With the British weather always likely to turn Glastonbury or Bestival into a gruelling expedition, bookings are up by 30% this year for events abroad where fans can pay less to see the same bands – and the backdrop is the sunny Med or Adriatic
Approaching midnight at the Parc del Fòrum , the Barcelona air was still warm after the heat of the day. On stage, singer-songwriter Jessie Ware was in typically sultry form. At the back of the crowd, Gavin Blane, a 33-year-old Londoner, explained his decision to turn his back on Britain's festival circuit and head abroad.
"It's the best way to get away from our corporate jobs," said Blane. "Have a beach holiday, see some culture and party at night." Blane's choice of festival this summer came down to Glastonbury or Primavera Sound, where Brit old- stagers such as Dexys, the Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine are rubbing shoulders with Ware, Phoenix and Simian Mobile Disco. He has no regrets about opting for the sun. "Here you've got the beach, the hills, the sun. We all know what Glastonbury's like."
After bubbling along nicely for years, mass European music festivals have well and truly arrived. As the UK endures yet another damp squib of a spring and early summer, bookings are up 30% on last year at festicket.com, which caters to the booming demand for listening to British bands in Spain, Croatia, Sweden and beyond. It used to be that a rite of passage would be a weekend away at Reading or Leeds. These days, the average age of a festivalgoer in the UK is 36, and organisers are accused of targeting middle-aged nostalgia junkies with headliners such as the Rolling Stones and Elton John. A younger generation is looking to avoid the mud, rain and endless queues of the traditional British festival and hop on a budget airline.
Tour operators now offer bespoke European festival packages including tickets, flights and accommodation. "Taking in an overseas music festival this summer is a great way of combining two British love affairs – live music and summer holidays abroad," said Sean Tipton of the tour operators trade association Abta.
"Ticket prices in Europe are often much lower than the UK and food and beer is often a lot cheaper too. The range of options is very wide with the added bonus of more predictable weather; the traditional British festival mudbath isn't everyone's idea of fun."
Dan Fahey of Festicket said: "People are definitely looking abroad. It's the discovery angle – when you discover a new band you want be the first to hear it and tell others. This is the same."
He said: "It's not just the cheap flights and cheap beers – European festivals have really upped their game."
Enric Palau, director of Sónar in Barcelona, a pioneering electronic music and multimedia festival that is still going strong after almost 20 years, said he had seen a huge increase in the number of Britons buying tickets.
"We use museum spaces, indoor and outdoor venues in the city – quite different from an outdoor, inland event. Sonar is a city festival; it's a cultural experience in a main European destination. It's not just another headline mainstream event."
Sónar has been held in other cities too, including London (the Royal Festival Hall), São Paulo and Reykjavik.
Festivalgoers at Primavera enjoy the added bonus of a stunning urban setting built from the 1992 Olympics and looking out to a sea that last week was lit up by a full moon. James Swatton, 28, from London, said: "The architecture is stunning; it's unlike any other festival. The layout is quite incredible in the way that you can fast track your way to places. It's all facing out to sea, which is amazing. Plus I like going back and sleeping in a bed.
"You just don't get this kind of lineup anywhere else. Festivals in the UK are stuck in a rut," he said.
Pete Large, 23, agreed: "I love the architecture. It's definitely different in that there's no camping and it's all concrete. I'm used to the mud and the grass."
"English festivals are good, but only if the weather is on your side. If not, it gets frustrating and muddy," said Sylvia de Sousa, 29, from Chiswick, west London. "Being surrounded by the sea makes it feel more relaxed and the lineup is very interesting and eclectic – there's all sorts from Blur and Jessie Ware to Tame Impala."
In recent years, there has also been a surge in dance music production, which is now driving the formation of electronic music festivals. "It's cheaper to put on a festival now," said Adam Saville, clubs editor of DJ Mag. "If you want to book a DJ it might cost £500 for a couple of hours and he will turn up with his memory stick and plug it in. If you want to book a high-profile band you've got to fly the entire band over and sort out their production."
Eastern European destinations have enthusiastically embraced dance music and Croatia has fast become a popular festival destination. This summer, the country is hosting more than 16 festivals, from Love System to Unknown in mid-September – in fact there is barely a weekend when a festival is not happening somewhere along the rocky coastline. Most are UK-organised.
Saville thinks that the festival formula has changed for the better. "The Garden festival in Croatia offers a week-long festival for half the price of a Bestival or Glastonbury ticket. You can get a cheap flight there and stay for the whole week. You're basically getting a holiday and a party thrown in as well."
Croatian authorities have welcomed the tourism-boosting events. "The local authorities don't reject the idea of young people coming across; the locals very much support it," he said.
As for the pilgrim hordes from Britain, going to Croatia was one way of standing out from the crowd. Now that Croatian festivals are almost as crowded as the UK equivalents, it could be time to move on. "Bulgaria is an area that people are focusing on, Latvia has cropped up too, Poland's an interesting one as well," said Saville.
Having had some bad experiences at British festivals, Sean Baker, 24, from London, said he was sick of constantly battling against bad weather and thinks the novelty and excitement of UK festivals has worn off.
If there is a downside, it is that some of the faces in the crowd can seem disappointingly familiar: "It does feel a bit like Dalston-on-sea," admitted Baker. "It feels like we have decamped en masse to the Spanish coast."
FIVE OF THE BEST
BENICàSSIM
The Spanish beach festival features Skream, Queens of the Stone Age and Everything Everything. Held in July.
PUKKELPOP
One of the biggest Belgian open-air festivals, the lineup features Eminem, the xx and Neil Young. August.
MELT!
Located near Berlin in a disused industrial estate. Has a mix of indie rock and techno/house artists such as Alt-J, James Blake and Ellen Allien. Music runs from 3pm to 7am. By day, people relax by the lake. July.
HIDEOUT
Electronic music festival in July in Zrce, Croatia on the island of Pag. Events include pool parties, art installations and boat trips with artists such as Jamie Jones, Julio Bashmore and Four Tet.
EXIT
The Prodigy and Fatboy Slim are playing in the old fortress in Novi Sad, Serbia. July.
