This book really focuses on current music festivals and is not a historical look at music festivals. There is some mention of them but not a lot. The book is a straight guide with everything you need to know. It is filled with facts and photographs. It is a good practical travel guide and makes a fun read for arm chair travelers. Enjoy

I did enjoy perusing this book. It contains information and photos of many music festivals that I have not had the chance to attend or even know about including international offerings.. It is not all inclusive, however. The beginning pages include the photos and description of each festival and there are lists at the back of the volume arranged by country, genre and calendar month. It is not a history, but a reference book. My thanks to the author and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of this book.

The author’s definition of a “festival” will determine whether this book is for you.
I’ve been attending “folk” and bluegrass festivals for 50 years and so this new book published in the UK (but available in US) was of great interest to me. I thought it would concentrate on just UK fests but – when I read it – I saw I was wrong. It IS international. But it is limited in it’s scope. The author (a British music journalist) uses his own definition of a “Festival”. The earliest one is Woodstock (which was only one year) while most are still on going (Glastonbury, Splendour in the Grass in Australia). But important ones, like The Atlantic City Pop Festival (a week before Woodstock) and Monterey Pop and Monterey Jazz Festivals are missing. Legendary music fests like both the Newport Folk and Newport Jazz Fests – both still going – are not here. The same goes for the Philadelphia Folk Festival (at 60 years, the longest continuing folk festival.
The 224-page paperback has over 50 “festivals” included with 2-3 pages devoted to each one. There is no logical order to the listings – but still fun to look though. There are some handy listings in the back that will let me show you the variety included. One is by “music genre”. Some festivals overlap. The smallest genre is Afrobeats (two) with the largest being a tie between “Electronic” and “Rock”. Another genre that is large is “House” and “Techno”. “Folk” has about 10 as does “jazz”. There a five under “soul”.
There is a listing by month so you can plan your calendar (if the Fest is still ongoing, of course). Obviously, June through August are the popular months though there are fests every moth.
Another list is the location by country. The UK and US dominate this list, but you’ll find a fest in Uganda and one in Denmark and TWO in Hong Kong.
So, I did enjoy reading the book though there were way too many “Techno, EDM and Electronic fests for me. But if that is your style of music, you’ll find a lot here.
Steve Ramm
“Anything Phonographic”

Not quite what I was expecting, this book is more a high-level guide to festivals of the aughts and 2010s rather than a look back at the history of music festivals (there were a few given slight mention, like Woodstock, but not many). Some entries had tons of photos, some had one > would've liked more balance there (as well as more photos of the festival grounds rather than just brightly strobing stages). Most of the listings were VERY high-level, but there were a few that dug into the origins of the festival and told a bit about the creators, which is where this book really shone for me. But ultimately, by the end, most of these parties just began to sound the same.

Entertaining and informative overview of major music festivals, current and past. Every festival has a brief history with some great photos and a summary of major events and headliners. I wish it was more in depth, but still there’s a lot of info about a lot of festivals. This would make a great coffee table book or gift for anyone who loves live music (especially festivals, of course), to reminisce about where they’ve been and perhaps plan their next trip.

I’m so grateful to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing - White Lion for giving me the opportunity to read and review Festivals.

Precisely the book one might find themselves picking up (and writing) in the second year of an event-cancelling pandemic.

As the blurb promises, Festivals selects 50 of the most significant, interesting, or otherwise cool fests around the globe to highlight with a page of text and several images. The book is to serve as an overview, a coffee table book, a travel inspiration, something to leaf through in lockdown.

Oliver Keens – the author – is clearly knowledgeable and passionate about the festival scene, maintaining a joyous tone and peppering the text with silly facts only a rave veteran would know. The selection seems mostly guided by his sense of what is reasonable to include and is thus permeated with a certain air of Britishness.
Some of the events on the list are long dead, others – ongoing, some are large, others – small. One finds essentials like Woodstock, globally famous names like Tomorrowland or Dekmantel, and the smaller local affairs like Malawi’s Lake of Stars all mentioned alongside each other. The photos accompanying each brief article are beautiful and the best part of the book.

There are also indexes of festivals alphabetically and by country featured in the end, reminding one how many had to be left without a description (and how many without being mentioned even in the index! Truly the world of fun is big one).

Overall, a wonderful little book for a festival-lover to have.

Thanks for the chance to read through this book in exchange for honest feedback. I thought this book was a great idea. I hadn't seen anything like this before and I enjoy reading about music, UK stuff, etc. Festival culture is something very unique and definitely is worth reading about. I think the execution was quite top notch. It wasn't too detailed but kept a great balance.

Not sure who this book is aimed at. It’s a brief look at many of the world,s more we’ll known festivals but with little insight that you wouldn’t find on a basic Wikipedia entry. Not terrible just inessential.

Festivals: A Music Lover’s Guide to the Festivals You Need to Know by Oliver Keens is an amazing book filled with pictures and history about music festivals all over the world. Would make a great gift for any live music lover. #Festivals #NetGalley

Festivals is a fascinating study of festivals and the role they play in society. The writing is well done, and the profiles of the different festivals are extremely interesting.

I think during the pandemic we have all gained a new appreciation for social events such as festivals, and this makes the retelling of festival history really poignant!

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As a HUGE fan of festivals and live music, this book was just what I needed after this last year. A year without live music and socializing took its toll on so many of us. This book brought to life what is so special about the festival community. I loved reading about so many people and places. Absolutely recommend!

Couldn't read - I thought it was available on Kindle. I'll read it when it's out since it looks fascinating for music fans.

While I am not made for music festivals, I really enjoy reading about them and pretending that they are something that I can attend.  Festivals is a music lovers' guide to the festivals you need to know.  It starts in the 60s and chronologically talks about some of the biggest music festivals around the world and there are a TON of really awesome photos throughout this book. (And I just love the throwback 60s./70s vibe to the font used for the title!)  There is a page or so about each festival with how it started, if it's still happening, where it's located and then a few photos.  If you're a festival go-er, definitely check this book out to see what ones you might want to hit up next!

I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

I'm so going to buy this, what a book to have on your shelf! I've missed my festivals this past few years, but adore the Isle of Wight festival, being an island girl myself. And my parents being goers of the original art afton. Fabulous photos & great insights into each individual festival.

File under "optimistic". If you'd got books about such things as free tourism destinations in London lined up, as this publisher has had, sometimes you have to ignore global medical conditions and just get them out there. Ditto this volume, which speeds us through a directory of the major festivals of the musical world, in chronological order of starting. Of course it mentions Woodstock, but generally it's current ones you can go to – provided they're running healthily, that is.

So the contents are pretty much guessable, from Glasto down to Bestival, Love Parade to Lollapalooza, Coachella to Primavera. Certainly when it gets to the non-British events it introduces me to a few I'd never heard of – Iceland Airwaves, Nyege Nyege, and such like. A quick rack of my brains only left Open'er on the creators' reject pile from abroad, although I am sure some people with greater knowledge will dismiss this as slight and incomplete.

So what do we get as those contents? Well, each entry gets a short essay, nicely-pitched in length and never hysterical about the alleged merits of half a million stoned hippies giving each other the clap in a field of shit, alongside the factoid box-out, the databank where it tells us date of origin, and lists notable sets and "kindred spirit" events, etc. The rest is archive photography, and that mixes wildly between randoms in the crowd, Burning Man locales, and famous faces doing their thang.

What it boils down to, then, is a little hard to define. It's not anything like as comprehensive as that there Internet thing for finding out where to go, and it's not got the depth of an academic survey of the festival concept. But it does take us from the days of "send your postal order to..." to the corporate, ever-crashing Glasto website of today, in warm-hearted fashion. It's not the headliner, but nor is it the novelty opener; this is in the inoffensive please-all slot.

Wow! What a beautiful, emotion provoking book! After going without live music for the past year this book truly hit the spot. Festivals covers around 50 festivals from around the world. Each piece includes pictures, a summary, and also stats, such as whether the festival is still in existence or not, the year(s) that it ran, as well as the musical line up. The pictures alone make this worth the read. Perfect coffee table book. I can’t wait to get my hands on a hardcover copy. Five nostalgic stars. Thank you to the Quarto Publishing Group- White Lion and NetGalley for an advanced e-copy in exchange for my honest review.