foreign festivals 2012

handsomecake

want to organise a trip to a foreign festival for 2012 with some friends.
with oxegen cancelled ,it will firm up their decisions.

the three i have my eye on at the moment are coachella in usa,rock werchter and benicassim.

any other reccomendations/advice on foreign festivals or past experiences posters would like to share.

leakyboots

Depends on what music you're into.

If you like Oxegen you'll probably like Rock Werchter or Benicassim. Beni shades RW because of the location but you'll spend a bomb before even getting there. RW had the better lineup of the two the year I went to both and is much better run.

Sziget in Hungary is on for 11 days and is a serious marathon of a festival but wouldn't have the 'big name' lineups of the other two. Well worth a look though

Been to a few others on the continent but they wouldn't be an 'Oxegen' style festival by any means - the better festivals are the smaller to midsize ones if you ask me or ones with less 'mainstream' music (that probably comes across snobbish but there you go)

As others said, it's only when you go abroad to festivals you realise how s**t Irish ones are

Mickolution

I'm liking the look of Optimas Alive in Portugal this year. Not many details announced yet, but Radiohead and The Stone Roses for around €100 isn't a bad start.

melekalikimaka

i work the uk circuit and reccommend

big chill
latitude
leeds
download
reading

big chill is basically a chilled out oxegen, beautiful location, reasonable priced booze and great line up

starviewadams

Sziget is great craic!

Miguel_Sanchez

Primavera in Barcelona - May 2012.

Furious-Red

Rock Im Park is great if you are into more of hard rock/metal music but also sometimes have other acts like Jay-Z on the Line Up

Pukkelpop is kinda a bit of everything

They are the 2 festivals i have been at , so hopefully going to Isle Of Wight next year or Sonisphere

Mushy

Furious Red, whats the best/cheapest way to Rock im Park? Im thinking train from London to Nuremburg as. I prefer trains, but a decent flight route may tempt me.

O'Doodle

Lollapalooza in Chicago looks amazing, not camping though

Furious-Red

Mushy wrote: »

Furious Red, whats the best/cheapest way to Rock im Park? Im thinking train from London to Nuremburg as. I prefer trains, but a decent flight route may tempt me.

Hmmmmm i cant remember totally . Think we fly Dub-Frankfurt (Main Airport) for about €100(ish) with Aer Lingus . From then we got the train straight to Nuremburg . The only thing is i would book you train tickets before you get there since they will be a good bit cheaper(we learned the hard way)

Patsy_13

Tomorrowland in belgium where am heading now!

Toast

US festivals have a completely different culture to over here. Check in advance but many of them (including several big named ones) will not allow drink be brought into the campsite and have specific drinking areas within the arena. They are also obviously ridiculously strict on age checks and you can be arrested if you are seen giving drink to anyone under the drinking age of the state. Not a concern for everyone but if you are thinking it will be anything similar to Oxegen it is something to be aware of.

The obvious option would be T in the Park if you want an Oxegen like experience considering it is the sister festival however I have never actually made it over so can't comment. From what I hear though it has a similar atmosphere.

From what I've been to I'd recommend Roskilde, especially over Rock Werchter. Line up is usually better with a lot of cross over. It is more expensive but in terms of atmosphere Roskilde is far far better.

Sziget was a bit disappointing for me lineup wise when I went in '09. It's not really as cheap as people made it sound either. Expect to pay the same for food as you would in Ireland. Beers are way cheaper but they don't officially allow drink brought into the campsite. It seemed to be absolutely kicking atmosphere wise if you were young or single though (I was neither).

Reading and Leeds are similar atmosphere wise to Oxegen but still will have a bit of a metal / rock crowd. Perfect if thats your thing but if not you'll feel a bit out of place. May have changed a bit in the 7 years since I've been there though.

Primavera is the most far removed festival from Oxegen that I can think of. I recommend it completely in all other regards but not as an Oxegen replacement. There is no onsite camping and the lineup is heavily made up of upcoming or old indie bands.

Furious-Red

Toast wrote: »

US festivals have a completely different culture to over here. Check in advance but many of them (including several big named ones) will not allow drink be brought into the campsite and have specific drinking areas within the arena. They are also obviously ridiculously strict on age checks and you can be arrested if you are seen giving drink to anyone under the drinking age of the state. Not a concern for everyone but if you are thinking it will be anything similar to Oxegen it is something to be aware of.

The obvious option would be T in the Park if you want an Oxegen like experience considering it is the sister festival however I have never actually made it over so can't comment. From what I hear though it has a similar atmosphere.

From what I've been to I'd recommend Roskilde, especially over Rock Werchter. Line up is usually better with a lot of cross over. It is more expensive but in terms of atmosphere Roskilde is far far better.

Sziget was a bit disappointing for me lineup wise when I went in '09. It's not really as cheap as people made it sound either. Expect to pay the same for food as you would in Ireland. Beers are way cheaper but they don't officially allow drink brought into the campsite. It seemed to be absolutely kicking atmosphere wise if you were young or single though (I was neither).

Reading and Leeds are similar atmosphere wise to Oxegen but still will have a bit of a metal / rock crowd. Perfect if thats your thing but if not you'll feel a bit out of place. May have changed a bit in the 7 years since I've been there though.

Primavera is the most far removed festival from Oxegen that I can think of. I recommend it completely in all other regards but not as an Oxegen replacement. There is no onsite camping and the lineup is heavily made up of upcoming or old indie bands.

My sister went to TITP this year and said it was very like Oxegen crowd wise mostly younger people etc and didnt really feel that safe . She said she wouldnt go back

Mrcher

I'd defo recommend Sziget! Being in Budapest, it's the best combination of festival and vacation you can get! If you come there a few days earlier, you can do some sightseeing and explore the vibrant nightlife with the great underground ruin bars. And after a festival nothing beats relaxing in one of Budapest's spas!

As a festival it's a combination of big and boutique. There's always an eclectic bill with more than 1,000 performances on about 60 venues. The line-up seems to be getting better year after year (I've been there the last 5 editions). Besides music there's much more to do: theatre, arts, circus acts, sports, workshops, bungeejumping, drinking beer in a bar on a crane, many bars to dance the night away, etc. But what I also love is the friendly and joyous athmosphere created by visitors coming from all over Europe and the freedom of camping wherever you want on the festival site. Even though I've been there five times, it doesn't get boring at all!

First name announced for 2012 is The Stone Roses. Last summer Prince, The Prodigy, Pulp and Chemical Brothers headlined the Main Stage and other acts included Interpol, Kasabian, Flogging Molly, Gogol Bordello, The Maccabees, La Roux, Dizzee Rascal, British Sea Power, Hadouken!, The National, White Lies and Manic Street Preachers. The World Music Stage featured o.a. Oi Va Voi, Gotan Project, Ojos de Brujo, Goran Bregovic and Cowboy Junkies. Metal Stage featured Mötörhead, Judas Priest, Deftones, Lostprophets and Sonata Arctica, while the Party Arena hosted a.o. Empire Of The Sun, Kid Cudi, Richie Hawtin, 2manydj's, Trentemøller, Dubfire, Zombie Nation, Above & Beyond and Steve Angello. And on other stages you could see Hurts, Bloody Beetroots Death Crew 77, Crystal Castles, Hudson Mohawke, Peter Bjorn and John, Kode9, The Gaslamp Killer, Digital Mystikz, Marina and the Diamonds, Buraka Som Sistema, Baskerville and Selah Sue. Then there's also a reggae stage, a blues stage, an underground dance stage, a Hungarian stage, an ambient stage, a gipsy stage and a stage with talented bands from all over Europe.

Furious-Red

Really also hoping to hit up Grozerock next year

Bowlardo

Tomorrowland is in a place called BOOM...you could not make that up

I really like the look of Optimus Alive. What's Lisbon like?

LH Pathe

Bowlardo wrote: »

Tomorrowland is in a place called BOOM...you could not make that up

no, but I could make up the device that could cause it to go BOOM

lordgoat

Deleted User wrote: »

I really like the look of Optimus Alive. What's Lisbon like?

they've added an extra day to it as well, when originally announced with Primavera it was only 3 days. Not sure if all days will be full days, i think some will be shorter like normal primavera.

Also love how they called it Optimus Prima, hilarious.

Tickets are E75 and go up to E85 on the 1st of Jan. Def worth considering, i've been to regular prima and i love it, had i know it was going to clash with Forbidden fruit i could have bailed to Lisbon instead...

Toast

lordgoat wrote: »

Def worth considering, i've been to regular prima and i love it, had i know it was going to clash with Forbidden fruit i could have bailed to Lisbon instead...

You've got two different festivals mixed up. Optimus is a Portuguese mobile phone operator so they are sponsoring two festivals. Optimus Alive and Optimus Primavera Sound. Optimus Alive is in Lisbon while Optimus Prima is in Porto.

Mickolution

That's the Porto one I think. Optimus Alive is different. Probably linked, considering the name.

lordgoat

Toast wrote: »

You've got two different festivals mixed up. Optimus is a Portuguese mobile phone operator so they are sponsoring two festivals. Optimus Alive and Optimus Primavera Sound. Optimus Alive is in Lisbon while Optimus Prima is in Porto.

Mickolution wrote: »

That's the Porto one I think. Optimus Alive is different. Probably linked, considering the name.

Thanks lads!

I'd always hoped that Optimus Primavera was a Primavera Sound co-op festival and they picked the name because of transformers... This makes more sense but makes me less happy!


Optmius primavera one for me has the best line up still.

Cheers for the info though.

fergpie

Deleted User wrote: »

I really like the look of Optimus Alive. What's Lisbon like?

I was at it last year. Its definitely worth a visit. Amazing weather, cheap booze and it always has a good line up. Will probably go again this year.

df1985

ive done T in the Park, its oxegen with scottish people.never felt unsafe but heard of incidents at it, had a great time though.

Did creamfields last year if youre into dance. amazing, expected total knack fest but it was grand.

Tomorrowland 2012 for me....(seems to be a lot of people talking about it this year)

Merku

If you want a different experience, you can try Les Vieilles Charrues in Britanny (France).

They only release the line up very late so dunno who will be there this year. It will be on the 19th-22th July week end.

Last year they had Scorpions, Lou Reed, Cypress Hill, David Guetta, SnoopDog, Supertramp, PJ Harvey, Chemical Brothers, Kaiser Chief, Jack Johnson, Pulp and more.

Its not a commercial festival (organised by a non profit organisation) so tickets are 100quid for the 3 days. Dont think you can get better value anywhere else.

Now, i havent been to it in almost 10years (You get married and suddenly, you are not allowed to go away to festival anymore ) so things may have changed a good bit since but it was a really cool festival to go.

Used to be 3 stages: a main one for all the big acts, a smaller one for less known acts, these 2 would play alternatively so you dont miss anyone. And then, there was a smaller stage for new acts, most would be winners of a battle of the bands.
Then youd have theatre and comedy acts, a food quarter where you could get gorgeous but also a large variety of food at a decent price (Nothing like you 10euros Oxegen plastic burger...)
Used to be family orientated in a way, you could see parents with their kids but also the 90yo granny from the village next door. Ive never seen a fight at it.
Its right in the middle of Britanny, literally in the arsehole of nowhere but thats what makes its charm

Maybe it has changed and is not as friendly as it used to be but value for money, you wont get much better.