Austria

From Electric Love, the electronic mega-gathering that turns the Salzburgring into an ocean of neon every summer, to Nova Rock, the country's biggest rock and metal weekend out on the Pannonian plain in Burgenland, Austria builds a festival scene shaped by its landscape — tucked into Alpine valleys one moment, spread along turquoise lakeshores the next. In St. Pölten, on the banks of the Traisen, the Frequency Festival caps the summer with rock, pop and indie headliners playing to tens of thousands.

But Austria's true signature is the mountains: nowhere else do people dance quite so high above sea level. In Tyrol, Snowbombing sets up its decks among the snowy slopes of Mayrhofen, where Full Metal Mayrhofen sends guitars roaring between chairlift rides, while Graz, the cultural capital of the south, hosts the Elevate Festival, a forward-thinking lab that blends boundary-pushing music with ideas and debate. FestT works out your FestiScore — how closely a line-up matches your favourite artists — and keeps dates, headliners and ticketing up to date. Explore festivals city by city below, too.