42 Of The Most Epic Dance Music Festivals That Aren't In America

Festival season in the US might be over for now, but around the world the party never stops. You just have to know where to look.

1. Boom (Portugal)

A massive (and surprisingly eco-friendly) psytrance festival at Idanha-a-Nova in Portugal, the biennial Boom lasts about a week at the end of July, and features multiple stages, art installations, workshops, lectures, and even film screenings.

2. Welcome to the Future (Netherlands)

This festival is so green, even the generators are run partially on vegetable oil. One of Amsterdam's oldest festivals, Welcome to the Future draws tens of thousands of partygoers to the annual event, for musical acts ranging from techno to house, and everything in between.

3. ZoukOut (Singapore)

While many of us far from the Equator will be fighting to stay warm this December, Singapore will be hosting a massive beach party. 41,000 people attended last year's ZoukOut, an annual party that boasts a lineup of world-class talent that even your grandma has heard of.

4. Mysteryland (Netherlands/Croatia)

When it comes to an electronic music capital of the world like the Netherlands, to be considered the "oldest festival" is no small feat (nor is having 10 stages of top-teir talent keeping 60,000 people entertained over the course of a weekend in August). Enter: Mysteryland, the Netherlands' original and oldest electronic music festival.

5. Monegros Desert Festival (Spain)

When I hear about a lot of people traveling out into the desert for a weekend of music and art, I think Burning Man. But what started as a small barbecue with a sound system in the middle of the Monegros Desert in Spain has grown to a community 40,000 strong of cult-like attendees, and a lineup of talent from around the world.

6. Shambhala (Canada)

The legendary festival that's one of Canada's oldest and most popular, Shambhala does no formal advertising and has been family owned and operated since the 90's.

7. Street Parade (Switzerland)

What do you get when you take the top 20% of DJ Mag's Top 100 DJ's of the year, the second Saturday of August, and roughly 1 million people? Switzerland's Street (Techno)Parade, an event of truly inconceivable proportions.

8. Snowbombing (Austria)

While I will be buried under a fortress of blankets thinking "warm thoughts," the "Greatest Show on Snow" is raging in Austria during this 5-day long festival of heavy beats and winter sports.

9. Defqon 1 (Netherlands/Australia)

Defqon 1 is basically like dying and going to hard-dance heaven. It's got a theme, hundreds of key players in the hardstyle, hard trance, and hardcore scenes, and every year a headliner is invited to make an actual anthem for the event (2014's "Survival of the Fittest" by Coone can be found here).

10. Full Moon Party (Thailand)

It's the Spring Break party you've never heard of. Except it's not in Cabo, nor is it in the Spring. This massive all-night affair in Thailand's Koh Phangan is a true test of endurance, as the beats don't stop till the sun comes up (but by then, most of your friends will probably be passed out).

11. BPM Festival (Mexico)

This 10-day festival in Mexico's Playa Del Carmen has programming that spans the entire time (day or night), and an extensive lineup that reads like a true EDM fan's artist bucket list. 12. South West Four (UK)

One of the UK's premier festivals, South West Four celebrated its 10th anniversary just last year, and consistently brings an all-killer no-filler lineup to Clapman Common annually during Bank Holiday Weekend.

12. South West Four (UK)

One of the UK's premier festivals, South West Four celebrated its 10th anniversary just last year, and consistently brings an all-killer no-filler lineup to Clapman Common annually during Bank Holiday Weekend.

13. Audioriver (Poland)

Every year in August, on the banks of the Vistula River in Plock, the 3-day Audioriver festival rolls in bringing thousands of industry professionals and true electronic music connoisseurs. During the day there are panels and presentations on everything from artist management to festival producing, and at night all hell breaks loose.

14. Sunburn Goa (India)

Consistently cropping up in "festivals to attend before you die" lists the world over, Sunburn has bounced around between locations in India, and is returning to Goa in December of 2014. Drawing 100,000+ attendees, it's earned itself the title of "largest festival in Asia."

15. Life Festival (Ireland)

By the Belvedere House in Mullingar, the 3-day annual Life Festival showcasing music and art has been one of the top ranking European festivals for almost a decade.

16. kaZantip (Ukraine, Georgia, Cambodia)

Imagine: If life was a festival, if for 2-3 weeks you and 100,000 like-minded individuals took over a remote island, filled it with art, 14 stages, 300 DJ's pumping 21 hours of music a day, and were free to dance until it hurt. That barely begins to describe kaZantip.

17. Bal en Blanc (Canada)

One of the greatest "white parties" on Earth, the infamous annual Bal en Blanc showcases some of the most cutting-edge House and Trance music across its two stages over Easter weekend.

18. Balaton Sound (Hungary)

This massive outdoor festival in Zamárdi is so popular, that despite ever-increasing ticket prices and capacity, it usually sells out before tickets are released to official vendors. Looking at the lineup, amenities for festival attendees (including pop-up pubs and bean bag forests), it’s easy to see why Balaton Sound is quickly becoming the most popular festival in Europe.

19. Stereosonic (Australia)

The "fastest growing festival in Australia," Stereosonic is a two day-affair in November/December, at each of 5 major cities across the country: Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, and Melbourne.

20. Djakarta Warehouse Project (Indonesia)

DWP might be the new kid on the block, but it’s already become Indonesia’s biggest and most successful dance music festival since it began just two years ago.

21. Transahara (Morocco)

For a dance festival with a side of adventure, Transahara is a 4 day adventure into the wild dunes of the Sahara to a secret location outside of Morocco. To control the environmental impact of the festival, the team organizing it has capped attendance at 2,500, so the experience is as intimate as it is unique.

22. Transylvania Calling (Romania)

This week-long festival in September is one part musical extravaganza to two parts psychedelic community-- a friendly blend of heavy beats, trippy arts, and alternative lifestyles.

23. Future Music Festival (Australia/Malaysia)

It’s like Electric Daisy Carnival meets Coachella, with the hottest acts in music performing alongside one another. Ever fantasize about seeing Drake on the same stage as The Prodigy? Or 2Chainz and Avicii? FMF makes all that possible, and then some.

24. Electronic Family Festival (Amsterdam)

For finding your genuine "trance family,” this sizable festival in Amsterdam showcases some of the finest European and International talent (particularly in the House, Trance, and Hard Dance genres.)

25. Qlimax

Possibly one of the greatest annual events in the world, Qlimax is known for unparalleled production (from complex stage set ups to cutting-edge sound systems), which provides the perfect atmosphere for the legendary hardstyle event.

26. Berlin Festival (Germany)

With an extensive lineup geared towards the true dance music fanatic, Berlin Festival is a marathon of a weekend in September, and a serous festival for the books.

27. Tomorrowland (Belgium)

Tomorrowland is the festival for the people who put on festivals. No expense is spared, resulting in mind-blowing stages, audiophile quality sound, and a batch of artists that no other party can shake a stick at. If I had to crown one dance music festival outside the US as the be-all end-all of festivals, this is the one.

28.  Hard Bass (Netherlands)

As the name suggests, you can expect at least one thing at this Netherlands hard-dance festival: hard bass. And lots of it. The annual January event has grown steadily and aggressively since its inception in 2003.

29. Sonne Mond Sterne (Germany)

Roughly translating to “Sun Moon Star,” this three day festival in August draws some of the freshest House music in the world to Germany, and has done so since 1997.

30. Labyrinth (Japan)

Nestled in the lush mountains of Niigata is the single stage of Japan’s ever-popular, ever-exclusive Labyrinth Festival. With a “quality over quantity” attitude towards booking, their lineups represent the absolute cream of the techno crop.

31. Sónar (Spain)

Split into two phases (Sónar by Day and Sónar by Night), the three day festival in Barcelona has been more than “just a music festival” since it started in the 90’s. It has become a platform for groundbreaking arts, technology, and even hosts a fair for professionals in the industry as part of the "by Day" programming.

32.  Melt! Festival (Germany)

Every year, Melt! Festival transforms the “City of Steel” from an industrial wasteland into the hottest place to be in Germany in July. A fusion of Electronic Music and Rock, the lineup boasts 80 artists across 6 stages.

33. Global Gathering (UK)

Truly an international affair, Global Gathering has expanded to stages across England, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, and South Korea in the 14 years it has been operating.

34. Nature One (Germany)

It's not even about the 18 stages, 300 DJs/live acts, and 64,000 other people to share the experience with... the centerpiece of Germany's Nature One is actually a renowned fireworks display that erupts on the Saturday evening of the event.

35. Creamfields (Worldwide)

Creamfields isn’t just a festival, it’s an institution. Originating in the UK at the turn of the century, Creamfields has been held at multiple venues across Poland, Brazil, Peru, Chile, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Russia, Lithuania, Spain, Turkey, Ireland, Uruguay, Argentina and the UAE.

36. The Garden Festival (Croatia)

In recent years, Croatia has become something of a best-kept-secret as a global dance music destination, silently displacing titans like Ibiza as a premier place to party. 2015 sadly marks the end of a decade-long era for Garden Festival, one of the destination’s best-known parties (and while it’s likely to be replaced with something even grander, Garden Fest is sure to “go out with a bang,” which happens to be the theme of this final hurrah).

37. Sensation  (Netherlands/Worldwide)

Formerly a two-part series (Sensation White and Sensation Black) in Amsterdam, Sensation has spread to 20+ countries (and visited 22 cities in 2013 alone), and has no signs of slowing down. Regardless of the destination, Sensation’s production is always next-level, the lineup is always bulletproof, and the house beats keep the ever-expanding white-clad crowd pulsing for the entire evening.

38. 10 Days Off (Belgium)

So-named because it stretches 10 incredible days of elite DJ talent mixed with electronic music’s most promising up-and-comers, 10 Days Off in Ghent is the way to go for a nice extended party of a vacation in Belgium, or you can hit up the shorter 5 Days Off in Amsterdam.

39. Dance Valley (Netherlands)

With so many mega-festivals cropping up around the world, it takes a lot to be crowned the “Woodstock of Dance,” a title that Spaarnwoude’s annual Dance Valley has worn proudly since it started in 1995. Though it is exclusively a dance music event, Dance Valley has found mass appeal by stacking its lineup with leading producers in a wide array of subgenres (from trance, to hard dance, to house, to moombahton, to dubstep, and everything in-between).

40. Outlook Festival (Croatia)

In September, make sure to block off the first week-- because you’ll want to be in Croatia experiencing a festival like none other on the planet. Outlook Festival is one part adventure to two parts mind-blowing music, with several stages throughout the event hosted on boats cruising the coast, built in grimy underground tunnels, and even housed inside ruins.

41. Astropolis (France)

A proper festival with its roots in the illegal underground rave scene, Astropolis proved instrumental in establishing a precedent for officially sanctioned EDM events in France. This coming year (2015) will be the 20th anniversary of the popular event held just outside of Brest, so you can be certain it'll be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

42. Hideout (Croatia)

When 10,000 tickets sell out in 48 hours, almost a full year before the event is scheduled to happen, people stop and take notice. Maybe it’s the 24 scheduled boat parties, or the 4 ultra-clubs hosting 19 continuous hours of music on the mainland for the 4 days of the event. Maybe it's the opportunity to get up-close and personal with your favorite artists. Whatever the reason, you’ll have to start planning early if you’re going to want to go to Croatia's Hideout, since you’ll be competing for some of the most sought-after festival tickets in the world.