Music Festival B.C.

Celebrating their 10th anniversary this year, Global Gathering has become one of the most anticipated annual events in international electronic dance music around the world. It is held at Long Marston Airfield in Warwickshire, England near Stratford Upon Avon (about 2-2.5 hours away from both Manchester and London, about 1 hour from Birmingham).

Attendance tips 50,000 at this annual collaboration of about 150 DJs and performers throughout the electronic dance music industry with 16 different stages and tents. People travel from around the world to attend the two-day festival with tickets that run at about £132 ($198) for general admission for the weekend up to £192 ($289) for VIP. Included in the price is access to the camping grounds, where most festival goers stay the night in either tents or campers. If you’re like me and can’t get over to the festival, you can get some free music downloads as well as live broadcasts of the event and use your imagination.

This year Global Gathering will be featuring The Do Lab in the VIP area. The Do Lab creates an artistic environment for festivals and has been seen at such events as Coachella in California.

Past artists and artists that will be returning again include Carl Cox, Armin van Buuren, Paul Oakenfold, John Digweed, Markus Schulz, Sander Kleinenberg, Above & Beyond, Steve Angello, and so many more superstars it’s almost insane. If only I lived in England… I would be of the first people to buy the tickets to Global Gathering once they were released. (sigh).

Harmony Festival

For 32 years Santa Rosa, California has hosted the Harmony Festival in the early days of June. It’s a peaceful gathering of musicians, artists, exhibitors, and orators who try to bring a community of people together to share their passion. It is an environmental festival that demonstrates sustainability and eco-friendly lifestyles. Think Woodstock, freedom, peace, love for earth, free music and expression.

Founder Debra Giusti explains the concept and core of the festival:

The Harmony Festival was birthed in 1978, from the passionate core values of the 60’s movement, which had touched every soul in America during that time. From the youth there was a cry, a protest, and celebration that there needed to be an evolution in our culture in how we treated ourselves, our brothers and our planet.

Interesting that today there is that same cry. Did we just go in one large circle on the wheel of time?

This year’s event, which just past, featured Lauryn Hill, Slightly Stoopid, Zappa Plays Zappa, Steel Pulse, Galactic, 7 Walkers featuring Bill Kreutzmann (of the Grateful Dead), Fishbone, and lots more. Past performers have included Eyrkah Badu, The Roots, Common, Brian Wilson, Rickie Lee Jones, The Roots, Cake, Michael Franti & Sperhead, Ozomatli, Bob Weir & Radog, War, and George Clinton & P-Funk to name a few.

It has grown over the last three decades to draw crowds of about 30,000 over the three days of the event. You can buy tickets for single days or for the entire festival. A single day’s ticket is $40 and the weekend ticket runs at $119.

Last year, Made Event debuted a new festival in New York City, and received an extremely positive result. What more could you want out of a festival than plenty of stages, awesome sound and lighting, great crowds, an impressive international lineup, all while looking out at the Manhattan skyline. It doesn’t get much better than that! Last year’s lineup included artists such as Armin van Buuren, Benny Benassi, Danny Tenaglia, David Guetta, Kaskade, Roger Sanchez, Steve Angello, and Deadmau5. Not impressed yet? Check out this years’s lineup on the Electric Zoo website. Don’t know these phenomenal artists? Get your silly self to a music download site stat.

New York has been waiting for too long for a real dance festival to bless its turf, and Electric Zoo is just that. Taking place over two days during Labor Day Weekend, there really is no better way to send off the summer months and welcome autumn. Tickets for both days are $122 (plus a service fee) but you can also spend more money (a lot more) to get VIP and ensure parking. For me, GA is all I need. You can park anywhere and catch the water taxi over to the festival, which is held in the historic Randall’s Island Park in between Queens and Manhattan.

In 2009 the festival had a combined attendance of 26,000 over the two days, however, for 2010 they’re expecting a much larger turnout as word about the festival has been spoken around the country. I have heard people as far away as Miami talking about going this September. It seems that New York has finally gotten its electronic dance music festival it’s been asking for. If this genre isn’t your cup of tea, there will be open air tents for other types of artists as well, but I’m not sure if you’d want to pay the cost of admission for one or two tents.

Hope to see all you crazy dance fiends out at Randall’s Park this year!

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, also known simply as Coachella, takes place annually in Indio, California. The first festival took place in 1999, shortly after the disastrous Woodstock ‘99 in Upstate New York. Besides 2000, the festival has taken place every year and has grown in attendance and popularity. Rock bands such as the popular Jane’s Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beastie Boys, Nine Inch Nails, Coldplay, and many more are of the like to be performing at Coachella. In 2006 the festival was even able to draw Madonna to the stage, and in 2008, Prince. Even more impressive and continuing to grow, in 2009, was even blessed by the legendary Paul McCartney, The Cure, The Killers, and more. Check out more of the information for 2010 and onward on their really cool website: Coachella.

The festival took place this year and included an even further extension of genres to include hip-hop artist Jay-Z, and electronic music master Tiesto, along with many other amazing performers. There are so many artists from so many genres, there are loads of music downloads for free online of live performances of artists during the festival. It is sure to continue to grow each year with more and more artists wanting to participate. In 2007, the crowd drew a record of 180,000 people over the three days. In 2009 it drew 160,000 over three days.

As it is a music and arts festival there are some demonstrations and sculptures set up by artists throughout the festival grounds. It is also a camping festival, where there is designated areas to set up tents, campers, vans, etc. for all those dedicated fans who want to stay for the entire 3 days. It is definitely on my list of must-go-to festivals. I’d love to hear about it from someone who has gone, so if you have please don’t hesitate to comment!

Ultra Music Festival (UMF) held every year in Miami, FL might be the largest festival, at least the largest electronic music festival, in the United States. The uber fun dance music event started in 1999 and has since then grown to host crowds of 80,000 over two days. It is rumoured that next year (2011) UMF will span over three full days of pumping beats and internationally acclaimed DJs and artists. After moving location from South Beach (1999 & 2000) to Bayfront Park (2001-2005), it should be able to stay in the larger Bicentennial Park in downtown Miami.

It is an amazing showcase of international talent in the electronic music industry that is hard to come by in the US. Not only does Miami get to host the UMF every early spring (typically right around Easter weekend), but it’s also part of the annual Winter Music Conference (WMF) which is a week long string of events that practically takes over South Beach and Miami with DJs, live artists, venue events, etc. People fly in from all over the world for this week. Hotels and apartments are sold out months in advance. Parties are going on from morning through the night; pool parties at the famous South Beach hotels during the days, and unbelievable parties at some of America’s most popular nightclubs at night (e.g., Club Space, Cameo, Mansion, and many more). If you are into electronic and dance music it is a must-attend festival as well as week.

I will say one thing that I am not a fan of, however. I tend to like a more mature crowd for a festival. I know festivals tend to gather younger crews and all, but it seems as the years go on, UMF gets younger and more inebriated. If you can look past this one big blemish, or perhaps if it’s your bag, then UMF would be the best party you ever went to. Go online and get yourself some music downloads of live sets from the festival and see what I’m talking about. It’s mayhem.

Since it’s a raging success in Miami, UMF has tested the waters in other cities including it’s first appearance in NYC for ULTRA NY in 2005 which took place in Central Park. It has also ventured to UMF Brasil, UMF Puerto Rico, and UMF Ibiza to be hosted by Space Ibiza in 2010. So much information on all their parties and a little bit of a clue into the insanity, you should check out their very cool website, and then buy tickets for the next event! No but really if it sounds cool check it out: Ultra Music Fest.

It was hard to find a good quality video to show you, since most of them are from attendees’ own personal not-professional-quality cameras. However, I did find two cool ones with Benny Benassi and Carl Cox spinning at this year’s UMF. Doesn’t it look like fun?!

Now I bet you’re going to the website to check out some more info. Hope to see you there next year.

The infamous Creamfields Festival began in 1998 in Winchester, England but was moved the following year to Liverpool where it stayed until 2006 when it moved to Daresbury. Creamfields has become an iconic music event over the last decade that drives people to travel from all over the world to attend.

The biggest names in electronic music around the world, especially from the UK fill up the stages over the weekend-long festival. Names like Deadmau5, David Guetta, Armin van Buuren, Ferry Corsten, Tiesto, Paul van Dyk, Sasha, Judge Jules, and a plethora of the biggest names in the industry are commonplace at this weekend of amazing electronic musical ingenuity. Some of my all time favorite free music downloads came from live sets broadcasted on British radio during past festivals.

Ticket prices do tend to be pretty high for Creamfields, with a weekend camper ticket for both days reaching around 100 British pounds, or 185 pounds for access to more areas throughout the campgrounds. Of course, if you cannot attend the festival, you can listen to the events live streaming from different online sites or live radio broadcasts on BBC. You can look at all the event info including dates, lineup, prices, etc. on their cool website here: Creamfields. I found a cool promo video from their 10th anniversary in 2008:

Creamfields has spread into other countries now as well, giving the festival lover a better chance at attending the mayhem. Recently it has debuted in Australia for the first time with shows in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth. Although smaller than the UK version, it was considered a success and one that will be repeated.

The other international locations that Creamfields ventures to? Check out this list! Currently there are Creamfields festivals in Andalucia, Abu Dhabi, Australia, Chile, Brazil, Ukraine, Buenos Aires, Central Europe, Loule, and Malta! That’s massive! I would love to hear about these first hand from someone who’s been to one of these destination festivals. If you or anyone you know has been, please post comments and inform me! Meanwhile I’ll be sulking in envy.

The original Love Parade took place back in 1989 in Berlin, Germany with a menial crowd of about 150. However, since then it has grown to be possibly the longest running, highest attendance holding music festival in history. The parade festival stayed exclusively in Berlin until 2000 when BBC Radio One held a simultaneous parade in Leeds in the United Kingdom. That year crowds were approximately 1.3 million strong in Berlin; 300,000 in Leeds. The largest attendance recorded in the Berlin parade’s history was in 1999 with about 1.5 million people. However, as other cities picked up the trend, in 2008 the recorded attendance was 1.6 million in the city of Dortmund in Germany’s west.

Several cities around the world have had their own version of the Love Parade, even if other cities were hosting one that same year. In 2008 there were four recorded Love Parades: Dortmund, San Francisco, Caracas, and Rotterdam.

Although Berlin has not seen its own creation since 2006, it has been announced that there will be a demonstration on July 17th this year. There are rumors that the event will highlight acts like Tiesto and David Guetta.

Love Parade is unique and separate from other music festivals around the world. Foremost, it’s free music; perhaps the main reason it draws crowds the way it does. Secondly, it started as a demonstration back in 1989 as Europe was changing shape. Especially for Germany, where the Berlin Wall demolition occurred four months after the very 1st Love Parade. It was a demonstration of peace and expression through music that showed people from all over the world can come together.

Hopefully Love Parade continues to march on in many international cities including its original host Berlin. It is a unique experience for all who attend and demonstration of a unity of mass proportions.