Lifestyle Travel
For more lifestyle visit list.co.uk/travel
Open’er Festival Dour Festival
Dum Dum Girls
Arcade Fire
Soundwave Mogwai
Fest and furious If you’ve got all summer (and perhaps your student loan) to play with, Anna Millar suggests you attempt The List’s six-event European festival crawl. Good luck
Open’er (30 Jun–3 Jul) is the suitably named starting point for our festival marathon. Set on an airfield in Gdynia, north Poland, the crowd-pleasing music event recently picked up the Best Major Festival prize at the European Festival Awards. It’s a four-day party with seven stages, 120 artists, films, theatre shows and music regularly playing until 5am. This year’s line- up features favourites Pulp, M.I.A., The National and Cut Copy. Better still, the airstrip’s just 40 minutes from Gdansk airport, allowing you ample time to take in a little extra Polish nightlife and culture. Getting there: Fly from Edinburgh to Gdansk direct with Lufthansa or Ryanair. Flights start at around £80 one-way. ■ opener.pl/en
From opening to exiting, EXIT (7–10 Jul) in Serbia is a cut above most Eastern European fests, set as it is within an old Petrovaradin Fortress in Novi Sad, outside Belgrade. Started by students in 2000, EXIT has found cult status, especially as the favourable exchange rate promises good bang for your buck. This year’s line-up offers Arcade Fire, Portishead and Grinderman to name but three. A four-day pass starts at just £89 and affords you access to 400 international and Serbian performers playing over 20 stages. Getting there: Fly from Gdansk to Budapest with Wizz Air. Flights start from £65 one-way. Then catch the MTB bus from Budapest to Novi Sad for 35euros. ■ eng.exitfest.org 30 THE LIST 28 Apr–26 May 2011
Forget the beers, Belgium’s Dour Festival (14–17 Jul) is about as heavy as it comes. It showcases a staggering 17 hours of music each day, from noon–5am. Six stages and 200 bands and DJs ensure the party never ends – with a 2011 line-up topped by Mogwai, Cypress Hill, Public Enemy and Pendulum, but padded out by almost every alternative or electronic act you’d want to catch this summer. Set in the beautiful Hainault region, this is the perfect location if you’re jumping off from Lille, Brussels, or even Paris and Amsterdam. Getting there: Fly direct from Budapest to Brussels with Brussels Air for around £275. From Brussels, hop on the train to St Ghislain where you can grab one of the free shuttle buses that run throughout the day to the festival grounds. ■ dourfestival.be/en With the laidback vibe of Berlin and the coastal delights of Southern France to call on, Croatian tourism is currently in vogue, with a plethora of music fests to sample. There’s a whole season of festivals at the idyllic Garden Petrcane site, near Zadar, of which the List pick is Soundwave (22–24 Jul). Set amidst private coves and clear blue seas, think beach and boat parties and you won't be disappointed. This year's line-up includes Roots Manuva and Little Dragon, and tickets start at £89. Getting there: Flights from Brussels to Zagreb with easyJet start at £106 one-way. ■ soundwavecroatia.com
Poland’s quirky underground music scene has yet to fully receive the kudos it deserves but Katowice’s OFF Festival (5–7 Aug) is certainly doing its bit for the cause. Boutiquey and just a wee bit brilliant, OFF’s ethos is to bring as many big acts to Poland for the first time as possible, while leaving ample room to celebrate the country’s incredible homegrown talent. Organiser Artur Rojek has become a bit of a cultural icon himself, this year attracting Primal Scream playing Screamadelica, Gang Of Four, Mogwai, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Deerhoof and lots more. Best of all, early bird tickets start at £25 for the weekend. Getting there: Either catch a train from Zagreb to Katowice via Warsaw, or fly Zagreb-Krakow with Germanwings for around £140. ■ off-festival.pl/en/2011 Finally, round things off with the mighty La Route du Rock (12–14 Aug) in St Malo, France. Hang out in this ridiculously pretty seaside city as Mogwai, Battles and Here We Go Magic rock out. This is about watching ace line-ups in a goregous location, so expect to enjoy beach stages by day and some atmospheric gigs by night in St Malo’s castle. Weekend tickets start at £51. Getting there: Fly from Krakow to Paris with Ryainair (£45) and catch the TGV south to St Malo (also around £45, booked in advance). ■ laroutedurock.com/pages/english.htm