As soon as the weather starts warming up and the sun becomes a staple throughout the day, anyone who loves music begins rejoicing. After all, the warm weather and sunshine mean festival season is approaching.
However, it might be time to start thinking a little differently this summer.
You might want to break your tradition of going to the same old festivals that you are used to filling your summer with. It might be time to break out of your shell and do something a little different.
There are plenty of unique ways to enjoy music differently this summer. Here are some of the best.
1. Tune Out Mainstream
One of the things you might want to do to break your habit of going to the same festivals every year is to forget about mainstream music. Instead of booking your ticket to the same festivals that sell out every year like Glastonbury, it’s time to try something new. Avoid anything mainstream to be different this year and venture out to find new musicians.
The UK has a lot of different festivals that you can book tickets for that will allow you to branch out and explore new genres or artists. Instead of booking the same old, you can consider slowing it down by booking tickets to the Port Eliot Festival in Cornwall during July. You can even book yourself some tickets to slow things down and do some yoga while listening to relaxing music like what you will find from Cosey Fanni Tutti.
2. Glyndebourne
If you are looking to explore something completely different, you might want to enjoy some opera. You can visit South Dawns National Park and check out the Glyndebourne Festival when it happens. This will give you the chance to experience some of the best opera singers you’ll find anywhere.
For something even more unique and interesting, you could consider reserving a spot at Wilderness. This is a festival that is as fun as it is quirky. You’ll find a lot of music artists venturing out to this one including Bonobo and Grace Jones.
3. Look For Tribute Acts
One of the most underrated things you could do would be to swap out the original artists with tribute acts. A lot of people avoid tribute acts because they assume they are going to have a worse experience. Instead of thinking and looking at it as a downgrade, you should be looking at them as a way to enjoy something different. You get the side benefit of these bands being much cheaper and more affordable to see. However, a lot of the good ones do end up charging as much as you would pay to experience the original artist. With tribute bands, you can get lost in enjoying music from those that you wouldn’t be able to experience since they aren’t performing anymore or they aren’t around. For instance, if you’ve had a passion for Frank Sinatra’s music, you wouldn’t be able to experience his music without finding a tribute band.
There are plenty of different options you could consider that will offer you this opportunity throughout the UK. You’ll even find a lot of festivals that feature nothing but tribute acts. This can be a great opportunity to experience music from a lot of artists’ music that you would never be able to any longer. This is why you should make this year the one you take on a summer music challenge and perhaps enjoy one of these tribute breaks for 2021.
4. Summer Music Challenge
You can find a lot of different music that you can experience across the globe. However, we tend to stick to our unique preferences all the time. It can be very difficult to step outside of what is normal to you and experience something different.
You can begin your challenge on the 1st of June and have it continue until the end of August. Each day, you should try to force yourself to listen to music that you’ve never previously listened to. You can even force yourself to pick music from a different genre than you are accustomed to listening to. If you don’t have the time to go through various albums, using a service like Spotify to handle the mixing for you can be advantageous. By the end of the summer, you might have a lot of different songs on your new go-to playlist!
5. Challenge Your Friends
You should be looking to involve your friends in your challenge. You can have each other pick out different songs that you have to listen to. That way, you can avoid bringing your preferences and bias into the challenge which can ruin it for yourself.
Veronica Baxter is a writer, blogger, and legal assistant operating out of the greater Philadelphia area.
