This Summer's Best Festivals

Glastonbury might be over for another year, but while all Worthy Farm's rubbish is being recycled, their are heaps of other festivals taking place as the season gets into full swing. Check out the Whisper Mag pick of the bunch and get saving so you can head to as many as possible!

READING AND LEEDS

Headliners: Kings of Leon, Radiohead, Arctic Monkeys
Best up-and-coming bands: Chipmunk, The Airborne Toxic Event
Weekend ticket costs: Expect to pay around £300 on eBay - it's sold out
Best for: The full-on rock festival experience
Be sure to avoid: Bottles of wee flying through the air

Reading and Leeds - thankfully no longer adorned with uber-branding from Carling - is the UK's oldest festival, and with two locations there's no excuse to miss it whether you're a northern monkey or a southern fairy. A rock festival at heart, you can guarantee that at least two unpopular acts will be bottled off and that the toilets will be pushed over at the end of the first day. Plus there's nowhere else on earth where you can shout "bollocks!" into the night at the top of your lungs along with 80,000 other dirt riddled campers.
www.readingfestival.com / www.leedsfestival.com

INDIETRACKS

Headliners: Teenage Fanclub, Emmy the Great, Camera Obscura
Best up-and-coming bands: Hong Kong in the 60s, Pocketbooks
Weekend ticket costs: £55
Best for: A bargain festival with a guaranteed good vibe - and nice showers!
Be sure to avoid: Bringing any mate still traumatised by overexposure to Thomas the Tank Engine as a child

An indie-pop festival that takes place not on stages, but in a disused steam railway station, and even on the trains themselves - what's not to love?! Indie Tracks is now in its third year, and is one of the UK's quirkiest small festivals. It attracts international bands, all with the kind of indie/bubblegum/mod pop sensibilities that the summer demands. It also features workshops about how to do various music-related activities, from running a label to starting a fanzine. Perfect for musos who feel like getting a bit sunburnt while wearing a train driver's cap (maybe).
www.indietracks.co.uk

BESTIVAL

Headliners: Massive Attack, MGMT, Kraftwerk
Best up-and-coming bands: Mr Hudson, The Big Pink, Caspa
Weekend ticket costs: £149
Best for: Spending an entire weekend in fancy dress
Be sure to avoid: Falling overboard on the ferry on the way to the festival site

The Isle of Wight turns into a festival island every September for Bestival, the cult event curated by esteemed DJ Rob da Bank. It's almost as famous for its annual dressing up theme as it is for its bands - this year it's an Outer Space theme, with Lilly Allen as the guest judge of the fancy dress competition. The lineup features a stellar lineup of everyone hot in indie and dance, and encompasses everything from dubstep to folk - plus it's known for having one of the best atmospheres you're ever likely to find at a festival.
www.bestival.net

THE BIG CHILL

Headliners: Basement Jaxx, Orbital, Noel Fielding
Best up-and-coming bands: Chinese Man, Horse Meat Disco (DJs)
Weekend ticket costs: £145
Best for: Getting mashed up and giggling - lots
Be sure to avoid: Accidentally taking loads of wooly jumpers and not enough skimpy clothing

Taking place in Herefordshire, The Big Chill festival has spawned bars and even a record label while establishing itself as one of the best mid-sized festivals. With a line up packed with comedy and entertainment, it draws a dedicated following each year who want to be entertained by more than just music. That's not to say it doesn't have a good reputation for pulling the big names in, and it brings a little of the Balearic atmosphere to the UK - laid back, hedonistic and all about having a good time.
www.bigchill.net/festival

TRUCK

Headliners: Ash, Supergrass, Yacht
Best up-and-coming bands: Alphabet Backwards, Detroit Social Club
Weekend ticket costs: £70
Best for: Being one of just 5,000 smug people checking out bands that deserve bigger crowds
Be sure to avoid: Angry truckers who thought they were turning up to an HGV convention

Truck started in 1998 and takes place in a real-life farm in Oxfordshire over the last weekend in July. It's got a DIY agenda as a family-run festival formed as a backlash response to other festivals becoming increasingly commercial. The stages at the festival are actual, er, trucks, so if you want a literally grassroots experience, this is the one for you. However, don't expect twee folk and wicker baskets - the lineup is gloriously eclectic and covers everything from punk to dance. One to check out.
www.thisistruck.com

LATITUDE

Headliners: Nick Cave, Grace Jones, Pet Shop Boys
Best up-and-coming bands: Paloma Faith, iLiKETRAiNS, Fight Like Apes
Weekend ticket costs: £150
Best for: Soaking up the hippyish atmosphere that Glasto can no longer offer
Be sure to avoid: Pushchairs

Head down to Suffolk to check out possibly the most relaxing and welcoming of all the UK's festivals. A truly family-friendly site, there are enough activities to keep kids entertained while you check out the bands, which feature acts from the 70s to the 00s. The setting is very scenic, with lots of trees and greenery to help make sure you get a good dose of oxygen alongside your rock n roll.
www.latitudefestival.co.uk

FIELD DAY

Headliners: Santigold, Mystery Jets, Mogwai, Micachu and the Shapes
Best up-and-coming bands: King Charles, Errors
Day ticket costs: £29.50
Best for: Getting the inside track on the sounds played in clubs with no sign on the door
Be sure to avoid: Anyone with oversized glasses and a quirky haircut, unless you want to swap fawshun tips

Who says festivals have to last all weekend? Field Day takes place in Hackney, East London on August 1st, and is features one of the coolest lineups possible. Leftfield artists from the UK and further afield take to one of the five stages in a veritable whirlwind of bands and DJs that will give you the kind of aural temptation that'll have you chained to Spotify and Hype Machine for days afterwards.
www.fielddayfestivals.com