music – don’t just listen to music, absorb it!

Edited by John Goodrich