Packing Our Bags!

Summer is just around the corner! It's time to plan holidays and fun trips with music, dancing, beaches and holiday romances. 44100Hz presents a review of the hottest electronic music festivals taking place in May and June 2008 in Europe and America...

The Nuits Sonores festival, held in the French city of Lyon, effectively opens the spring-summer run of global music forums. It was created five years ago as a response to Spain's "Sonar", but it doesn't copy its illustrious predecessors — it goes its own way. What makes Nuits Sonores distinctive is that the festival takes place across many different venues scattered around the city — from the National Opera, an ice rink and a site built on the grounds of an abandoned factory (where most of this year's nighttime dance programme will be held) to numerous small clubs, bars and galleries. The downside of such a layout is that, with this geography, moving quickly between venues is extremely difficult. That said, the schedule is arranged so that you generally don't have to dash about, and thanks to the venues being spread out you can get to know the city better. A ticket for all the events at once costs 125 euros. You can also buy them separately, but if you want to see even half of it — go ahead and get the "season pass". Nuits Sonores is an urban festival; the audience stays in local hotels, of which there's no shortage — you can study the choice of hotels online, and online booking is available almost everywhere too. The only advice: it's better to book a room and buy your festival ticket in advance, as the rush may already begin in the second half of April.

There's no particular genre format at the festival — each year it plays whatever is most current at that moment, plus there are certain timeless favourites. What, for instance, is a French festival without Laurent Garnier? This time Laurent is preparing an all-night jam with the group Agoria. Among this year's headliners are Underworld, Cobblestone Jazz, Francois K, Antipop Consortium, Apparat & The Band, Jeff Mills, DJ Krush, Gui Boratto. There's a whole series of "special events" — on the final day there'll be a separate Einstürzende Neubauten concert, while Prefuse 73 will combine music with live video art as part of the festival's multimedia programme. And, as usual, there's a mass of local artists who also deserve close attention — France is a rather advanced country when it comes to electronica.

The most famous techno festival across the ocean takes place, of course, in Detroit. For a long time DEMF was free and drew close to a million people; since then it has changed curators several times (Carl Craig, Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May have all served as the festival's patrons), nearly ceased to exist, and then underwent radical reforms. Nowadays DEMF has become more modest (a mere forty thousand spectators), and entry is now by ticket — though a three-day "pass" costs just $40, cheaper than many of Moscow's "imported" acts. Detroit is definitely not the most touristy of cities, but every techno fan should go there as if on a hajj to Mecca — to soak up the atmosphere and pay homage to the ruins. The DEMF 2008 lineup is still expanding, but among the participants already confirmed are Carl Craig, Moby (with a DJ set), the electro legends Egyptian Lover and Newcleus, Speedy J, Tycho, DEADMAU5, Joris Voorn, Josh Wink, Richie Hawtin, Magda, Tech Itch, and even — inexplicably in such company — Benny Benassi.

If you have, after all, resolved to fly across the Atlantic, the best occasion for it is the Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival. It's held in the Colorado Desert near the little town of Indio. From there it's a little over two hundred kilometres to Los Angeles (a free Coachella Express runs from there), and the nearest airport is in the town of Palm Springs. Coachella is a festival with camping; most spectators pitch tents right on the field, but you can stay in hotels in Indio or Palm Springs and get to the venues by bus. A three-day ticket costs 269 dollars, a one-day ticket ninety. Besides its fortunate location (California, needless to say, is a land of dreams), Coachella scores with a very strong lineup, where rock and electronica exist on equal footing. The choicest treats are concerts by Kraftwerk, Aphex Twin (who ventures out among people only on the biggest of occasions) and the reunited Portishead. In a list of nearly a hundred artists you'll find Pendulum, Adam Freeland, Hot Chip, Prince, Sasha & John Digweed, Junkie XL, Sebastian, 120 Days, Chromeo, Justice, Danny Tenaglia, Modeselektor and many more familiar names. Among the festival's main rock heroes are Animal Collective, The Verve, Black Kids, Death Cab For Cutie, The Raconteurs, and even Roger Waters himself.

If you're craving rave madness, be sure to head to England for the Bang Face Weekender. Here old-school rave, electro, extreme drum'n'bass, breakcore and IDM rule the roost. The lineup is almost nothing but stars — Model 500, Altern8, Modeselektor, Phil Hartnoll (Long Range, ex-Orbital), plus impressive delegations from the labels Warp (Squarepusher, Luke Vibert, Plaid), Rephlex (DMX Krew, Ceephax, Mike Dred, Cylob) and Planet Mu (µ-Ziq, Venetian Snares, Shitmat). The festival, like many here, takes place on the grounds of a holiday camp a few hours' drive from London, and a ticket costing a hundred-odd pounds also includes three days' accommodation in one of the chalets. The pluses: the venues are within arm's reach, and there aren't many people (such festivals usually draw a couple of thousand spectators), so you can always walk up to the stage or dance without the risk of getting an elbow in the stomach. Food and drink are, by English standards, very cheap, and besides you can bring food inside. The minuses: no sights other than the festival, and the living arrangements are almost like camping — lovers of comfort and glamour have nothing to gain in such places: the chalets are cold and the bath is English (no mixer tap), though even in this you can find an element of tourist romance. Another inconvenience: tickets are sold in a minimum of four — you have to buy out a whole chalet at once, which can house between four and eight people. So if there are fewer than four of you, you'll first have to find future roommates on the festival forum.

Once again the summer's main event promises to be the oldest and most decorated electronic festival, Barcelona's Sonar. Not only is Sonar a universally acknowledged showcase of everything most advanced in the electronic genres, but it's also held in what may be the most beautiful, open and event-packed city in the world: sun, the Mediterranean Sea, mountains, intricate architecture, museums, clubs and record shops — there's an abundance of it all here. It's worth staying somewhere as close to the centre as possible; luckily Barcelona is a tourist city, and you can find a hotel to suit any taste — the main thing is to see to it at least a month in advance. A ticket for all the festival's venues costs 170 euros, and for a single night around fifty.

Sonar is effectively two festivals in one. The daytime Sonar takes place right in the city centre, on the grounds of the contemporary art museum, and the music there fully befits the setting. Here musical aestheticism reigns — electronic experiments, knotty jazz, glitch, indietronica, abstract hip-hop, dub, noise, IDM and other "sounds not for everyone". There's always some kind of exotica — Japanese, Chinese, African acts or something in that vein. There aren't many of today's stars, but every artist is a discovery. Today's ruling minds are often to be found in the lineup of the daytime "Sonar" of five years ago. Traditionally there are lots of Spaniards, each more interesting than the last. Sonar veterans believe that the festival's long-standing spirit is expressed precisely by the daytime part, while the night is already a concession to globalization and commercialization. This year the headliners here are Matmos, Pan Sonic, The Field, Pram, while the Ninja Tune label will bring along a landing party of Daedelus, J Mountain, The Heavy and The Long Lost. That said, the final lineup hasn't been confirmed yet, so expect additions.

The nighttime Sonar is a rave of many thousands, with stars. According to official figures, up to a hundred thousand spectators attend. The festival used to be held on the beach in the open air, but recently it moved to a huge hangar on the outskirts (two of the four arenas are, however, still roofless). A bus runs to the venues from the Columbus monument, delivering all comers to the scene of the action for one euro in 20 minutes.

On the first of the three nights only the opening concert takes place here (this year it'll be Goldfrapp and Leila), while the Friday and Saturday programmes are packed to the brim. Among the choice treats not found at other festivals, Sonar offers a concert by the reunited Yazoo, as well as a joint "live" set by the fathers of techno Robert Hood, Mike Banks and Jeff Mills (together known as X102). Among the regular guests will be Richie Hawtin with his brood of protégés from M_Nus, as well as a dubstep block headed by Mary Anne Hobbs. This year there's a slight lean towards feminism at "Sonar" — the headliners, besides Goldfrapp, include M.I.A., Róisín Murphy, Yelle and Camille (her concert has also been set apart as a separate "event" at the "Palace of Music"). Nor should one forget Hercules & Love Affair, Justice, Theo Parrish, and the father of house music Frankie Knuckles. The nighttime programme has only two drawbacks: first, there are far too many people here, and there are crushes at the "stars". Second, they like to schedule interesting artists for five in the morning, which — given the two-hour time difference from Moscow — demands unprecedented reserves from the body.

During the days of "Sonar", an anti-Sonar takes place every year (a free rave of a fringe bent, with breakcore and extreme techno), as well as numerous off-Sonar club parties — the lineup here is capable of upstaging the festival programme, so it's not worth giving the clubs a wide berth, all the more so since flyers are handed out at literally every step.