Aspiring to finish the festival bucket list

When doing some festival research the other week, I came across this article by Pulse Radio listing the 20 Must Do Festivals Before You Die – I’ll be honest, my heart skipped a beat when reading about some of these! As a complete and utter festival loon, I can’t resist the opportunity to lose myself in the music, excitement and craziness that comes with these huge events. You wouldn’t believe that I would be the sort of girl to sleep in a field for a week, use portaloos and camp with boys if you had met me three years ago. Heck, I didn’t even think I had it in me! But a reunion with some of my university friends saw me frolicking in the fields and dancing away with my warm cider – loving life! Read here about how that first festival actually changed my life.

Just a couple of years on, I am editor of a festival news website – This Festival Feeling and in two summers I have been to eight different festivals – one of them in Croatia – and have seen all manner of weirdness. Safe to say, I love festivals whether they are big, small, posh, grubby, hippy, packed with dance music or theatre and talks – I’ll take them all! So this list is very exciting – I have not actually done a single festival on this list yet – I am hoping and praying there might be a chance to get Glastonbury tickets through my work – but there is no guarantee. I had dreamed of getting tickets to Tomorrowland and EXIT Festival for this summer, but sadly I think life will get in the way and it will be a choice between saving my pennies for travelling or raving it up in Europe.

I would absolutely love to make my way around all of these incredible and unique events in my lifetime, but there are a couple that really stand out as musts. The Snowbombing line-up always looks amazing and I really would love the idea of combining a festival with a chance to learn to ski or snowboard – plus it would be a very different experience to rave on the slopes instead of in dusty fields or deep in the woods. Electric Daisy Carnival  has all the dance music greats which suits me fine, and if that wasn’t enough, it’s in Vegas too!!

Burning Man is one that I just have to do – it looks like such a life-changing experience and full of all the weirdness and everything that I love about festivals. Plus it will take me deep into the Nevada desert – perfect excuse for an American road-trip! And one that I had never heard of before, but would love to check out, is Kazantip, in the Ukraine. It sounds like a heck of an endurance test to rave and party for two weeks straight, but I think I’d be up for the challenge – I’d certainly give it a go.

It must be such an amazing thing, to create a festival, and something I dream of doing, or being involved in. I would simply love the opportunity to work with the teams that create such incredible events – it wouldn’t really be work when it is something I love so much. Last summer, I managed to get round to five different festivals ranging from posh midsummer balls, to theatrical madness and those that were all about the music. This summer, I am hoping to do as many as possible, even attempting to beat last year’s total but on limited funds – this will be interesting!

Which festival is your must-do before you die, and why?