Festivals in Arizona

Between the saguaro cacti of the Sonoran Desert and the ponderosa pine forests of the Colorado Plateau, Arizona unfolds a festival scene as varied as its landscapes. In Phoenix and the Valley of the Sun, the all-charitable M3F Festival and the Innings Festival set the pace each spring beneath an ever-clear sky, while the heat is still gentle. Further north, the high-altitude town of Flagstaff offers an entirely different backdrop: the Flagstaff Folk Festival celebrates a warm, acoustic folk tradition, far from the bustle of the capital.

The desert's crown jewel remains the FORM Arcosanti Festival, tucked inside Paolo Soleri's experimental city, where indie and electronic music converse with utopian architecture found nowhere else on earth. Arizona embraces its contrasts too with Reggae Rise Up Arizona, which sends Caribbean rhythms rolling across the shores of Tempe Town Lake. FestT calculates your FestiScore — the affinity between a lineup and your favorite artists — and keeps dates, headliners and ticketing up to date so you never miss a moment of the season under the American Southwest sun.