The 30 Best Music Festivals in The Netherlands [2020]

By MFW Staff / February 3, 2020

Lose yourself at Down the Rabbit Hole. Set on the edge of a lake (yes, there is swimming) this indie rock bonanza in The Netherlands is one of MFW's favorite fests of the summer. All of the main stages are placed under massive circus tents so no need to worry about the famous rains of the region.

The longest running dance festival in the world takes place in the Netherlands for two days every August and even spawned a spin-off in the United States. After a day of hedonistic dancing, Mysteryland fans find solace at Holy Ground Camping. Mysteryland strongly believes in festival soul, focusing on sustainability and local participation.

Kicking of the Netherlands summer in style, the Intents Festival is a multi-day dance event featuring the best of hardstyle, hardcore and freestyle. The stage production is top-notch with video, pyrotechnics, and lasers all culminating in an impressive finale on the iconic main stage.

Delighting the Netherlands since 1970, Pinkpop is the old and longest running annual dedicated pop and rock music festival in the world. 60,000 festies a day show up for the three-day festival to groove out to music on 4 separate stages.

One of the highlights of the Dutch festival season, the Best Kept Secret Festival brings a world-class lineup to the south of the Netherlands. The beautiful location boasts an incredible lake, plenty of camping options, and multiple stages to complete the weekend.

Although it’s officially called A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise, most fans simply call it Lowlands. The annual 3-day music and camping festival is held just 40 miles outside of Amsterdam and covers a wide range of genres. The festival calls itself “a true backpacker’s Garden Of Eden and Holland’s most adventurous cultural outdoorevent, offering a cutting edge choice of only the best in alternative music, film, stand-up comedy, visual arts, literature and street theatre.”

It’s one of the most well known electronic music festival in Europe and the largest outdoor techno festival in the world. 80,000 visitors in just two short days are blasted with more than 100 DJs at Awakenings just outside of Amsterdam.

Expanding from its roots as an Amsterdam electronic festival, the DGTL Festival can now be enjoyed around the globe. DGTL invites the very best from popular and underground techno to populate their expansive lineup, while the crew behind the scenes pushes their artistic limits with visual art installations that are out of this world.

Taking 2017 off to retool the festival, the heaviest festival of the year has returned. It’s going to be a strong lineup of metal and rock for the 40,000 expected fans in Nijmegen.

Holland's finest punk, hardcore, and metalcore get together in Ysselsteyn along with international touring acts. This 8,000 attendee open air festival has grown over the years and now includes two festival tents, the famous Punkbrockbar, a chill area, a food court, signing sessions, a festival market and camping.

The aptly named 18HRS Festival takes electronic fans on a full day journey through house, techno, tech-house and disco. There's outdoor stages for the day and old school warehouse stages during the night. From dusk until dawn, this is one of Europe's most insane single day raves.

For over two decades, the iconic Dance Valley has welcomed electronic to this massive single-day festival. With 10+ stages and 60,000 dance happy revelers, this is truly one of the wildest parties of the summer. The electronic music is varied, dipping into sub-genres like trance, hardstyle, EDM, and techno.

This Dutch metal festival makes brings out the hard rock during the sunny dog days of August at the foot of the Oldehove (an unfinished medieval tower) in Leeuwarden. The small two-day festival is perfect for metal fans who want to some incredible bands in a close atmosphere.

It doesn't get any more undground hipster than Le Guess Who, which brings a curated selection of artists to the Dutch college city of Utrecht. More than a hundred acts take place in venues like clubs, theaters, churches, galleries, and warehouses. If you're wondering where the indie scene is heading, Le Guess Who is the barometer.

The Dutch capital of Amsterdam goes off in mid-October when ADE comes to town. 300 parties, 80 venues, and 2000 DJs makes this the electronic event of the season. Amsterdam Dance Event began life as a conference back in 1996 and the daytime events are stuffed with industry professionals and panels. At night, the showcase festival moves into the wild clubs and stages of Amsterdam for non-stop entertainment.

It's hip-hop in The Netherlands! Woo Hah festival is one the largest hip-hop festivals in the country held at the chill-worthy Safaripark Beekse Bergen. At this natural oasis, campers can find plenty of activities to keep them happy between sets from some of today's biggest names in the scene.

All of your dreams come true during the open-air Dreamfields Festival held on the beachside shores of the Rhederlaag Recreational Festival. This hardstyle festival boasts some of the most outlandish stages you've ever seen at an electronic festival along with an absolutely wild crowd.

There's drum and there's bass and there's the Dutch Liquicity Festival. Head north from Amsterdam to find huge beats spread across three stages at Geestmerambacht Park. Amusement parks, hot tubs, and volleyball courts are just some of the non-music perks of this wild weekender.

'A deafening sandstorm approaches with deadly speed. Seven extreme formations will compete for a tremendous trophy. Screaming engines, smoking exhausts and dreaded drivers will invade our savage sands. Hardcore will ignite its murdering machines in the desert of domination. Gasoline is gold when you enter…The Rally of Retribution.'

Dekmantel Festival enters into its seventh year stronger than the ever with a bold 'choose your own adventure' programming that welcomes a broad array of electronic tunes. The Amsterdam based festival takes place at the stunning Amsterdamse Bos, a massive city park oasis inside the city.

Solar Weekend began life as a progressive initiative but has since evolved into a creative multi-day festival with an inspiring lineup of artists. The festival is filled with all sorts of adventures including massive water gun battles, fairground rides, and merry-go-rounds. Each year has a theme that ties all the fun-stuff together along with a dizzying array of musical zones to fit your mood.

House music meets techno at the Loveland Music Festival in Amsterdam. Starting in 2018, Loveland expanded to two days of beats. The venue, the greenfield Sloterpark, sits on a scenic late, perfect for relaxing in between dancing.

Welcome to one of the craziest and loudest festivals of the summer. Decibel Outdoor Festival is a huge hardstyle fest in the Netherlands featuring 250 artists divided over 23 separate areas -- and the stages change genres every day so you will always be exploring the beautiful festival grounds and the creative art production. Like the website says: Let's live loud!

Free Your Mind, one of the oldest dance organizations in The Netherlands, puts on events across the country, but the highlight is their annual underground festival in Arnhem. 16,000 visitors gather at this epic single day fest which has seen the likes of Joris Voorn, Marco Carola, Paul Kalkbrenner, Speedy J, Boris Brechja, Amelie Lens, Skream, and Sven Väth.

Kicking off the Dutch summer, this music festival is a collaboration of friends and promoters that put together an epic electronic music lineup. In the spirit of all partners being equal, there's no main stage, with every area being curated as its own unique experience.

A festival for trance lovers, Luminosity Beach features over 40 artists highlighting everything special about this genre of electronic music. Taking place on the famous beaches of Bloemendaal, this popular seaside town is a perfect place to welcome the summer.

Defqon.1 is an annual hardstyle festival held in Biddinghuizen, Netherlands. It's a massive affair with 65,000 fans a day in attendance and 14+ stages. Produced by Q-Dance, there's also similar editions in Australia and Chile.

It's Europe's largest urban music festival taking place over a single day at Almere Beach near Amsterdam. Divided into four stages, Oh My! showcases the best of national and international hip-hop talent.

WiSH Outdoor is a three-day outdoor electronic festival celebrating its 8th edition. The production values are outstanding with plenty of options for camping and partying all night. Make sure to reserve a spot in Camp Wow! which features hammock lounges, beer pong, and afterparties.

It's not common to run across a boutique heavy music festival, but then again, nothing about the two decade old Roadburn Festival is run-of-the-mill. Held in the Dutch city of Tilburg, Roadburn's genre boundary pushing lineup ask festies to redefine their definition of heavy. Taking place in the early spring, 4000 attendees a day come to bang heads, with three quarters of the crowd from outside the Netherlands.

Since 1976, the North Sea Jazz Festival has been entertaining The Netherlands with jazz legends and Dutch artists. 75,000 attendees gather in Rotterdam to more than 1,000 musicians and 150 performances over 15 states. The diverse amount of music means that there's something for everyone in this wildly diverse selection of artists.

Acclaimed Swedish techno DJ Adam Beyer and legendary Dutch brand Awakenings will team up once again for the second edition of Drumcode Festival. The event will take place on Saturday 24th August at the NDSM docklands in Amsterdam.