Music festivals

Your guide to this year's music festivals. Get tickets and information for festivals across the UK

Music festivals in London
Head-to-head
Our music festivals calendar
King of the swingers
Worldwide music festival guide

Music festivals in London

Forget camping, some of 2014's top festivals take place here in the capital
Head-to-head

This year's biggest headliners face off – who'll come up trumps?
Our music festivals calendar

Check out our month-by-month guide to this summer's music festivals
King of the swingers

As Arctic Monkeys kickstart the festival summer,we catch up with frontman Alex Turner
Worldwide music festival guide

Plan your musical odyssey with Time Out's global guide to music festivals

Music festival competitions

See more music festival tickets See more music festival competitions

Check out our music festival calendar

Find a music festival by genre

Folk festivals

See all music festivals taking place this summer

Ten red-hot festivals taking place this summer

Wireless

After a slightly shaky start last year at its new home in the Olympic Park, Wireless is back in Stratford with an eyepopping line-up of hip hop and R&B; royalty. Kanye! Drake! Pharrell! Outkast!

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
Until Sun Jul 6

Buy tickets

Still one of the finest boutique efforts in London, catering for cool kids and party monsters, Lovebox is back for 2014. Although it's slimmed down from three to two days as part of a 'new vision' led by the creators of Secret Garden Party, it should still be one of the highlights of the London summer. Expect the best of UK bass, the freshest underground DJs, partytastic electronic live acts, upfront rappers, camp pop divas and some of the best names the London nightlife scene

Victoria Park Victoria Park Rd, E3 5SN
Sat Jul 19

Buy tickets

Latitude

There are many reasons why Latitude is among the most successful of the recently launched festivals. It's in its ninth year now, and regulars keep returning for its fairytale setting of forest, lake and meadow, its generally adventurous pop and alt rock line-up (including Bangor indie pop band TDCC playing their first ever festival headline slot), its laid-back, family-friendly atmosphere and its choice of arts that takes in comedy, poetry and theatre as well as a literary salon.

Henham Park Southwold, Suffolk, NR34 8AN
Sun Jul 20

Buy tickets

Secret Garden Party

Woodland fairytale-meets-hippy hedonism-meets-boutique chic-meets-forest rave: Secret Garden Party has a lot going on and pulls it off rather spectacularly. There's plenty of wide-ranging music to be heard, with various party-starting bands and hip DJs playing in treehouses and on islands, but (as with Glasto) the point of SGP is the galaxies of fun to be had elsewhere around the vast site. Workshops, theatre, installations and 'action camps' (thankfully nothing like boot camps

Grange Farm Abbots Ripton, near Huntingdon, PE28 2PH
Sun Jul 27

Buy tickets

Wilderness

Wilderness is a festival that champions all the arts, from outdoor theatre courtesy of Shakespeare's Globe to talks and debates, horse riding, a lakeside spa and even 'long table' banquets with leading chefs. The music line-up's pretty cool too: headliners are legendary ivory-tinkler and songwriter Burt Bacharach, downbeat pop trio London Grammar and wonky electronicists Metronomy.

Cornbury Park Charlbury, OX7 3EH
Thu Aug 7 - Sun Aug 10

Buy tickets

Jabberwocky

ATP, Pitchfork and Primavera Sound have joined forces to put on Jabberwocky, a new two-day festival with a stellar line-up that could well be one of the highlights of the London summer. So far the bill includes a headline set by indie rock royalty Neutral Milk Hotel, alongside top-drawer electronic music from James Blake, Caribou, Vatican Shadow, Kode9, Darkside and I Break Horses.

ExCeL Centre 1 Western Gateway, Royal Victoria Dock, E16 1XL
Fri Aug 15 - Sat Aug 16

Buy tickets

Green Man

Green Man wins our unofficial prize for best festival setting: it's in the beautiful parkland setting of the Black Mountains (not usually open to the public), nestled in the resplendent Brecon Beacons. The beauteous, chlorophyllic location underlines the festival's staunchly eco-friendly ethos, and the predominately folkie bill befits the vibe. Still, there's no purism here, with plugged-in bands and electro DJs playing alongside earthy, autoharp-wielding balladeers.

Glanusk Park Crickhowell, NP8 1LP
Thu Aug 14 - Mon Aug 18

Buy tickets

Reading Festival

This long-lived festival fave, which takes place in both Reading and Leeds over the August bank holiday, remains one of the most popular and music-focused rock festivals in the country. Lacking any of the more cutesy elements of modern fests (gourmet cuisine, immersive theatre experiences etc), rawk is always the order of the day – though the festival's dance tents have blossomed in recent years. Reading 2014 packs an enormous line-up – including a headline slot by pop-punk

Richfield Avenue, Reading
Fri Aug 22 - Sun Aug 24

Buy tickets

Bestival

The festival with the best party vibe this side of Glastonbury returns for four glorious days of live music and premier-league DJs. Making the most of Bestival's location on the Isle of Wight, this year's theme is 'Desert Island Disco' – which, from what we can tell, means Club Tropicana all weekend long (but without the free drinks).

Robin Hill Country Park
Thu Sep 4 - Sun Sep 7

Buy tickets

Festival No 6

This Welsh festival held at an incredible Mediterranean-style seaside resort of Portmeirion returns for its third outing, having quickly established itself as one of the top dogs as far as alternative festys go. As well as some top live acts there's a big focus on arts, poetry, spoken word, readings and other cultural tidbits at this blissful escape from reality.