The best music festivals in the world are the twenty below, chosen across six continents and every major genre, from Glastonbury, Coachella and Fuji Rock to Roskilde, Rock in Rio, Wacken and Gnaoua. Each entry gives where it is, which month it runs, what it is known for and one practical fact about capacity, tickets or camping, so you can shortlist two or three for next year.
We have attended, reviewed and catalogued these events for the Find a Festival music directory, and the dates and figures below are taken from the organisers' own pages as they stood on 12 September 2026. Where a 2027 date is not yet published we say so.
How did we choose the best music festivals?
Three tests decide which of the best music festivals make this list. The festival has to be worth crossing a border for, which rules out events that are mostly a local night out. It has to be distinct from the others on the list. And it has to be bookable by an ordinary traveller, which favours events with a clear ticket process.
Ten of the twenty are in Europe because that is where the density is, but Asia, Africa, Australia, North America and South America each have at least one entry, and the genres run from metal to folk, jazz to techno. If the month rather than the genre is your starting point, the Find a Festival calendar lists all twenty by date.
1. Glastonbury Festival, England
Worthy Farm in Somerset, late June. Glastonbury is the festival every other festival is measured against, a five-day temporary city of stages, theatre fields, a circus and the late-night South East Corner. Of all the best music festivals in the world, it is the one we would send a first-timer to if they could only ever go to one.
2026 is a fallow year and the next edition runs from 23 to 27 June 2027. The organiser's 2027 ticket information states that everyone aged 13 or over must be registered by 5pm on 25 September 2026, that general admission tickets go on sale at 9am on Sunday 4 October at £408 with a £100 deposit, and that tickets are non-transferable and carry the holder's photograph. The site licence runs to roughly 210,000 people and the sale clears in under an hour; our Glastonbury listing explains it.
2. Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, United States
The Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in April, over two identical weekends. Coachella made the reunion headline slot, the large-scale art installation and the desert sunset into a global format, and its January line-up announcement sets the tone for the year.
Coachella 2027 runs 9 to 11 April and 16 to 18 April. Advance passes have sold out and the organiser is running a waitlist, so the honest route for an overseas traveller is a hotel package or the waitlist. Car camping on site is listed on the Coachella passes page at $40 per night, or $160 for the weekend, and our Coachella listing covers the shuttles from Palm Springs.
3. Fuji Rock Festival, Japan
Naeba Ski Resort in Niigata Prefecture, the last weekend of July. Fuji Rock is the most beautiful site on this list, a string of stages along a mountain valley linked by a boardwalk through the forest, and the best-run: queues move and the campsite is quiet at 2am.
The 2026 edition ran 24 to 26 July and the 2027 dates had not been published when we checked. For 2025 the general three-day ticket was ¥59,000 with a campsite ticket sold separately at ¥5,000 per person, and the shuttle bus from JR Echigo-Yuzawa station was ¥2,000 return. Take a proper waterproof; our Fuji Rock listing explains why.
4. Tomorrowland, Belgium
De Schorre park in Boom, between Antwerp and Brussels, on two weekends in late July. Tomorrowland is the world's largest electronic music festival, known for main stages built like theatre sets on a theme that changes each year and for a crowd from more than 200 countries. The 2026 weekends ran 17 to 19 and 24 to 26 July.
Around 400,000 people attended across the two 2026 weekends, and the organiser's DreamVille campsite is how most overseas visitors stay. Tickets are sold through pre-registration and a worldwide sale that clears within hours, so register early.
5. Primavera Sound, Spain
Parc del Fòrum on the Barcelona seafront, early June. Primavera Sound is the festival for people who read the whole line-up rather than the top line, mixing reunited cult bands, current indie, hip-hop and electronic acts on a waterfront site that runs into the small hours.
The 25th edition holds its main days from 3 to 5 June 2027 at Parc del Fòrum, with early bird full-festival tickets on sale now at a reduced price for a limited period. There is no camping, so book accommodation in Poblenou or Sant Martí early.
6. Roskilde Festival, Denmark
Roskilde, thirty minutes by train west of Copenhagen, late June into early July. Roskilde is run by a charity society, staffed by around 27,000 volunteers, and every krone of profit is donated to humanitarian and cultural work. The campsite culture that builds over four warm-up days is half the point.
Roskilde 2027 runs from 26 June to 3 July, eight days in all. The organiser's facts page puts attendance at more than 130,000 participants, with the campsite opening four days before the festival site. Full-festival tickets for 2027 had already sold out through the instalment sale by September 2026, so check the Roskilde listing when the next sale is announced.
7. Sziget Festival, Hungary
Óbudai-sziget, an island in the Danube in northern Budapest, in August. Sziget is a week-long city of its own, known for a bill that runs from stadium pop to world music, circus and theatre, and for a crowd that treats the campsite as a place to live.
The next edition runs from 10 to 14 August 2027. The 5-day pass is advertised at €349 plus handling, with a 21 and under pass at €279, and the ticket shop sells camping and other accommodation alongside the passes, so the island can be your base for the week; our Sziget listing tracks the tiers.
8. Montreux Jazz Festival, Switzerland
The lakeside town of Montreux on Lake Geneva, for just over two weeks in July. Montreux is the grand old name of European jazz, though the programme has long run into rock, soul and hip-hop, and its ticketed venues, the Auditorium Stravinski and the Montreux Jazz Lab, are among the best-sounding rooms any festival uses. The 60th edition ran 3 to 18 July 2026 and drew more than 250,000 people.
Most of it is free. The organiser's stages page lists two ticketed venues and eleven free stages along the quays, so a traveller can spend a week in Montreux and buy only one or two concert tickets. The 61st edition runs 2 to 17 July 2027, and there is no camping.
9. WOMADelaide, Australia
Botanic Park, on the edge of Adelaide's city centre, over the March long weekend. WOMADelaide is the Australian edition of the World of Music, Arts and Dance festival, held under Moreton Bay figs with a bill drawn from every continent and a crowd that sits on picnic rugs rather than pushing to the front. It is the entry we would recommend to a family.
The 35th edition runs 5 to 8 March 2027. A four-day adult pass is A$469, single days are A$209, and children aged three to twelve are free when booked with an adult ticket. There is no camping; Adelaide's hotels are a tram ride away.
10. Rock in Rio, Brazil
Cidade do Rock in Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, in September of even-numbered years. Rock in Rio is the largest of the stadium-scale festivals, an event that built its own site and books international headliners alongside Brazilian ones, with a Sunset Stage that pairs artists who would not otherwise share a bill.
The eleventh edition runs from 4 to 13 September 2026, seven festival days across two weekends, and is under way as we publish. Tickets are sold by day through the Rock in Rio Card system, priced at R$795 for a full-price day, and the early waves sold out quickly. The next Rio edition is in 2028, and there is no camping.
11. Lollapalooza, United States
Grant Park, on the Chicago lakefront, the first weekend of August. Lollapalooza is the city festival at its most concentrated, with more than 170 artists over eight stages in four days, the skyline behind the main stages and Lake Michigan behind the crowd.
The 2026 edition ran 30 July to 2 August and the 2027 dates follow in the autumn. Around 400,000 people attend across the four days, roughly 100,000 in the park each day, and there is no camping; the Loop hotels book out early.
12. Newport Folk Festival, United States
Fort Adams State Park, on the harbour in Newport, Rhode Island, in late July. Newport is the smallest festival on this list and one of the oldest, running since 1959, and it is famous for the unannounced collaborations on the Fort Stage each year and the boats that anchor in the harbour to listen.
The 2026 edition ran 24 to 26 July and every ticket sold out before the line-up was announced, which is normal for Newport. Tickets are mobile-only through the DICE app with a fan-to-fan waitlist for returns, and the organiser is blunt that the only verifiable tickets are on that platform.
13. Wacken Open Air, Germany
The village of Wacken in Schleswig-Holstein, north of Hamburg, at the turn of July and August. Wacken is the world's largest heavy metal festival, a farmland site with a population of roughly 85,000 for the week and a fire brigade brass band that opens the main stage. Rain and mud are part of the folklore, and the crowd is the friendliest on this list.
Wacken 2027 runs 28 to 31 July. Tickets are sold as a single full-festival ticket rather than day passes, from €279 for the under-25 Younger ticket to €349 and €364 for the standard tiers plus a €2 fee, and by September 2026 the Loyalty, Faster and Harder categories had sold out, leaving only Louder. Camping is on the festival's own grounds next to the site.
14. Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, Canada
The Quartier des Spectacles in downtown Montréal, late June into early July. The Montréal jazz festival is the largest jazz festival in the world by attendance, with the streets around Place des Festivals closed and turned into a free outdoor concert site for ten days, and ticketed shows in Place des Arts and the surrounding halls.
The 46th edition ran 25 June to 4 July 2026 and the 2027 dates had not been published when we checked. Around two-thirds of the programme is free and the festival reports more than two million visits, so a hotel in the Quartier des Spectacles is the only real cost. There is no camping.
15. Rainforest World Music Festival, Malaysia
Sarawak Cultural Village at the foot of Mount Santubong, forty minutes from Kuching in Malaysian Borneo, in late June. The Rainforest World Music Festival pairs daytime workshops, where visiting and local musicians play together in the village's longhouses, with main-stage concerts in the evening, in the most distinctive setting of any festival here.
The 29th edition ran 26 to 28 June 2026 under the theme Regenerations: Roots and Rhythms, and tickets are sold through the Sarawak Tourism Board's ticketing partner. There is no camping; visitors stay in the Damai beach resorts next door or in Kuching. The 2027 dates were not yet announced when we checked.
16. Vive Latino, Mexico
Estadio GNP Seguros, formerly Foro Sol, in the east of Mexico City, in March. Vive Latino is the anchor festival of Latin American rock and alternative music, a two-day event that puts Spanish-language rock, ska and hip-hop alongside international headliners in front of one of the loudest crowds in the festival world.
The 27th edition runs 13 and 14 March 2027, confirmed by the organiser on 10 September 2026, with pre-sale dates and prices still to come. The 2026 edition drew around 160,000 people over its two days. There is no camping; the stadium is on Line 9 of the Metro at Ciudad Deportiva.
17. Sónar, Spain
Barcelona, in June, split between Sónar by Day at the Fira Montjuïc and Sónar by Night at the Fira Gran Via in L'Hospitalet. Sónar treats electronic music as an art form rather than a party, with a daytime programme of talks and experimental performance and a night programme that runs until dawn in exhibition halls.
Sónar 2027 runs 17 to 19 June, with ticket details still to be published. Combined with Primavera Sound two weeks earlier, it makes Barcelona the strongest single city on this list for a June trip, and there is no camping at either.
18. Gnaoua and World Music Festival, Morocco
The Atlantic port of Essaouira, three hours west of Marrakech, in late June. The Gnaoua festival is built around the trance music of Morocco's Gnaoua brotherhoods, whose maalems lead all-night lila ceremonies with the guembri and iron qraqeb, and pairs them with jazz, blues and African musicians on the main stages.
The 28th edition runs 24 to 26 June 2027. Tickets for the main concerts are sold through the festival's ticketing partner, and in our experience the stages on Place Moulay Hassan and along the beach have been open to all, so the cost of the trip is the flight and a riad. There is no camping, and the medina hotels fill months ahead.
19. Cape Town International Jazz Festival, South Africa
The Cape Town International Convention Centre, on the edge of the city centre, over a weekend in late March. Known locally as Africa's grandest gathering, it is a two-night indoor event across several stages that puts South African jazz alongside international names, with a free community concert on Greenmarket Square in the days before. It is the best introduction to South African music we know.
The 2026 edition ran 27 and 28 March at the CTICC, and the 2027 line-up is listed on the organiser's site as coming soon, with dates to follow. Tickets are sold as weekend passes and single-night tickets, and the convention centre means no camping and no weather.
20. Ultra Music Festival, United States
Bayfront Park, on Biscayne Bay in downtown Miami, in late March. Ultra turned Miami Music Week into a global fixture, three days of house, techno, trance and bass across the main stage, the Resistance stage and the Megastructure.
Ultra 2027 runs 26 to 28 March at Bayfront Park, with general admission and VIP three-day tickets sold in tiers and a waitlist open now. There is no camping and no single-day general admission.
Which of the best music festivals should you book first?
Book in the order the tickets sell, not the order of the calendar. Glastonbury's registration deadline is 25 September 2026 and its sale is 4 October, Roskilde and Wacken have already sold most of their 2027 tickets, Coachella's advance sale has gone, and Newport will sell out on the day of its sale. Those decisions come first.
Then match the festival to the trip you want, because the best music festivals for a first trip abroad are not always the biggest. A camping festival, which here means Glastonbury, Fuji Rock, Tomorrowland, Roskilde, Sziget, Wacken and Coachella, is a week of living outdoors and needs the gear in our festival packing list. A city festival is a hotel booking and a good pair of shoes, and in our experience it is the better first festival abroad.
Check the organiser's page the week the sale opens, because the process changes every year and the details above are correct on the publication date only.
Explore the music festivals in the Find a Festival directory. Every festival above has its own listing with current dates, ticket process and travel notes in the Find a Festival music directory.