A Guide to European Festivals 2025

Wherever you are in Europe in 2025, there’s a festival to suit your taste. Need big pop energy? All the majors have got you covered. After an electronic fix? Pick a city one-dayer. Ready to rock? Head to Germany. Allow us to help you find your vibe...

As Charli xcx sauntered onto Paris’ We Love Green stage in diaphanous white this summer, Air playing the familiar dreamy synths of “Cherry Blossom Girl”, the crowd couldn’t believe their ears and eyes. Here she was, backlit in BRAT green, imbuing a 21-year-old track with ingenue energy, perfectly marrying old and new. This is something fans from all across the world come to European music festivals for: perfectly bonkers pairings, singing pared-back reimaginings or fabulously grand renditions of their favourite tracks. The icons and the initiates for your delectation all in one place. And this year, women are taking the lead. The lack of female headliners has long been a source of debate around festival lineups, with many years in the dim and distant—and much more recent—past providing scant representation in the big billings. But in 2025, you can’t move for alphas: Between them, Charli, Chappell Roan, Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter are headlining over 20 of Europe’s biggest festivals including Germany’s SUPERBLOOM, Roskilde in Denmark, Budapest’s Sziget, England’s Glastonbury, Rock en Seine in Paris and Gothenburg’s Way Out West. Charli, Chappell and Carpenter’s June triple-header in Barcelona had them nicknamed the “Primavera Powerpuff Girls”, shifting the dynamic of a usually alternative-tinged festival, while Rodrigo has broken the record with 18 top-line spots across the world in 2025 (including Madrid’s Mad Cool and Lollapalooza Paris), pinning the dates to the final entrails of her GUTS tour. Last year, Carpenter told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe that she loves sprinkling some pop magic on a festival: “That’s the beauty of a festival and having so many different kinds of music there…The fact that I can be playing with such different sounds is so special.” But the fact that Rodrigo wielding a guitar puts her in the lead for these lineups is testament to festivals’ pop persuasions often being a source of division. When Beyoncé headlined Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage back in 2011, she was met with fusty rock consternation claiming she “didn’t belong there”. But now, if a festival doesn’t have a standout big-ticket pop act, they risk low ticket sales. It’s opened the way for breakthrough female acts to make their charge on the fields and plains of the biggest weekenders, with Tate McRae, JADE, RAYE, PinkPantheress, CMAT and Gracie Abrams all playing plum spots from Pukkelpop to All Points East in 2025. Doechii will be as ubiquitous as her tune “Anxiety” has been on our social feeds, taking the stage at Glastonbury, Open’er, FORWARDS Festival, Roskilde, splash! and Rock en Seine. Earlier in the summer, HAIM set the rumour mill alight with whispers that they’d pop up at Worthy Farm with a secret Park Stage performance to set off their own Dreamland, Margate date on their I quit tour that same weekend. Even the icons are back: Alanis Morissette is playing Mad Cool and Cruïlla festival in Spain this year, while Nelly Furtado is taking on Sziget, SUPERBLOOM and All Together Now in Waterford, Ireland. As RAYE put it, speaking to Apple Music ahead of her 2023 Glastonbury appearance: “It’s Glastonbury…I have to go hard. It’s gotta be the best damn show I’ve ever put on.” The effect of this shift in dynamic is not just felt on stage. This reckoning has brought equality to the crowds too, meaning a safer festival-going experience for female fans. And waiting in the wings, rock star plus-ones of old such as Alexa Chung and Kate Moss, in their vintage cut-offs and Hunter wellies, have been replaced by a band of willing A-listers like Amelia Dimoldenberg primed for a rendition of the viral “Apple” dance for the Jumbotron.

“One festival, three ways” is Drake’s promise for his sold-out, three-night Wireless residency in Finsbury Park this year. Celebrating 20 years of the festival, it boasts “for the first time ever, one artist, three different set lists”. Pulling in support from recent album-mate PARTYNEXTDOOR, The Mandem (otherwise known as his old London pals Skepta, Jme and their Boy Better Know crew), then Burna Boy (who is stopping by in the middle of a festival run that includes Helsinki’s Flow Festival and Afro Nation in Portugal) and Vybz Kartel, doing his only European date this year, the trio of shows promise to give every flavour of Drake’s sound. Open’er festival in Poland is uniting the likes of Doechii (already having a busy Main Pop Girl festival season, see above), Future, Little Simz, Jorja Smith and Tyla (who will be popping up in Norway and Denmark too) as well as new contenders like BigXthaPlug. Similarly, Sziget—one of the largest festivals in Europe—has lured A$AP Rocky and Post Malone to its international crowd of over half a million across the five days of proceedings. A$AP is also headlining Paris’ Rock en Seine, while Switzerland’s Openair Frauenfeld has 50 Cent bringing the throwback vibes on the same bill as Young Thug and Atlanta rapper Ken Carson, both of whom will also play Germany’s splash! along with homegrown artists K.I.Z and badmómzjay. Even festival style hits different in 2025. Gone are the weathered black cotton band tees with the lineup printed on the back: In 2025, there’s a strong thread of festivals launching streetwear merch collabs. Glastonbury has announced a Pyramid Stage-inspired retro football shirt, while Belgium’s Les Ardentes has teamed up with Kappa for archive-inspired jerseys. No trend has been left unturned.

It doesn’t matter if it’s Neil Young or Iggy Pop, Nine Inch Nails or Thirty Seconds to Mars, IDLES or Fontaines D.C., rock still lives on, from Benicàssim to Pukkelpop (not to mention Germany’s dedication to serious metal at Rock am Ring and Wacken). Yes, festivals have of course diversified, and gone are the days of all-male, all-guitar lineups on the lion’s share of the big stages, but there are still big, crowd-pleasing, acts who most festival-goers expect to see as part of the experience. Rosters in 2025 have taken a nostalgic twist, not just in the elder statesman way (although at 80, Sir Rod still wears it well enough for the legends spot on Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage). Heritage bands in 2025 are more millennial-pleasing and, dare we say it, turn of the century. Deftones are bringing the Y2K teen spirit with their signature minor-chord melodies and baggy chinos to no fewer than eight of Europe’s festivals, from Best Kept Secret festival in the Netherlands to Germany’s Hurricane Festival and Rock Werchter in Belgium. LINKIN PARK, still high in the Apple Music charts, are taking on their first festival season since Emily Armstrong joined following the death of singer Chester Bennington in 2017 with Hellfest (alongside Korn and Muse), Rock Werchter and Open’er. Even Papa Roach are scuttling back to headline Wacken. Meanwhile, with jeans on the skinnier side, original Hedi boys Bloc Party and The Libertines are celebrating 20-ish years since their breakout albums, Silent Alarm and Up the Bracket respectively, by playing similar spots at festivals like Glastonbury, Benicàssim and Reading and Leeds to the ones they did when they were young likely lads. Reunited, The Maccabees will also be staging their comeback, headlining London’s All Points East eight years after their farewell gig. Peter Doherty told Matt Wilkinson on Apple Music ahead of a summer on stage that he started his own label, Strap Originals, in 2019 to promote young bands to play these kind of festivals: “I think I’m just a sucker for fucking beautiful guitar music in all its forms. And I love to see a young band just taking on the world, going out there and slugging their hearts out.” Big bands of now are, of course, in the mix. Fontaines D.C.—not satisfied with selling out their own mega Finsbury Park mini-festival—will be taking on nearly 30 of Europe’s festivals including Lowlands, Rock en Seine, Øya and OFF in Poland, while their support for their own gig, Amyl and The Sniffers follow closely behind with 11 European festival dates, from BBK in Bilbao to Rock Werchter in Flanders. IDLES are playing Primavera and Bristol Block Party and SOFT PLAY are taking on Hellfest in France, Pinkpop in the Netherlands and Benicàssim. Meanwhile, ready to cause hell lower on the bill, new faces like HotWax will take on TRNSMT in Glasgow and Metronome in Prague.

2025 is the year of the breakout dance festival. Whether it’s established big-hitters like Germany’s Parookaville and All Points East unifying the massive names on all of your electronic playlists from Barry Can’t Swim to Overmono, or London newbies like LIDO (which broke big with Jamie xx topping the bill), Junction 2, Maiden Voyage, drum ’n’ bass special WAH in the City at dock-side venue Silverworks Island, and the Kappa FuturFestival in Turin, bringing you banging B2Bs, you’ll get your DJ fix without the peak Ibiza holiday price tag. Ahead of spots at FuturFestival and London’s RALLY, Floating Points will take his handcrafted, six-stack Sunflower Soundsystem to Silver Hayes at Glastonbury (and he’ll play the Woodsies stage as well). Alongside him at Worthy Farm, A.G. Cook injects PC Music brashness into Lonely Hearts Club at Silver Hayes, and PinkPantheress brings some of her “Illegal” activity to the Woodsies stage, while Sonny Fodera promises Arcadia some big house sound. Peggy Gou is going glam in Cannes with Les Plages Électroniques, while Justice bring the “Neverender” lasers to Madrid’s Mad Cool. Those in search of a harder edge need to look no further than Parookaville and Tomorrowland, Belgium, which promise plenty from the gang-busting names like Martin Garrix, Dimitri Vegas, David Guetta and Swedish House Mafia, as well as hardstyle breakthroughs like Yellow Claw, who also play Electric Love, Salzburg with Major Lazer. France’s Festival Beauregard boasts some big dance names like Gesaffelstein and 2manydjs sprinkled across their main stage against the luxurious backdrop of the stately chateau in Hérouville-Saint-Clair. In Ireland, iconic dance Ballinlough Castle festival Body & Soul announced it was no more after 15 years, instead launching a secret-location one-off event called A.Wake. It promises “one final dance” that will be “rooted in the energy of an Irish wake” with no lineup, no sponsors and all proceeds to charity. Expect a raucous send-off. But it’s Amsterdam’s Dekmantel that has made a specialism of bringing all of your electronic heroes to one place. Honey Dijon, who will headline, amid her spots at Barcelona’s Sónar, WECANDANCE in Bruges and Italy’s Polifonic—as well as her own Finsbury Park show Honey F*cking Dijon In The Park in August—told Apple Music Radio in 2020: “I never would have imagined that I would be headlining festivals. The visibility of a trans woman of colour being able to do this hasn’t been done before. It [has] allowed me to open doors for people that are inspired to do what I do.”

Call it brave, call it slightly misguided, but folk love to take their kids along for the festival ride. And while you’re definitely going to need a bit more equipment than a four-pack of loo roll and a tent shaped like a dog kennel, there are homes away from home on the scene which offer great music and a slightly more age-appropriate vibe for fans from one to 100. Lake swimming with the whole family at Latitude with Fatboy Slim and Basement Jaxx in the background; your nine-year-old learning yoga and circus skills from a friendly DBS-checked pirate while you bask in back-to-back Cassandra Jenkins, Perfume Genius and John Grant at Green Man: getting wild at a festival doesn’t have to mean mud-sliding to the Portaloos drenched in beer (although toddlers may attempt it). Victorious in Portsmouth is even bringing big guns Sonic the Hedgehog and Peppa Pig as special guests. Oh to be in the VIP lounge with those guys. Lollapalooza Berlin hosts its own Kidzapalooza within the site, and headliners from backflipping Benson Boone to a Trolls-era Justin Timberlake ensure there’ll be no tears back at the tent. Elsewhere, mid-2000s acts like Vampire Weekend, Foster the People and Empire Of The Sun will throw back to your youth—but it’ll be your 13-year-old niece wearing the indie-sleaze disco leggings. The drive to be green is also a common ethos for these particular festivals—with eco credentials listed as high as the top-billing artists. We Love Green was of course founded on its quest for sustainability, while Glastonbury asks its patrons to “Love the farm. Leave no trace”, which sounds like a COVID slogan and a moderately threatening murder mystery plot. And thus, speakers political, literary and comedic come with the territory with Green Man excitedly boasting Stewart Lee and Alexandra Haddow alongside Wet Leg.