46 festivals happening in June 2016

1) Chicago Comedy Festival
June 1-5
Chicago
Price: various
Full title, splendidly: The 3rd Annual 26th Annual Comedy Festival, and starring contemporary American humour royalty: Tracy Morgan, Reggie Watts and headlined by the magisterial Sarah Silverman.
www.26comedy.com

2) Primavera Sound
June 1-5
Barcelona, Spain
Price: €80 day tickets
Arguably the first of the fests on the continent to properly capture the imagination of UK punters previously unaware that there might be something worth attending beyond our festival-saturated shores. Always astutely programmed, a coastal setting with some stages on the beach, all-but guaranteed sunshine, and only a short hop from Bedminster International – what’s not to consider? Among a bill as big on adroitly selected leftfield acts as it is properly big names come Radiohead, LCD Soundsystem, PJ Harvey, Tame Impala, Sigur Ros, The Last Shadow Puppets and Brian Wilson performing Pet Sounds.
www.primaverasound.es  

3) X Music Festival
June 3-4
Cardiff
Price: £59 w/e
The quickly established X Music Festival is without a doubt the largest outdoor music event in Wales. After an incredible start to life in 2015, the festival will return to Bute Park this year with a big bunch of world-class dance and urban acts. Bristol raised Redlight and local gem Eats Everything will be joining the star-studded bill and headliners include: Annie Mac, Craig David, Andy C, Shy FX, Hannah Wants, Flume & Stomzy.
www.xmusicfestival.com

4) Colourfest
June 2-5
Shaftesbury Estate, Dorset
Price: £145 w/e
Chock full of people who should know better sporting ‘ethnic’ headdresses, would-be profound seminars labouring under such fundamentally meaningless titles as ‘Meetings in Stillness are Meetings in Truth’, workshops on, among other things, ‘Connecting to the elemental Archetypes of the Celtic Goddess’ and, all things considered, quite possibly the greatest aggregation of self-righteous humourlessness since the halcyon days of Mary Whitehouse’s National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association. That’s one take, anyway. Another is that of the organisers: “A creative upbeat event that explores the depths of life through intelligent movement, yoga, performance, devotional sounds… [it] promises to be playful, deep and insightful. From where does the soul wish to drink?” You pays yer money, folks…
www.colourfest.co.uk 

5) Temples Festival
June 2-5
Bristol
Price: £116 w/e
For all of its reputation as a bass-centric city, there’s no more enthusiastically or loyally backed scene in Bristol than local metal. The success of Temples should tell you as much, overrunning Motion for a third year and set to debut a third stage. Some properly interesting acts feature in a heavy rocking bill comprising the likes of Carcass, Melvins, Chaos UK, Groundhogs, Implore, Inter Arma, Iron Reagan, Meek Is Murder, MGLA, ((Ohhms)), Pissgrave and Vision of Disorder.
www.templesfestival.co.uk 

6) Let’s Rock Bristol
June 3-5
Bristol
Price: £110 w/e (£85 in the likely event you’re not planning on camping)
‘Rock’ is something of a misnomer here. Rather, you’re looking at in-the-flesh performances from the acts playlisted at those dismal club nights encouraging infantile school uniform-based dress code. The line-up is, to put it mildly, variable. So, on the one hand, the perfectly fine likes of Holly Johnson, the Selecter, Jimmy Somerville, Paul Young, Fuzzbox, Soul II Soul, and perennially underrated Nick Heyward. On the other, the sincerest of thanks-but-no-thanks to Hue and Cry, Sinitta, Chesney Hawkes, Sonia, et al.
www.letsrockbristol.com 

7) Wychwood
June 3-5
Cheltenham Racecourse, Glos
Price: £135 w/e
Serially nominated for best family festival awards, as you might expect of an event boasting its own kids’ literature fest in a tent hosting authors, illustrators and associated activities. Elsewhere you’re looking at more than 100 bands across four stages, with a similar number of workshops, and fellow attendees including Bill Bailey, the Waterboys, Peter Hook, Idlewild, Kate Rusby, and Ms Dynamite.
www.wychwoodfestival.com

8) Balter Festival
June 3-6
A Secret Spot in South Wales
Price: £100
The super-secret music affair, held in a super-secret scenic spot in South Wales, brings Bristol’s music scene to the countryside with big name acts and innovative indie performances. The fest has 10 stages, but don’t start thinking it’s a big event – Balter Festival prides itself on its intimacy, admitting only 2,000 music lovers to come and enjoy the spectacle. Guests will get up close and personal with acts like Los Albertos, Carny Villains, Hellfish and more.
www.balterfestival.com

9) Camden Rocks
June 4
London
Price: £35
One-day affair gathering over 200 rocking bands to play across a slew of such renowned Camden venues as the Barfly, Dingwalls and Electric Ballroom. We’re talking the likes of Young Guns, We Are The Ocean, InMe, Ginger Wildheart, Norma Jean, SikTh, Jim Jones And The Righteous Mind, and – yay! – The Godfathers. Also on the bill, The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing – if you’ve not seen their video for Brunel, then you’ve not seen the greatest 1 min 56 secs tribute ever made to the stovepipe-topped genius .
www.camdenrocksfestival.com

10) Lemonfest
June 4
Newton Abbot Racecourse, Devon
Price: £25
One-day event, though you can camp overnight once it’s all done and dusted. BBC Introducing are among those helming the stages, with early confirmed names including Beardyman, the Hot 8 Brass Band and The Computers.
www.lemonfest.co.uk

11) Bonnaroo
June 9-12
Manchester, Tennessee, USA
Price: $349.50
Echoes of Glastonbury in this, a big old arts fest spread out across a 700-acre farm in Tennessee. Music-wise, you’re looking at a line-up including Pearl Jam, LCD Soundsystem, Tame Impala, Ellie Goulding, Haim, the mighty Ween and loads more.
www.bonnaroo.com 

12) Isle of Wight Festival
June 9-12
Isle of Wight
Price: £195
Before Glastonbury there was the Isle of Wight festival. 1969 saw Dylan’s first live show after his bike smash, 1970 one of the last by Jimi Hendrix, on a bill also including Miles Davis, The Who, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen and the Doors. All went quiet from then until 2002, when a rather less shambling annual gathering emerged, this year in the company of Queen and Adam Lambert, Stereophonics, Faithless, Iggy Pop, Adam Ant, The Damned, Buzzcocks, The Godfathers, Sigma and Jess Glynne.
www.isleofwightfestival.com

13) NoS Primavera
June 9-11
Porto, Portugal
Price: €105 w/e
Fifth year for the younger sibling of that big old affair in Barcelona, and a fine value thing it is too. Lots of actular crossover with the Spanish line-up, with stage bestriders set to include the likes of PJ Harvey, Beach House, Animal Collective, Dinosaur Jr, Air, Julia Holter, Savages and Unsane.
www.nosprimaverasound.com

14) Download Festival
June 10-12
Donnington, Derbyshire
Price: £205
Heir to the legendary Monsters of Rock festival (1980–1996), Download began its Donnington run in 2003 and swiftly assumed the mantle of the biggest rock/metal gathering in the country. The main performing platform has swiftly been renamed the Lemmy Stage, and will host a trio of genuinely heavyweight headliners: Rammstein, Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath.
www.downloadfestival.co.uk

15) Home Farm Fest
June 10-12
Chilthorne Domer, Somerset
Price: £40
Top value ticket for a top cause: the Piers Simon Appeal’s School in a Bag initiative helps vulnerable children across the globe – be they poor, orphaned or disaster-affected – and is brilliant in its simplicity. Each school bag is crammed chock full of learning resources and eating utensils, allowing the recipient to write, draw, colour, calculate, express themselves and, above all, learn. Almost £200,000 has been raised from the 10 Home Farm Fests to date, and all you have to do is pay your way in and enjoy yourself. While the line up of 70+ bands across the five stages – including, acoustic, avant garde, and Dutch barn – has yet to be confirmed, the comprehensive list of children’s ents is in place: kids’ cinema and disco, climbing wall and workshops from circus skills to water rocket building, and puppet making to jestering. 
www.schoolinabag.org/homefarmfest

16) Meltdown
June 10-19
South Bank Centre, London
Price: various
It’s Guy Garvey’s turn to put together his dream festival line-up this year, following in the distinguished thoughtprints of David Bowie, Patti Smith, Massive Attack, David Byrne, et al. No word on the bill at press time, though we’ll lay good money on our own This is the Kit being asked along – Bashed Out was the Elbow frontman’s favourite album of last year.
www.southbankcentre.co.uk

17) Wimborne Folk Festival
June 10-12
Wimborne, Dorset
Price: £50
Old school folk fest, as a music line-up featuring the likes of the Roaring Trowmen and Wareham Whalers will attest. See also a plethora of dance sides – both morris and Appalachian – and a most unusual tribute act, Jax Parrow (“a highly recommended professional Captain Jack Sparrow impersonator, both in appearance and behaviour”).
www.wimbornefolk.co.uk 

18) Bikefest
June 11-12
Bristol
Price: various
Action-packed weekend of racing around Ashton Court’s all-weather course, as Bikefest celebrates its 15th anniversary with a welter of events. Lots of spectating opportunities, of course, but plenty for some hardcore pedal-pushing, too.
www.bike-fest.com

19) Bristol Festival of Nature
June 11-12
Bristol
Price: free
Splendid celebration of all things nature via workshops, talks, a welter of hands-on activities, live ents, local produce, and so forth. From here, the festival will take to the River Avon for a heap more events before pitching up in Bath in couple of weeks.
www.bnhc.org.uk/festival-of-nature  

20) Exeter Respect
June 11-12
Price: free
Established in 1997, the two-day gathering sees 20,000 gather for what organisers describe as an “annual celebration of diversity where we use the performing and creative arts to engage the wider community in saying no to racism and all forms of prejudice”. No confirmed names on the bill at press time, but expect musical acts of a generally reggae or ‘world’ hue, with past attendees including Asian Dub Foundation Soundsystem, Talvin Singh, Misty In Roots, Kano and Linton Kewsi Johnson.
www.exeter-respect.org

21) Field Day
June 11-12
Victoria Park, London
Price: £94 w/e
James Blake, PJ Harvey, Beach House, Ben Watt Band feat. Bernard Butler, Deerhunter, Four Tet, Thurston Moore Band and Sleaford Mods are all slated to star in a festival which, despite geographical location and big name line-up, fancies itself as evoking the atmosphere of a rustic fete. Romanticising nonsense, of course: anyone who has actually lived rurally will know that an area labelling itself ‘Village Mentality’ should major on casual racism and an overt mistrust of anyone whose family hasn’t been rooted there since the Enclosure Acts, not team games, brass bands, bunting and hay bales.
www.fielddayfestivals.com

22) Parklife Weekender
June 11-12
Heaton Park, Manchester
Price: £95 w/e
Fascinating music history, Heaton Park. Hosted big gigs for Oasis and the Stone Roses in recent times, of course, but back in 1909 it was the site of sounds altogether more cutting-edge: Prestwich gramophone salesman, William Grimshaw, recorded a Free Trade Hall concert by the great Italian tenor, Enrico Caruso, and a few days later used his new-fangled gizmo to play it back in the park to an estimated crowd of 40,000. The Prestwich and Heaton Park Guardian reported that they all “remained as if spellbound from the moment of arrival to the close of the programme”. This year’s electronic/hip-hop acts hoping to induce a similarly wowed audience response include the Chemical Brothers, Ice Cube, Jess Glynne, Busta Rhymes, Jamie xx, De La Soul and Stormzy.
www.parklife.uk.com

23) Eden Sessions
June 14-July 14
Eden Project, Cornwall
Price: various
Annual event bringing forth a handful of musical aces to perform in front of the eco centre’s wondrous beauty. This year’s headliners comprise the Glastonbury re-booted Lionel Ritchie (June 14 & 15), the ever-more sci-fi warlord-like Tom Jones (June 26), and only the second British female solo artist to score five UK number-one singles. Anyone? Award yourself a few thousand points if you had any idea that was Jess Glynne (July 14). Them’s the headliners, but do note that each event runs like a separate one-day festival, with other stages and ents around the site.
www.edensessions.com 

24) Edinburgh Film Festival
June 15-26
Edinburgh, Scotland
Price: various
Too far out from festival time to put any confirmed filmic flesh on the bones of the format: shed loads of screenings, talks, seminars, etc, as more than 1,400 industry delegates, filmmakers and press folk descend for a cellular smorgasbord.
www.edfilmfest.org.uk 

25) Forest Live
June 16-19
Westonbirt Arboretum, Glos
Price: various
Forest Live takes place across seven Forestry Commission, um, forests, with a stream of musicians ready to play out from beneath the trees. Far as our local branch goes, you can look forward to appearances on consecutive nights from, respectively, Rudimental, Kaiser Chiefs, UB40 feat. Ali Campbell, Astro and Mickey Virtue, and Tom Jones.
www.forestry.gov.uk/MUSIC

26) Gregynog Festival
June 16-26
Various venues, chiefly in Powys
Price: various
Wales’ oldest music festival was launched in 1933, and this time around takes Ireland as its theme. Besides plenty of classical and traditional music fare, expect drama, poetry, film, talks and exhibitions.
www.gregynogfestival.org

27) Bristol Volksfest
June 17-19
Bristol
Price: £35 w/e
A petrol-fuelled staple in the local festival circuit since 1993, this year celebrating 70 Years of the Beetle. All manner of car demos and displays, of course, plus ents including BMX-ing, wall of death, Upfest urban art displays, cinema, and a music line-up headed by DJ Yoda and Neville Staple.
www.bristolvolksfest.co.uk

28) Corsham Walking Festival
June 17-19
Corsham, Wiltshire
Price: various
Small of scale, large of variety, prepare to enjoy such themed strolling opportunities as Brunel’s railway, quarry tramways, geology, wildflowers, treasure hunt, and dog walk.
www.corshamwalkingfestival.org.uk

29) Goldcoast Oceanfest
June 17-19
Croyde, Devon
Price: £55 w/e
Beach-centric fest on the fringe of glorious Croyde Bay, with ents including skateboarding, surfing, beach volleyball, beach soccer, surf life saving, ironman and diamond lady events, and open water swimming. Musical line-up is relatively small for a three-day fest (“over 20 live acts”), among whom will number Fuse ODG, Palma Violets and KT Tunstall.
www.goldcoastoceanfest.co.uk 

30) 3 Wishes Faery Festival
June 17-19
Torpoint, Cornwall
Price: £99
This self-styled ‘gathering of the Celtic faerie clans’ is perfectly wondrous for young kids, quite possibly fatal for anyone diagnosed whimsy intolerant. Event programme includes faery procession, walkabout fairytale characters, a faery school, faery dog show, visiting unicorns and, basically, full-grown people dressed like extras in a year-one school nativity for as far as the eye can see. For the adults, if such a term is appropriate, the musical line-up includes The Dolmen, Professor Elemental, and Mark Radcliffe’s Galleon Blast.
www.faeryevents.com/faery-events/3-wishes-faery-fest

31) Ukulele Festival of Great Britain
June 17-19
Cheltenham, Glos
Free: £43 w/e
Seventh outing for the strum-centric shindig. Expect workshops, join-in performances and, we should imagine, a plethora of shady looking blokes standing at the back, each ready to outbid the other for the next killer tune for their respective advertising agencies.
Far as live acts go, attendees include the Ooks Of Hazzard, Ukulele Funhouse Orchestra, Dead Man’s Uke… you get the general idea.
www.ukulelefestival.co.uk

32) Afrika OyÈ Festival
June 18-19
Liverpool
Price: free
There’s a strong argument to be made that this is the country’s finest free festival. A record crowd of 80,000 turned out last year for the largest celebration of African music and culture in the country, and the 2016 line-up suggests strong likelihood of a repeat. Among the headliners are DR Congo’s Mbongwana Star, a mix of physically disabled and able-bodied musicians originally convened in Staff Benda Bilili, and plying the most hypnotic, rock-leaning sound. Ghanian highlife ace Pat Thomas & Kwashibu Area Band, and rising Tanzanian street rumba troupe, Ifa Band, also feature. Beyond the music, there’s the venue: glorious Sefton Park, 200 acres of graciously rolling landscape, including the newly-restored glass-panelled Palm House, and so very worth an exploration in its own right. Throw in the lashings of Afro house/Afro beat/dub/reggae, at Oyé after-parties in clubs across the city, and you’ve got a fully-mapped weekend city break in waiting.
www.africaoye.com

33) Falmouth International Sea Shanty Festival
June 17-19
Falmouth, Cornwall
Price: free
An awful lot of disingenuous dross gets labelled ‘authentic Cornish culture’. This, one of the biggest maritime music festivals in Europe, is not among them. For one thing, it’s a properly beer-swilling, tankard-raising-on-the-quayside affair, not some ascetic nonsense in a village hall. For another, it takes its cultural history seriously, celebrating seafaring communities and minority languages along the Atlantic seaboard, offering the opportunity to learn shanties in Cornish, Basque, Welsh, Frisian, Scots and Irish Gaelic. And help build a bloody enormous paper boat. Best of all, of course, the shanties themselves – music originally evolved to inculcate a sense of community, and there’s no finer place to thrill that singular singalong sensation: over 50 shanty groups, with events taking place across 22 pubs, yards, quayside stages, etc. Better yet, look out to sea, and take in the standalone Falmouth Classics fest, a three- day rally of classic sailing craft and other traditional vessels (www.falmouthclassics.org.uk). So heave away me jolly boys, we’re all bound away.
www.falmouthseashanty.co.uk

34) Middlewich Folk & Boat Festival
June 17-19
Middlewich, Cheshire
Price: various, lots free
That’s boat as in canal craft, for this is, in part, a big old narrowboat rally. On the folk side you’ve got morris sides and music, plus town parades, stalls, and so forth. This year’s 26th running of the fest sees a headline performance from the not-entirely-folk The South, the not-particularly-imaginatively-named group fronted by former Beautiful South singers, Dave Hemingway and Alison Wheeler.
www.midfest.org.uk

35) Sonic Rock Solstice
June 17-19
Bromsgrove, Worcestershire
Price: £75 w/e
If progging space-rock is your thing, then this is your planet. Toppermost of a huge bill of fuzzy, droning distortionists is the Lene Lovich Band.
www.sonicrocksolstice.com

36) Polperro Festival
June 18-26
Polperro, Cornwall
Price: free
The idyllic fishing village lays on a delicious festival, and not only the handsomely stacked tables of local food and drink. There are also wares from the thriving art community, music, dance, and such splendid local traditions as a great big bonfire.
www.polperrofestival.co.uk

37) Summer Series
June 22-25
Lloyd’s Amphitheatre, Bristol
Price: various
The recently announced line-up is eclectic but high-calibre: Sigur Rós, The Last Shadow Puppets and BRIT award-winners James Bay and Catfish and the Bottlemen. Five thousand people will flock to the Harbourside to take in the outdoor concerts against a backdrop of water and metal cranes.
www.bristolsummerseries.com 

38) Blue Sky Festival
June 23-27
Corsham, Wiltshire
Price: various
Nee Corsham Festival, Blue Sky fest pulls together all manner of music, art, literature, theatre and the like. At time of typing, the call is still going out for young folk to get involved in the aptly-named Blue Sky Takeover, whereby youngsters aged 13–19 get to take the reins and decide the line-up for one of the festival days.
www.blueskyfestival.org.uk

39) Glastonbury Festival
June 24-28
Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset
Price: sold out
“You’d be gutted if you bought a ticket then heard Coldplay are headlining again,” said some back in February. Assuredly the types whose idea of festivalling is to sit in front of the Pyramid stage drinking their bodyweight in cider, primed to foam at the mouth about the rubbishness of ‘rap’ music. For anyone with an ounce of curiosity and desire to explore, freshness abounds, in bass/dance music especially (not the East Village Dance Heritage Centre, but after hours up the old rail line). In a way that will never be understood by those viewing the festival on telly, and assuming the right to judge whether or not it was a good year, this remains the Greatest Show on Earth.
www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk 

40) Bath Festival of Nature
June 25
Bath
Price: free
Splendid celebration of all things nature via workshops, talks, a welter of hands-on activities, live ents, local produce, and so forth – see feature on page 12.
www.bnhc.org.uk/festival-of-nature

41) Roskilde
June 25- July 2
Roskilde, Denmark
Price: DKK 1995
Aka the Danish Glastonbury. If that sounds facile, visit the website to take a look at its scale, its profits going to charity, and the fact it’s only a year younger, having been established in 1971. Music-wise, the bill features the likes of The Last Shadow Puppets, Red Hot Chili Peppers, New Order, Foals, PJ Harvey, Tenacious D, LCD Soundsystem, Tame Impala, Chvrches, Savages, and the Syrian National Orchestra for Arabic Music with Damon Albarn.
www.roskilde-festival.dk 

42) Hideout Festival
June 26-30
Island of Pag, Croatia
Price: £152.90 w/e
Jamie xx and Skepta headline a bill comprising around 100 acts, and an awful lot of hands-in-the-air blanditude. Happily, that’s hardly the point. Rather more pertinently, it’s a fest set on a beauteous island in glorious Adriatic climes, with more swimming pools, boat and beach parties than you can shake a cocktail stick at.
www.hideoutfestival.com

43) Bristol Comedy Garden
June 28-July 3
Queen Square, Bristol
Reliably chortlicious affair, featuring two comedy arenas, plus some properly top-line food and drink, and music in the bandstand. Big name acts from around the world will venture outdoors into Queen Square, with high calibre acts Stewart Lee, Katherine Ryan, Reginald D Hunter and Nina Conti leading the pack. If you can’t make it to the headliners, never fear – many more comedians will wheel out their very best schtick for the audience’s entertainment. 
www.bristolcomedygarden.co.uk 

44) Isle of MTV Malta
June 28
Floriana, Malta
Price: free
Tenth outing for the free fest set in Floriana’s Il Fosos Square. Only one act announced as we go to press, so if you’re not a fan of Jess Glynne you may wish to hold your flight-booking horses.
www.isleofmtv.com

45) Openíer
June 29-July 2
Nr Gdansk, Poland
Price: 145€
Widely sweeping, high grade arts fest, including a fashion stage, loads of film, top-line writers engaging in heavyweight discussion, and a musical line-up featuring the likes of Florence and The Machine, Grimes, PJ Harvey and Kurt Vile.
www.opener.pl 

46) Bristol Shakespeare Festival
June 30-July 31
Bristol
Price: various
Twelfth annual Bardular enterprise, offering Shakespeare productions in just about every imaginable corner of the city: woods, studios, theatres, parks, caves, boats and pubs. And all as you like it, Bristol: not for profit. Check website for programme nearer the time.
www.bristolshakespeare.org.uk 

Photo courtesy of the Primavera Sound Festival Facebook page.