Covid-19 destroyed the festival industry by hitting it hard for over a year already. Now, organizers and producer of some of the world’s biggest music festivals believe the world is getting closer to controlling this pandemic and that people are now ready to get back to the venues as early as this summer.
With all the new vaccinations hitting the markets around the world, there’s hope that music festival goers may soon gather together to celebrate our favorite music and life. For the past few months, we have been following developments around the world and are ready to compile what you can consider an extensive list of the festivals and events that will be happening in the coming months of 2021.
In summer 2021, you can expect events like EDC Las Vegas, Seismic Dance Event in Texas, Boomtown, Parklife & Creamfields in England, A State of Trance in the Netherlands, Bonaaroo in the USA and many more!
According to Pollstar, a concert trade publication, the summer of 2021 will be a significant boost to a live event industry that lost $30 billion in revenue in 2020. Live Nation, the biggest live-event company in the world by ticket sales, reported $1.5 billion in concert revenue last year compared to $9.4 billion in 2019. In addition to AEG, the second biggest live-event company, they were forced to lay off or furlough hundreds of employees last year.
Please note that this article is compiling the list based on the available information as of April 24, 201. Please keep in mind that festival information is changing constantly right now with cancellations, postponements, and reschedules happening on a daily basis. If you have a question about a particular festival, it’s best to confirm on their official website to have a better and more official idea of things.
How Summer Festivals Are Planning To Return
Compared to sports events and going to the movies, concerts have been slow to resume normal operation especially when you consider the nature of a concert and multi-day festivals, returning safely creates major complications. For many, the experience of cramming lots of people into tight areas to listen to music and dance together is part of the appeal and this cannot be done at the time being. Throughout the pandemic, some promoters did try to create drive-in events which was a unique way of keeping their business alive during those uncertain times. You can read all about it in our article here. We also shared our essential tips to enjoy Drive-ins to the max.
Some big festivals decided trying to come back this summer was too much of a stretch and too risky based on the current situation. Coachella in California will not return until 2022, Variety reported. Ultra Music Festival in Miami and the Glastonbury Festival in Somerset, England, are among the notable festivals to skip the 2021 summer season.
Whether or not a festival can go ahead this year depends a lot on the health guidelines of its local jurisdiction. In Florida, a state with lax Covid-19 rules, for instance, major music festivals have already returned, with more planned for late spring.
Photo Credit: aLIVE for EDC
Events Happening In Spring 2021
States like Florida and Texas in the USA dropped all restrictions, so festival season is going to happen there. Whether it’s safe or not remains to be seen. While most of these festivals skew towards the smaller size, the first major test of festival season will be what happens with Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas. So far EDC has confirmed dates, but not many details beyond that.
- Ubbi Dubbi |April 24-25 in Texas, USA
- Rolling Loud | May 7-9 in Florida, USA
- Bass In The Grass 2021 | May 15 in Darwin, Australia
- Seismic Dance Event | May 28-29 in Texas, USA
- Sea Star Festival 2021 | May 28-29, Umag, Croatia
- This Is Tomorrow 2021 | May 28-30, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
Events Happening In Summer 2021
It is important to note that the UK has taken the lead here as their government has announced that restrictions should be ended by June 21. The Netherlands is also aiming for a festival season that starts after July 1st. With this info at hand, some of the bigger festivals are working on putting on their shows with full steam ahead.
- Psychedelic Circus Open Air Festival | June 3-7, Göhlen, Germany
- Saga 2021 | June 4-6, Bucharest, Romania
- Diynamic Festival Amsterdam | June 5, Netherlands
- Forbidden Kingdom | June 11-12, Florida, United States
- OFFSónar 2021 | June 17-20, Barcelona, Spain
- Wireless Festival | July 2-4, England
- Down the Rabbit Hole | July 2-4, Netherlands
- Mad Cool Festival | July 7, Madrid, Spain
- Airbeat One | 7-11 July, Neustadt-Glewe, Germany
- The Rochester Castle Concerts | July 8, Rochester, United Kingdom
- Hydrotechnics | July 22-25, New York, United States
- Global Dance Festival | July 23-24, Denver, United States
- Outlook Origins Festival | July 29, Tisno, Croatia
- Nature One 2021 | July 30, August 1, Kastellaun, Germany
- MEO Sudoeste Festival | August 3-7, Zambujeira do Mar (Odemira), Portugal
- Defected Croatia | August 5, Tisno, Croatia
- DAY.MVS | August 7-8, San Diego, California, United States
- Boomtown | August 11-18, England
- Summer Camp | August 20-22, Illinois, United States
- Bass Canyon| August 20-22, Washington, United States
- Lowlands | August 20-22, Netherlands
- Tomorrowland | August 27-29, September 3-5, Boom, Belgium
- Ground Zero Festival | August 28, Wilp, Netherlands
The below festivals are happening in September 2021:
- A State of Trance | September 3-4, Netherlands
- World Club Dome | September 3, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
- Rocklahoma | September 3-5, United States
- Neighbourhood Weekender | September 3-5, Warrington, United Kingdom
- Tranzmission | September 5, Morden, United Kingdom
- Bonnaroo | September 3-5, United States
- Lost In Dreams | September 4-5, Las Vegas, United States
- Forbidden Forest | September 4, Bourne, United Kingdom
- Feakazoid Robots | September 4-5, Texas, United States
- Hideout | September 5-9, Novalja, Croatia
- Transmission | September 11, Prague
- Parklife | September 11-12, England
- Isle of Wight | September 16, Newport, United Kingdom
- Imagine Music Festival | September 17-19, Atlanta, United States
- 90’s Baby Dance Indoor Festival | September 17, England
- Hospitality In The Woods | September 18, Beckenham, United Kingdom
- Treefort Music Fest 2021 | September 22-26, Idaho, United States
- Firefly | September 23-26, United States
We do not sell, share or communicate your personal information. Read our privacy policy to learn more.
Notable events in October & November 2021:
- Austin City Limits | October 1-10, United States
- Hardly Strictly Bluegrass | October 1-3, United States
- Sandjam Music Festival | October 1-3, United States
- Aftershock Festival | October 7-10, United States
- Amsterdam Dance Event | October 13-17, Netherlands
- Boiler Room | Octover 13-16, London, United Kingdom
- Utopiafest | October 14-16, United States
- AMF 2021 | October 16, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Electric Daisy Carnival | October 22-24 in Nevada, USA
- Day of the Deadmau5 | October 23-31, United States
- Time Warp | October 30, Germany
- Terminal V 2021 | October 30-31, England
- PURE Brisbane 2021 | November 13, Australia
- Dreamstate SoCal | November 19-20, United States
- Audiotistic Bay Area | November 20-21, United States
- We Are Mexico | November 20-25, Mexico
- Loollapalooza Chile | November 26-28, Chile
- Loollapalooza Argentina| November 26-28, Argentina
The below festivals have been moved to 2022:
- Glastonbury (England)
- Hangout Fest (United States)
- Ultra Music Festival (United States)
- Download Festival (England)
- Hurricane Festival (Germany)
- EDC Portugal (Portugal)
- Tomorrowland (Belgium)
Events that are returning this summer and fall season will probably look a lot different than what attendees were used to prior to the pandemic. Masks will likely be mandatory at many of those. Timed entries (to reduce long lines) and contactless payments will be the norm. Some, like the Exit festival in Serbia, might require ticket-holders to either provide proof of vaccination or agree to a rapid Covid-19 test before entering. In any case, there’s hope and things will be looking up from here onward. That is, when the global numbers of people facing and struggling with this virus start to become as minimal as possible. We sure hope we’ll be able to enjoy these events and get back to celebrating music and the lives that we all hold so dear.