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The Best 2020 Festivals For Woodland Dancing, Wild Lake Swimming And City Revelry

Photo credit: Lente Kabinet
Photo credit: Lente Kabinet

From Esquire

Slowly but surely spring is creeping in, and with it comes memories of dancing in the sunlight in a crowd of people high on the ultimate drug there is: vitamin D.

Whether you want to dance until sunrise to Ben UFO in a secluded woodland, or watch the sun set over Barcelona with a crowd swaying to Caribou, there is a festival out there for everyone.

Here's our pick of the bunch:

DGTL, Amsterdam

Photo credit: DGTL Amsterdam
Photo credit: DGTL Amsterdam

Line-up highlights: Honey Dijon, KiNK (Live), The Black Madonna and HAAi

Though DGTL has branched out to have events in São Paulo, Barcelona, Tel Aviv and more, the original instalment in Amsterdam celebrates its eighth year in 2020. Held at the NDSM Docklands the festival offers a visual spectacle of light displays and a mixture of established and new names playing house and techno. The perfect Easter weekend party escape.

11–12 April, Amsterdam, dgtl.nl

Waterworks, London

Photo credit: Waterworks
Photo credit: Waterworks

Line-up highlights: Call Super, Job Jobse, Saoirse

Festivals in their first year go one of two ways: either you were there witnessing something great being born, or you were on the scene of a car crash never to be repeated. Luckily we have high hopes for Waterworks, a new festival in Lee Valley from the people behind Croatian festival Love International. The line-up is a mash-up of the different genres of dance music that have shape London, all set against an industrial backdrop.

22 August, London waterworksfestival.co.uk/

Lente Kabinet

Photo credit: Lente Kabinet
Photo credit: Lente Kabinet

Line-up highlights: Palms Trax, Jungle By Night (Live), Ben UFO

The sister festival of Dekmantel is a more intimate affair, taking place in the woodlands north of Amsterdam. The line-up is always an eclectic mixture of names and often where you'll see the breakthrough artists that go on to blow up. This year's offering includes the nine-piece afro-beat band Jungle By Night, just the sort of mellow fun you want on a sunlit afternoon in the woods.

30–31 May, Amsterdam, hetkabinetfestival.nl/

Primavera Sound

Photo credit: Primavera Sound
Photo credit: Primavera Sound

Line-up highlights: Kacey Musgraves, Caribou, King Krule

The Barcelona festival has amassed a cult following thanks to its peerless and expansive offering of live acts and DJs playing at stages in the Spanish city. For the third year running now the Primavera has equal numbers of male and female acts on its billing, putting other male-dominated festivals to shame. This year offers a wide range of genres from breakthrough country star Kacey Musgraves to the ambient sound of Caribou, who will be playing his new album Suddenly.

3–7 June, Barcelona, primaverasound.com

Melt!

Line-up highlights: Blood Orange, Helena Hauff, FKA Twigs

Photo credit: Melt!
Photo credit: Melt!

A short drive from Berlin, this lakeside festival offers dreamy daytime wild swimming and wild revelry in an industrial estate after the sun goes down. The people behind Melt! always manage to strike an excellent balance between bands and DJs, up-and-comers and legacy names, rather than just booking the same names as everywhere else. As such it's a cool and under the radar crowd you'll spot on the sleepless floor, their stage that runs all weekend without pause. You can sleep when you're dead etc.

17–19 July, Leipzig, meltfestival.de/en/

Houghton

Photo credit: Houghton
Photo credit: Houghton

Line-up highlights: Midland, Four Tet, Jane Fitz

There was no Houghton in 2019 after gale-force winds caused the festival to be cancelled at the last minute. Fortunately they're back and with a monstrous line-up of electronic artists to assure any naysayers who thought they were going anywhere. The festival is plotted around a lake, with lots of smaller stages allowing you to wind through the woods and discover artists playing in front of intimate groups.

6–9 August, Norfolk, houghtonfestival.co.uk/

End of the Road

Photo credit: End of the road
Photo credit: End of the road

Line-up highlights: Angel Olsen, Whitney, Romare

Focusing on independent rock and folk music and in bucolic Dorset countryside, End of the road festival is a blissful way to see out the end of the summer. Listen to the sad, slow vocals of Angel Olsen and Girl Ray, or reminisce with rock headliners the Pixies, dad dancing is totally optionally but very much encouraged.

3–6 September, Dorset, endoftheroadfestival.com/

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