Skiddle’s Guide to Festivals 2013

With the nights getting longer and the bitter cold finally abating in recent weeks, it can only spell one thing: Summer is around the corner, and festival season is about to start!

Its time to get the tent out of the garage, give it a good scrub down, check you’ve got all the tent poles,get a new pair of wellies, and, well, you know the drill.

If you’ve not yet decided which festival you’re going to this year, have no fear, its not too late. We've put together a quick guide to a few of our favourite festivals in 2013.

Don’t forget to our Festival Finder page too, where our unique Festival Search Engine will help you find the ideal festival for you.

May

May sees a number of exciting festivals taking centre stage, but none more impressive than Bristols inner city festivals - Love Saves the Day & Love Saves Sunday on May 25th and 26th respectively. Featuring an impressive lineup that covers the whole spectrum of dance music, ranging from Shy FX and Breakage to Seth Troxler and Jackmaster, with live performances from the always impressive Crazy P, to Sunday’s headliners Chic and Nile Rodgers; Bristol is looking to kick the festival season off in impressive style.

As regards family festival’s, the 31st May - 2nd June sees the welcome return of Uttoxeter race course’s Acoustic Festival. One of the most laid back festivals of the season hosts a wide range of activities for young ones, and a plethora of unplugged talent for your listening pleasure.

June

June sees the arrival of one of the most beautiful festivals of the season: Rockness. Returning to the shores of the iconic Loch Ness in Scotland on 7th-9th June, Rockness boasts headliners such as Basement Jaxx, Ben Howard, Bombay Bicycle Club, Ellie Goulding, Example, Fatboy Slim, Newton Faulkner and Plan B. The winners of NME’s best small festival award two years running are constantly showing other festivals how to get the perfect balance between maintaining a reasonable size, booking big acts, and keeping a fantastic friendly atmosphere. It’s a festival experience unlike any other.

Later on in the month we have the one day spectacle that is High Definition. Essex will be set alight 25th June with some of the highest production values around, state of the art lighting and visuals, as well as a killer Funktion One sound system. High Definition will also feature some of the biggest names in techno, drum 'n' bass, and mainstream dance. For lovers of a good rave up, High Definition is essential.

July

July is shaping up to be a busy month indeed in the festival world, but one of the standout festivals to us, if you fancy making the trip, is Serbia’s Exit Festival. Running from the 10th-14th July, Exit festival has the most unique festival location we’ve encountered. Housed in an old fortress on the banks of the River Danube nearby the beautiful and tranquil city of Novi Sad, and featuring headliners such as Thom Yorke’s Atoms for Peace, Snoop Lion (a.k.a Snoop Dogg) Cee-Lo Green, Fatboy Slim and Eric Prydz, Exit Festival is without a doubt our highlight of the abroad festivals. If you book tickets now you can make use of the buy 4 get the 5th free offer. Act fast before they run out!

Back on home soil though, we have Wireless festival, featuring one off exclusive shows with Jay Z and Justin Timberlake, who on the final day will perform together as a one off must see event. As well as them, many other huge players in the world of pop music and hip hop will be there including the likes of Nas and A Tribe Called Quest. Wireless takes place between the 12th and 14th of July at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

The week after hosts Latitude, a family friendly festival that successfully combines elements of music, art, theatre, comedy, and poetry as well as everything in between to create a truly unique and well loved festival. Highly recommended!

But our favourite for July, and one of your favourite festivals in 2013 has to be Wickerman (obviously, as we're involved!). Held on the 26 & 27th in Dundrennan, Dumfries and Galloway, the stunning surroundings and incredible atmosphere are just a small part of what makes this festival great. With recent headliners announced for the bass camp, as well as Skiddle's own dance tent, and top acts as always in the main arena such as Primal Scream, we can hardly wait for this years edition of the festival.

August

August 8th - 11th sees the arrival of undoubtedly the finest metal festival of the season: Bloodstock Open Air. Featuring headline acts such as Slayer, Lamb of God, and King Diamond, Bloodstock continues to impress both with lineup and production. The Derbyshire festival is an absolute essential for any true metal head.

The 9th - 11th also sees something special for lovers of surfing, waterskiing, in fact, all water sports. Even if you just love the idea of a festival by the beach, you can do no better that Boardmasters. Successfully combining an all action sporting schedule whilst also excelling in producing a chilled out beach festival with great headline acts, Boardmasters is completely unrivalled, and well worth checking out.

August 23-25th sees some of the big hitters come into play, namely Creamfields, Reading and Leeds. Surely no introduction is need for these guys, as Creamfields features 3 days of the biggest names in dance music, and Leeds and Reading feature 3 days of the biggest names in both pop, indie, and metal. With all events being so well loved and religiously attended, they remain some of the biggest festivals in the country, and with good reason. Festival tickets for Creamfields, Reading and Leeds are on sale with Skiddle now.

September

Winding things down as the festival season slowly slips away for another year is Shrewsbury Fields Forever. Another family favourite, Shrewsbury Fields Forever has all the ingredients in place for a great festival: camping, live stages, dance tents, entertainments village and comedy, plus a lot in store for kids too. With excellent transport links too, it's a festival that is almost hassle free to get to, and overall a festival well worth knowing about.

With so many festivals on offer this year, this is just a rough guide to some of our favourites. Don’t forget to check out our unique UK festival guide, and festival search page to help you find your perfect festival for summer 2013!