highvibes
Your Guide to Music Festivals

© Ron Sombilon Gallery

While the New Meadowlands parking lot may not be the most fashionable of venues in New Jersey, this East Rutherford location is home to the biggest music event on the East Coast, the annual Bamboozle music fest. This tribute to pop music marks the beginning of the summer music season for tens of thousands of concertgoers, and it promises to be longer, bolder and louder then ever this year.

LiveNation, the concert promotion company that dominates bookings nationwide, says that Bamboozle is their premiere music festival and one of the biggest events on their calender. Chart-topping rapper Lil Wayne will be one of eight high-profile acts at Bamboozle 2011, along with pop singer Bruno Mars. Heavy metal vets Motley Crue are scheduled to perform as well, in a slight departure from the pop music theme. Bamboozle is what is known as a "commuter" festival, meaning that there's no camping allowed in the parking lot.

© Chris P Jobling

The editors and members of VirtualTourist.com have released a list of top 10 summer music festivals.
The list is as follows:
1. Rainforest World Music Festival; Sarawak, Malaysia
Being deep into the rainforest, the music festival is a house of plants and wildlife along with music from Vanuatu, Latvia, India and Senegal.
2. Summerfest; Milwaukee, Wis.
It is registered in the "Guinness Book of World Records" as the World's Largest Music Festival. Katy Perry, Def Leppard, Hall and Oates will be desperately awaited.
3. Ojai Music Festival; Ojai, Calif.
This classical musical festival will feature soprano phenom Dawn Upshaw.
The other festivals are:
4. Chicago Blues Festival; Chicago, Ill.
5. Sauna Open Air Metal Festival; Tampere, Finland
6. Copenhagen Jazz Festival; Copenhagen, Denmark
7. Reggae Sumfest; Montego Bay, Jamaica
8. Broadstairs Folk Week; Broadstairs, Kent, U.K.
9. Bonnaroo; Manchester, Tenn.
10. Music for People and Thingamajigs Festival; Oakland, Calif.

© mypresense

The Ultra Music Festival in Miami celebrated a blockbuster 13th year, and the success of this event has prompted its organizers to announce spin-off music festivals in other international hot spots, including Sydney, Australia and Seoul, South Korea. This builds on the success of festivals already taking place in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Ibiza, Spain as well.

The news was reported in the Kuwait Times, however a similar article in the Los Angeles Times did not mention plans for Sydney. Ultra is renowned for pulling together one of the biggest dance line-ups in the world, and drawing crowds in excess of 50,000 on each of its three days in 2011. Some of the most influential names in dance music were at the huge event, including Tiesto, Carl Cox, Deadmau5, The Chemical Brothers, Underworld and Armin van Buuren, along with live acts and DJs spread across six stages.