The best music festivals in Europe

Don’t miss out on some of the best music festivals in Europe. With an eclectic mix of festivals spanning nearly every genre, your journey across the continent may uncover more than chart-topping tunes, you might also discover a new country or two along the way!

Explore the note-worthy music festivals topping our charts at LeShuttle.

Driving to music festivals in Europe

Driving to music festivals in Europe is effortless with LeShuttle:

•    With no baggage restrictions, you can confidently load up the car with all the festival essentials you need – including your tent and wellies!

•    Our service departs up to four times every hour, 365 days a year and with the journey taking just 35 minutes, you can be singing along to your favourite tunes in no time.

•    One ticket includes up to 9 people so you really can bring the whole band (or family!)

Rock and metal festivals in Europe

Metalheads and rockers alike will find plenty of head-banging festivals across Europe.

Let the music carry you away at a rock festival in Europe

Rock Werchter, Belgium

Festivalpark Werchter, Belgium

Calais to Rock Werchter: 2 hours 50 minutes

This multi-award-winning festival is an unmissable event for music lovers. In previous years, artists like Linkin Park, Muse, Coldplay, Iron Maiden, Kaiser Chiefs, The Black Eyed Peas and The Cure have graced the stage. With an eclectic lineup of established artists and emerging talent across a range of genres, the four-day event has a unique sense of energy, excitement and community.

The festival has several parking areas and mobile homes can set up camp in The Hive Mobilhome area – where you can even add a daily breakfast package to your booking! With Ghent just under two hours away and on route back to Calais, why not stop in the fairy-tale city after the festival? 

Le Route du Rock, France

Saint Malo, France

Calais to Le Route du Rock:  5 hours 15 minutes 

If some of the biggest names in alternative, indie and rock music performing by the beautiful Brittany coast suits your tastes, then La Route du Rock is the festival for you.

The four-day festival takes place in or around the seaside town of Saint-Malo in August, with big names playing the main stage inside the ruins of an old French castle. La Route du Rock is also less crowded with an attendance of 25,000 festival goers. However, this doesn’t mean the acts are compromised as the festival regularly pulls in the biggest names in the industry.

La Route du Rock offers ticket holders free parking on-site. If you’re not in a rush, there are plenty of sights and towns to visit on the way to Saint-Malo when getting there by car. So, creating the perfect road trip playlist is a must!

Jazz festivals in Europe

Whether you groove to scat, swing or soulful jazz, you’ll find some of the best music festivals in Europe.

Be blown away at a jazz festival in Europe

Montreux Jazz Festival, Switzerland

Montreux, Switzerland

Calais to Montreux: 8 hours 30 minutes

Nearly 250,000 spectators head to Montreux for two weeks of jazz, soul and blues every July. The resort town on the Swiss Riviera sits at the foot of the Alps and boasts breathtaking views across Lake Geneva. So, it’s unsurprising that many artists and festival-goers choose to extend their stay to enjoy the region. In fact, legends like David Bowie and Freddie Mercury lived and recorded albums here. You can even spot a bronze Freddie Mercury statue on the promenade!

With 11 stages, the festival has a number of free and paid performances as well as pool parties, silent discos, open-air concerts, jam sessions and workshops. More and more artists and genres have graced the stages here, including Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder and more recently, Kendrick Lamar, Alicia Keys and Lizzo.

North Sea Jazz Festival, Netherlands

Ahoyweg, Rotterdam

Calais to Ahoyweg: 3 hours 40 minutes

Dubbed the largest indoor music festival in the world, The North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam is a three-day celebration of the history and evolution of jazz. More than a thousand musicians hit the stage with a diverse lineup of jazz, blues, soul, funk, hip- hop and pop. The star-studded program includes international legends and rising stars such as Sting, Noname, Stormzy, Van Morrison, Corinne Bailey Rae, Mavis Staples, Maesgo and Walter Smith III.

If you’re driving to Rotterdam for the festival, be sure to extend your stay so that you can explore everything the dynamic Dutch city has to offer.  The drive takes you past Antwerp and Dunkirk - Why not download one of the festival’s playlists on Spotify and turn your road trip into a musical journey of beats and beautiful views? 

Electronic music festivals in Europe

If high-energy tracks and euphoric drops are your thing, festival season in Europe will not disappoint.

Wait for the beat drop in Europe’s electronic music festivals

Tomorrowland, Belgium

Boom, Belgium

Calais to Boom:  2 hours 50 minutes 

Tomorrowland is the world’s biggest dance festival and it’s no surprise why when you see its visually impressive stage designs. Every year has a theme that transforms the festival into an immersive experience like no other!

This experience also extends to the festival camping ground too, appropriately named ‘Dreamville!’ With a wide range of accommodations, this ‘city’ complete with a supermarket, a jewellery store and even a real hairdressers is the perfect place to recharge between acts.

The festival takes place in late July at recreation area De Schorre, in Boom, which is easily accessible from the E19 and A12 motorways. When you are travelling on the highway, follow the signs “Festival Boom”. Once you get closer to the festival, follow the signs to “P Festival”.

Dekmantel, the Netherlands

Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Calais to Amsterdam: 4 hours 10 minutes

In the heart of Amsterdam, Dekmantel has become known as one of the best music festivals in Europe. The mind-melding festival showcases some of the best and brightest talents in dance, disco, trance, techno, house and acid. Behind the decks, you’ll find a lineup of seasoned icons and fresh faces including Jeff Mills, Helena Hauff, Ben UFO, Nina Kraviz and Moodymann. 

With immersive experiences and elaborate stage designs across a multi-venue programme, three days of back-to-back performances prove to be an almighty (and entirely worthwhile!) endurance test for ravers and festival fans alike.

Having driven from Calais to Amsterdam, why not check out some of the other attractions and activities the city has to offer? A couple of days relaxing in the city’s canal-side cafés may be the perfect way to unwind and absorb the experience.

Hip hop/ rap music festivals in Europe

With electrifying performances from top artists, hip-hop fans will not want to miss the live music events that hit Europe each year.

Feel the beat at Europe’s hip-hop music festivals

Rolling Loud Vienna, Austria

Ebreichsdorf, Austria

Calais to Ebreichsdorf: 14 hours 30 minutes

It may be further away than some of the other music festivals in Europe, but as the world’s largest hip-hop festival, Rolling Loud in Vienna is well worth the trip! The three-day festival showcases artists from the UK, the US and Europe and features high-profile acts like Nicki Minaj, Post Malone and Kendrick Lamar.

Festival goers can expect to be swept away into an exciting, high-energy atmosphere as the open-air venue houses crowds of over 60,000 fans. Why not head to the SNIPES sound booth to test your rapping skills, drop some bars and be in for a chance to win a customised t-shirt?

The journey takes you through France and Germany so plan some stops enroute to make the most of your trip!

PukkelPop, Belgium

Kempische Steenweg, Belgium

Calais to Kempische Steenweg: 3 hours 40 minutes

PukkelPop has been held at various locations in Belgium for over 30 years, before settling on a woodland site near Hasselt. Returning every year in August, Pukkelpop offers a wide variety of artists from different genres. From rock and pop to dance music, the acts perform over eight different stages.

Everything is not what it seems either, as there are ‘secret rooms’ across the site that are waiting to be discovered and explored.

Festival goers can reach Pukkelpop via the E313 or E314 motorway.

Discover a wide variety of genres at PukkelPop and try to locate its secret rooms | Credit: PukkelPop

Tune into the best music festivals in Europe with LeShuttle

Which music festival will you drive to? With LeShuttle it only takes 35 minutes from Folkestone to Calais, the quickest way to cross the channel to discover more music!