4. Bonnaroo
When: June 13-16, 2013
Where: Manchester, Tennessee
Over the last decade, no other US music festival has captured the spirit of large greenfield gatherings like the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. Bonnaroo burst onto the scene grabbing headlines along with our hearts as we’ve watched it grow from scrappy newcomer to a full fledged bastion of the season. It may not be the oldest or the largest, but Bonnaroo is the spirit of the quintessential American music festival. Long live The Roo.
5. South by Southwest
When: March 12-17, 2013
Where: Austin, Texas
Auditorium Shores. Photo Credit: Extreme Air Shots
It’s not that South by Southwest takes over Austin — downtown Austin becomes SXSW for nine days in March. Music, art, interactive, panels, comedy, and movies all vie for your attention span. With over 500 artists, SXSW has become so big that mini-festivals have sprouted up to take advantage of travelling artists. Let’s put it this way. You could skip media for a year, come to Austin for the week, and still come out ahead on pop culture.
6. Austin City Limits
When: October 4-6 and 11-13, 2013
Where: Austin, Texas
A surfer goes big at ACL. Photo Credit: ACL Official Site/Steve Wrubel
Yeah, Austin kicks ass when it comes to music festivals which is why we’re covering a second Texas concert. Named after the venerable PBS series, the Austin City Limits Festival heads into its second decade, cementing its reputation as a cultural touchstone of the US. The traditional lineup announcement leads to a flurry of praise and criticism from hipsters, but there’s never any doubt that ACL will not sell out. Taking a page from the Coachella playbook, this year ACL will double down on weekends.
7. Ultra Music Festival
When: March 15-17 and 22-24, 2013
Where: Miami, Florida
No shirt, no problem at Ultra. Photo Credit: Flickr/Ricardo F. Reyes
The largest electronic music festival in the States and one of the most well known in the world, it’s no surprise that Ultra doubled up this year. While most of the country is shivering in parkas, Ultra fans are dancing their asses off in sunny Miami. The lineup is enormous, the girls are beautiful, and you should already be on Kayak searching for a flight.
No love for Oregon- Country Fair and how do you leave off the Burners?
We usually don’t cover fairs on here…
No mention of Electric Daisy Carnival?
“three to four days of the wildest parties on the planet” Try eleven days. Summerfest. Inexcusable omission
What!?!?! Summer Camp in Chillicothe IL. isn’t on here….. because it should be!!!
Trying to spread out the love. See Summer Camp in: Top 10 Camping Festivals 2012
http://www.musicfestivaljunkies.com/2012-music-festival-guide-top-10-camping
How the heck are Electric Forest and Electric Daisy missing from here?!
@Chris — EDC definitely was in the short list. I’m going to have to expand it to 15 for next year. We love Electric Forest as well, but at the time of writing, they only had one season under their belt.
What about lightning in a bottle? or Hornings Hideout? Outside Lands doesn’t deserve to be on that list, you can’t camp at it, which to me is a vital part of the festival experience.
Both awesome festivals, but not really “mega-festivals” although those could definitely be considered for a Top Ten DIY Fest.
To me, camping out is certainly vital for the festival experience, but that’s a personal preference. Big city festivals have their own flavor and throwing down on a super nice hotel in Chicago or New York can be just as fun plus there’s always after hours events happening around the city.
Lol you can tell the creators of this website don’t know there arse from there elbows and are Americans.
probably haven’t even left the states to go to a festival in there lives. they actually believe that the top ten “mega” festivals are all in America… Jokers
Hangout!!…great artists on the beach…enough said!!