Festivals. December

December is a month of intensive preparation for celebrating the New Year. However, as in the other months of the calendar, at this time plenty of interesting events take place at various points around the planet, deserving of the attention of electronic music lovers. Even if you're not planning any trips in order to save your energy and finances, it won't hurt to dream about where you could set off after your favourite artists… For your attention, an overview of December's main music festivals.

If on frosty December days you've felt a craving for a little exotica, then hurry to attend the House Ship party, which will take place in Brazil aboard a huge, comfortable liner. Awaiting you is a captivating three-day cruise across boundless waters to the rhythms of house music. The liner sets off from the port city of Santos, which is one of the favourite holiday spots for residents of the state and the metropolis. The event's line-up is as follows: Nic Fanciulli, Phonique, Satoshi Tomiie, Solomun, Buga, Dennis Ferrer, Funk D'Void, John Digweed, Joao Lee, Shlomi Aber and others. Attending the House Ship party is a fairly expensive pleasure. At the moment the cheapest tickets have already been bought up. The cost of staying in the liner's plush cabins comes to roughly $1,000. On www.youtube.com you can find plenty of amateur video from the party, for example this→.

On 6 December, in the Dutch town of Utrecht, known the world over for its trance events, the Essence music festival will take place. The entire Jaarbeurs Exhibition Centre pavilion will be divided into three large arenas: You! (trance arena), Me! (techno arena) and Everybody! (house arena). Performing: Armin Van Buuren, ATB, Ben Sims, Chris Lake, Dubfire, Etienne De Crecy (live), Joris Voorn, Kurd Maverick, Markus Schulz, Monika Kruse, Rank1 (live), Richard Durand, Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano, Wally Lopez. A notable feature of the festival is the presence of individual lockers for every visitor, where they can leave their belongings, while for the girls there will be special pink lockers with mirrors! Ticket price — 39.50 euros.

At an Austrian ski resort, the RaveOnSnow electronic music festival will be held for the 15th time. Back in 1993, a few DJs and 60 enthusiasts set off for the Alps and threw the first party on the snow there. Since then the event has grown popular, and every year thousands of clubbers from all over the world flock here! Awaiting you is a real rave on the snow, snowboarding to live performances and DJ sets. Performing: Chris Liebing, Loco Dice, Radio Slave, Pascal Feos, Marco Carola, Dominik Eulberg, Raresh, Guido Schneider, Mathias Kaden, Markus Kavka, Patrick Lindsey, Oliver Koletzki, Florian Meindl, Virginia, Pedro, Jens Zimmerman, Dario Zenker, Simone Anes, Chris Wood, Emerson, Manon, Joseph Disco, Sascha Appel&Der Breuer, Andy Catana, Crazy Sonic, PPF, Alma Gold, Steve Ramone, Random, Michael Noak, Lexy & K Paul (live), Martin Buttrich (live), Dapayk&Padberg (live), Format B (live), Patrick Baer (live) and many others. Details on prices and ticket ordering, as well as on transfers and hotels, can be found on the event's official website.

On 13 December, on Sentosa Island, Southeast Asia's largest dance music festival ZoukOut will take place, organised by Singapore's most famous nightclub, Zouk. Tens of thousands of people will dance on the sand to music of various styles — from house to hip-hop and R&B. The event's line-up is made up of the following artists: Nouvelle Vague (live), Henrik Schwarz, Erol Alkan, Dirty South, Sasha, The Taanagers, Above & Beyond, Dimitri From Paris, MSTRKRFT, Yoda, Tony Tay, Moods, Andrew Chow and many others. In advance sales a ticket can be ordered here→ for $48, while on the day of the event it will cost $58.

In the pre-New-Year days, on the beach of the resort town of Candolim in Goa, the hugely popular electronic music festival Sunburn will take place. In India it's the height of summer at this time, so awaiting you is bright warm sun, swimming in the Indian Ocean, and a variety of entertainment to the best dance music non-stop. The three-day festival's line-up includes the names of world-class DJs. Performing: GMS (Live) (Growling Mad Scientists), Eddie Halliwell, Shapeshifters, Richard Durand, Pearl, Jalebee Cartel, Copyright, Midival Punditz, Roger Shah, ATFC, Order Of Essence, Norman Doray, Simon Dunmore, Tatva Kundalini (Live), Brute Force, Karan Third, Swen Weber, Nawed Khan, Sanjay Dutta, Clement, Vachan Cinappa, Charlee, Maarten Klein, Shovell (Percussion), RayG, Pereira, Kris Correa, DJ Ajit. Tickets will be available to book shortly on the festival's official website, or you can buy them right at the entrance. They say that once you've been to Goa, you'll return there time after time, at the risk of staying there forever!

The weekend before the New Year can also be spent in New Zealand, in the small city of Gisborne at the Rhythm & Vines festival. This event takes place on a picturesque winery lawn, and the artists themselves perform on amphitheatres erected right in the vineyards! This year the festival expects to draw around 20,000 people who, on the night of 31 December into 1 January, will chant "Happy New Year!" in unison to the rhythms of red-hot music. Performing: Adam Freeland, Ajax, A-Trak, Busy P & DJ Medhi, Carl Cox, Disco not Disco, Dijitalism (live), Emerson Todd, Recloose (live), Sampology feat Tom Thumb Shihad, SJD, So So Modern, The Black Seeds, The Constituents, The Coshercot Honeys, The Datsuns, The Enright House, The Kooks, The Mystery Jets, The Naked and Famous, The Phoenix Foundation, The Ruby Suns, The Secret Knives, Trei, Tim Richards, Unity Pacific, Vinyl Slingers and many others. You can buy festival tickets here→.