It’s that time of year when the staff at Music Festival Wizard crunch the data from millions of visitors to determine the most popular festivals of 2016. Our methodology is simple — we take the data from 5.7 million festival fans that visited our website and see who rises to the top.
The MFWizard50 is divided up into our three most popular music festival regions: North America, the United Kingdom, and continental Europe. Data is taken from the beginning of July 2015 (when we posted our first 2016 festival) to December 31, 2016.
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Most Popular Festivals in North America 2016
It was good year for rookie fests. A major New York City festival is always going to make a huge splash, and the inaugural Panorama (#11) generated enough buzz to flirt with a top ten spot. The organizers of Coachella (#1) returned with the Desert Trip Festival (#28), aka Oldchella, that brought legendary names to the desert for a fall festival. Florida’s latest entry into the festival market, Okeechobee Festival (#24), finished near the middle, while electronic festival newcomer Sundown (#13) in Southern California, made a surprising burst towards the top of the list.
There’s dozens of genre-specific festivals for country, electronic, metal, and jam, but when it comes to hip-hop, the festival world falls short. Our data from this year show fans hungry for more hip-hop with the Minneapolis based Soundset (#5) landing a top five spot and the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival (#34) making an appearance as well.
Rank
- Coachella Music Festival 2016
- KAABOO 2016
- Outside Lands 2016
- Bonnaroo Music Festival 2016
- Soundset 2016
- Governors Ball Music Festival 2016
- Osheaga 2016
- Austin City Limits 2016
- Snowglobe 2016
- Bottlerock 2016
- Panorama Music Festival 2016
- Lollapalooza Chicago 2016
- Sundown Music Festival 2016
- South By Southwest (SXSW) 2016
- Electric Zoo 2016
- Voodoo Experience 2016
- FYF Fest 2016
- Summerfest 2016
- Joshua Tree Fall 2016
- Shaky Knees Festival 2016
- Electric Forest 2016
- Welcome to Rockville 2016
- Hangout Festival 2016
- Okeechobee Music Festival 2016
- Sasquatch 2016
- Ottawa Bluesfest 2016
- Imagine Festival 2016
- Desert Trip 2016
- Bumbershoot 2016
- Firefly Music Festival 2016
- Mysteryland USA 2016
- Joshua Tree Spring 2016
- California Roots 2016
- Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival 2016
- North Coast Music Festival 2016
- Euphoria Festival 2016
- Lightning in a Bottle 2016
- The Wrecking Ball 2016
- Sonic Bloom 2016
- Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas 2016
- SweetWater 420 Festival 2016
- Boston Calling 2016
- Burning Man 2016
- Quebec City Summer Festival 2016
- Ohana Festival 2016
- Mountain Jam 2016
- Woogie Weekend 2016
- Bunbury Music Festival 2016
- Northern Invasion 2016
- Gasparilla Music Festival 2016
Most Popular Festivals in Europe 2016
Our predominately English-speaking audience and the brand name recognition of Lollapalooza (#1) catapulted the Berlin edition of the mega-festival to the top spot for 2016. Right behind it is Portugal’s answer to Burning Man, Boom Festival (#2), a transformational fest which takes place every other year.
Croatia continues to dominate the summer festival scene with a festival happening nearly every weekend during 2016. Top spots this year went to Ultra Europe (#3), Outlook (#4), and Hideout (#10). We’re not sure when the bubble will burst here in the Balkans, but for now, festies remain hyped to party on the Adriatic Sea. The Netherlands and Spain both scored high with each country posting multiple festivals to this year’s MFWizard50.
For a genre that’s so loud, metal fans are typically underrepresented when it comes to festival media. This year’s numbers shows that this scene is a popular as ever with France’s Hellfest (#20), Germany’s Wacken (#24), and the Paris Download (#39) all making appearances.
Rank
- Lollapalooza Berlin 2016
- Boom Festival 2016
- Ultra Europe 2016
- Outlook Festival 2016
- Sonus Festival 2016
- Primavera Sound 2016
- Sonar Barcelona 2016
- Iceland Airwaves 2016
- Amsterdam Dance Event 2016
- Hideout Festival 2016
- Mysteryland Netherlands 2016
- Tomorrowland 2016
- NOS Alive 2016
- Rock Am Ring 2016
- Sziget Festival 2016
- NOS Primavera Sound 2016
- Best Kept Secret Festival 2016
- Bilbao BBK Live 2016
- Melt! Festival 2016
- Hellfest 2016
- Fresh Island Festival 2016
- Spring Break Island 2016
- Super Bock Super Rock 2016
- Wacken 2016
- Pacha Festival 2016
- Defected Croatia 2016
- Electric Elephant 2016
- Love International 2016
- Soundwave Croatia 2016
- Open’er Festival 2016
- Hurricane Festival 2016
- Rock Werchter 2016
- Vida Festival 2016
- Pitchfork Paris 2016
- A Summer’s Tale Festival 2016
- Pinkpop 2016
- Roskilde Festival 2016
- Le Guess Who? 2016
- Download Festival France 2016
- Cruilla Barcelona 2016
- Estrella Levante SOS 4.8 2016
- Bravalla Festival 2016
- OZORA Festival 2016
- FIB 2016
- Into the Valley 2016
- Lowlands Festival 2016
- Way Out West 2016
- Down The Rabbit Hole 2016
- INmusic Festival 2016
- Rock Im Park 2016
Most Popular Festivals in United Kingdom 2016
It’s an upset here as Bestival (#1) usurps the expected Glastonbury (#3) for the top spot, and V Festival (#2) snags the runner-up prize. The festival buzzword of 2016 was “boutique festivals”, and the UK continues the trend with festivals like Secret Garden Party (#7), Festival No. 6 (#10), Kendal Calling (#19), and others making their mark on the MFWizard50.
Rank
- Bestival 2016
- V Festival 2016
- Glastonbury 2016
- Lovebox 2016
- Reading Festival 2016
- Boomtown Fair 2016
- Secret Garden Party 2016
- Creamfields 2016
- One Love Festival 2016
- Festival No. 6 2016
- Wireless Festival 2016
- British Summer Time 2016
- Leeds Festival 2016
- Camp Bestival 2016
- Latitude Festival 2016
- Liverpool Psych Fest 2016
- Blissfields 2016
- Isle of Wight Festival 2016
- Kendal Calling 2016
- Cambridge Rock Festival 2016
- Wilderness Festival 2016
- Green Man Festival 2016
- Field Day Festival 2016
- Boardmasters 2016
- Y Not Festival 2016
- T in the Park 2016
- We Are FSTVL 2016
- Bloodstock 2016
- 2000trees 2016
- End of the Road Festival 2016
- The Great Escape 2016
- Eastern Electrics 2016
- Victorious Festival 2016
- Electric Fields 2016
- NASS Festival 2016
- Electric Beach Festival 2016
- South West Four (SW4) 2016
- Hevy Fest 2016
- Beautiful Days 2016
- Parklife Festival 2016
- Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival 2016
- Together The People 2016
- Tramlines 2016
- Hammerfest 2016
- BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend 2016
- Common People 2016
- Standon Calling 2016
- Cornbury Music Festival 2016
- Forgotten Fields 2016
- Wild Life Festival 2016
How we compiled these rankings: This data was taken from visitors to Music Festival Wizard between July 1, 2015 thru December 31, 2016. We measured the pageviews of each festival’s guide on our website (example: the MFW Coachella Festival Guide).
Correction (1/12/17): A previous edition of the Europe MFW50 was missing Sziget Festival at #15. This has been added and the list adjusted accordingly.