This is another insanely busy year in music, with festivals across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East every week and weekend of 2026. This year, Bulgaria seems to be having a breakout moment. But there are more and more new festivals from Lisbon to Romania, so maybe tickets will be easier to score.
The music biz is now the concert biz since Spotify, Youtube and the streaming services have cut actual album sales to the point where artists get pennies. Bad news for musicians, but great news for people who love concerts. It’s gotten to the point where superstar EDM DJs such as Calvin Harris and David Guetta are performing somewhere in the world every night, zipping between cities in their Gulfstreams and Bombardier Globals.
Pop stars such as Sabrina Carpenter and rockers such as the Foo Fighters don’t spend as much time on the road, but you’ll be able to catch them at various festivals in Europe this year because there’s not another Glastonbury Festival until 2027.
So, let’s get to the party.
All the biggest EDM-plus events are back, along with a few new ones. The winter ski/party events are over. All in all, a solid start to 2026, though we’re seeing more festivals are sold out. For example, Primavera in Barcelona is only offering to put you on their waiting list.
Best Kept Secret
12, 13 and 14 June, Beekse Bergen, Netherlands (Tilburg)
This festival is in our back yard (Dispatches is headquartered a few miles away in Eindhoven), so you know … we gotta go. And why wouldn’t we? BKS has Jack White, Gorillaz, Nick Cave and a ton of international DJs from Amsterdam, the US, Australia, Berlin and elsewhere. Kinda of a big deal.
Day tickets start at 99 euros and you can get yours here.
Sónar
16 thru 20 June in Barcelona
This quirky festival has been one of Europe’s biggest European for years for a number of reasons including that it’s in Barcelona. But don’t come expecting Calvin Harris or David Guetta. This is more about emerging artists and second-tier Names, industry talks and trends. This year’s list of artists includes Charlotte de Witte, Kelis (“Milkshake”) and Danish musicians/DJs WhoMadeWho, with more to be announced.
You can see the first 30 or so acts in the very surreal video above.
Weekend passes start at 139 euros and you can get yours here.
Aura Festival
19 thru 21 June in Sofia, Bulgaria
Bulgaria seems to be next Dubai, with a slew of new festivals attracting top acts. This new festival in Sofia will have Alok, Armin van Buren, Dimitri Vegas, 999999999, Jesabel and many more.
Three-day tickets start at 112 euros, and you can get them here.
Pinkpop
19 thru 21 June in Landgraaf, Netherlands, on the Dutch/German border near Maastricht
This is the first festival on the 2026 calendar to feature the FooFighters/21 Pilots package, Mad Cool (below) also includes them. But to us, this is a more interesting lineup, with our personal favorites Wet Leg and Sofi Tucker (which is two people, not one). But that’s just us. The truth is, both festivals have monster lineups, so you pays your money and you takes your chances.
If you choose Pinkpop, you’re choosing the biggest, oldest festival (55 years!) in the Netherlands, so get ready. This is a huge deal.
You can get tickets here starting at 305 euros for a weekend pass. This is always a sell-out, so it’s likely you’re just getting on a list.
InMusic Festival
22 thru 24 June in Zagreb
We would be remiss if we didn’t have some Croatia festivals on the list. This funky festival in a funky town has a lineup with a little summin summin for everyone – dad, mom and the kids. On the bill are the acts your parents grooved to back in the 1990s including KT Tunstall, Jack White and the Kings of Leon, along with more current acts such as Any Young Mechanics and their Americana sound, post-punk Dry Cleaning and Fat Dog, who have a sound distilled from the Duran Duran ’80s.
This is your chance to make these new bands your nostalgia bands of 2040.
Single day tickets start at 102 euros (we know, right?) and you can get yours here.
Tons of Rock
24 thru 27 June in Olso
This is one of the largest hard rock/metal festivals in the Nordics, attracting 150,000 attendees over four days last year. This is kinda like an EDM event, with multiple stages and camping, except with some historic bands from yesteryear including Iron Maiden, Limpbiskit, Anthrax and even Alice Cooper, who by our calculations is at least 90 years old. And no EDM.
For whatever reasons, hard rock never seems to fade in Scandinavia.
Tickets are about 4,800 krone, or about 433 euros (it’s Norway) and you can get yours here.
Paradise City Festival
26 thru 28 June at Ribaucourt Castle outside Brussels
Did you know that little Belgium has 3,000 castles, more castles per square kilometer than any other European country? Weird, huh? It also has the biggest EDM festivals including Tomorrowland. So, what better place to party than a castle outside Brussels … and it’s a big party. We count 60 acts announced so far for this festival. They include Carista, Mall Grab, ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U from Tokyo on his European tour, Richie Hawtin, Zip and Lola Haro.
Tickets are 99 euros and there aren’t many left.
Later in the year
Montreux Jazz Festival
3 thru 18 July, Montreux, Switzerland
Oh, to be jamming on Lake Geneva in July! We’ll, here’s your chance. This is one of the most famous music (the name says “jazz,” but it’s really all genres) festivals in the world. Everyone has played here from Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald to Sting and Led Zeppelin. (You can see the entire long, long list here.)
We don’t see a list yet for 2026 acts, but maybe that makes it a good time to get tickets since it’s not likely a bunch of nobodies are going to be on stage. Last year’s acts included Diana Ross, Lionel Richie, Neil Young and Chaka Khan, along with breakout artists RAYE, Sam Fender and Shaboozey. We’ll update this post as names are announced.
Tickets start at 300 Swiss francs and you can get them here.
Mad Cool 2026
8 to 11 July in Madrid
When we first saw the lineup, we thought this was a hoax.
Foo Fighters, Twenty One Pilots, Nick Cave, Moby, Kings of Leon, War on Drugs, Teddy Swims and the Black Crows all at one festival. But it turns out they’re playing as a package all over Europe, which is cool. Also, Mad Cool will have K-pop sensation Jennie, Lorde and the Pixies. More than 70 acts, according to the Mad Cool website, though the lineup is EDM free.
Okay, the acts lean a bit toward Gen Y Spotify play lists, but who doesn’t like Dave Grohl? In all his incarnations ….
Anyway, with this kind of lineup, this is going to be a sellout, so we’re telling you about it early,
Four day passes start at 240 euros and you can get yours here.
Awakenings
10 to 12 July in Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands, west of Eindhoven on the Netherlands/Belgium border
Monumental Productions puts on a number of festivals and parties, and Awakenings Festival is their biggest event. There are like a thousand performances on who knows how many stages in the middle of nowhere, Netherlands. (We couldn’t figure it out from the website, and there are no explainers … worst website ever.)
We did figure out from the jumbled graphics that Ben Klock, 999999999, Marco Carola, Richie Hawtin, Charlotte De Witte, Boris Brejcha, Adriatique, I Hate Models, Len Falki and Adam Beyer are all on the bill. Tickets start at 66.95 and you can get yours here.
Ultra Europe
10 thru 12 July in Split, Croatia
Another mega event. Croatia in July is guaranteed to be off-the-scale hot, and this festival will just add to the heat. Calvin Harris. Martin Garrix. I Hate Models. Dominic Louis Matheson, better known as Dom Dolla, from Australia. All on the shores of the Adriatic.
Shockingly, this isn’t sold out as of late April.
So, how much will all this fabulousness set you back? A mere 229 euros, though we’re wondering if wars and tariffs aren’t going to result in surcharges. So you might wanna buy you’re now … and you can get them here.
A note: You can get an idea of how profitable these things are by how elaborate the after-party vids are. Check out the UE video above and tell us we’re wrong.
PhillGood
17 thru 19 July in Plovdiv, Bulgaria
This is a brand new festival, yet somehow, some of the tickets are already sold out. That could be because its one of the many festivals that feature The Cure, Gorillaz and Moby as sort of a package deal. The “about” section of the event Facebook page says this festival is about making Bulgaria the next be concert destination. And it is in a historic town, which adds to the ambiance. We get it ….
Don’t forget that this is the first year of the euro in Bulgaria, so that will at least make it easier to calculate your budget.
Day passes start at 61 euros and you can get yours here.
Tomorrowland
17 thru 19 July, and 24 thru 26 July in Boom, Belgium
Both weekends of Tomorrowland are technically sold out (of course), but you can get on the wait list here.
Untold
6 thru 9 August in Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Untold is kind of a big deal this year. If we named all the Names, we’d be here all day. But we can tell you they include Chainsmokers, Carl Cox, Afrojack, Martin Garrix, Marshmello, Steve Aoki and (weirdly) Sting. Then there’s Zara Larsson, the Swedish Sabrina Carpenter, along with a number of local acts.
When we say this is a big deal, yes, the lineup is big. But this is physically big – just you and 349,999 other music lovers.
Four-day passes start at about 1,000 lev, or 500 euros and you can get yours here.
Sziget
11 thru 15 August on Óbuda Island in Budapest
Putin’s puppet and EU super villain Viktor Orbán just got voted out as prime minister, so we’re adding Hungary to our list of expat-friendly nations. And to celebrate, we can think of no better place than Sziget festival his year,
Headliners include Bring Me the Horizon, Florence + the Machine, Skrillex, Dom Dolla, Taylor Swift’s BFF Lewis Capaldi, break out artist Sombr (“Back to Being Friends”) and 21 Pilots. A little something for everyone, with a crazy number of artists on multiple stages.
This being Hungary, day tickets for his lineup start at 99 euros, and full festival passes are 339 euros. Primitive camping is free, though you can pay to upgrade to something approaching luxury. You can get all tickets here.
International festivals
JAPAN
Fuji Rock Festival draws 100,000 people to Naeba Ski Resort (famous in Japan) on the side of Japan’s most famous mountain. This is Niigata Prefecture, famous for skiing, mountains and national parks. So the destination is at least part of the draw.
The other part is a zany lineup of international and Asian acts. This year, the xx and Massive Attack are headliners, and local stars include Badbadnotgood and Ogre You Asshole. I mean, come on … you’ll wanna see them.
You can see ticket options here.
SOUTH AFRICA
Wolfkop Weekender returns from 14–18 January 2027. Marketed as “South Africa’s leading boutique music festival,” Wolfkop is set amid a World Heritage setting of rugged mountains, orchards and open grassland.
This is a showcase for African talent and international DJs, and genres including disco, house and “feel-good electronic energy,” according to the release we got. And this is kind of cool: Wolfkop is home to the largest glamping village in South Africa. So you won’t be roughing it.
This is one of those Instagramable beautiful people gatherings, with music, wellness, art and food. You can see the ticket options here.
