Music: The season of summer music festivals has officially started!

This year's Primavera Sound Festival has just started in Barcelona, until June 2nd. Its lineup includes groups/singers such as Architecture In Helsinki, Patti Smith, Hot Chip, Ivan Smagghe, Justice, Blonde Redhead, Kid Koala, Bonde Do Role, Klaxons, Shitdisco, Chromeo, The Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, David Carretta, Los Planetas, Spank Rock, Spiritualized, Diplo, Sr. Chinarro, Luomo, The Durutti Column, Maxïmo Park, Erol Alkan, Umek, The White Stripes, The Fall, Múm, Wilco, Fujiya & Miyagi and Nathan Fake, among others, less well known.

It has become quite mainstream and probably overtaken SONAR festival, in popularity.

But SONAR (a festival for experimental electronic music) is still alive and will come later, between 14 and 16 June, also in Barcelona.

Another famous Spanish festival is FIB, the Festival Internacional de Benicàssim in Valencia, Spain, later on, between 19-21 July 2007. It will have a quite eclectic lineup, yet very up to date, with, among others, Fangoria, Fischerspooner (yes!), Klaxons, B'52!, Nouvelle Vague, The Rapture, Sascha Funke, Simian mobile, Rufus W., Cansei de SerSexy, Vialic, Peter Von Poehl, Antony & the Johnsons and Digitalism.

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In France there are also many many festivals, one of the best known is certainly the Eurockeennes (http://www.eurockeennes.fr) festival in Belfort, between 29 June and 1st July. It will showcase Les Rita Mitsouko, Justice, Peter Von Poehl, Simian Mobile Disco, The Hives, Queens Of The Stone Age, Phoenix, Digitalism, Maxïmo Park, I'm From Barcelona, Shitdisco, Arcade Fire, Air, TV On The Radio, Antony & the Johnsons, Laurent Garnier and Klaxons, among other groups.

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Yet one of my favourites, if nothing for its name is the Siestes éléctroniques" festival, in Toulouse, south of France – see next post.

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Also in Belgium there are a couple of good festivals, very crowded, despite the (usual) summer rain… Among them, Rock Werchter and Pukkelpop.

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And Portugal too, has got its share of summer festivals, one of the biggest is the Superbock-Superrock festival in Lisbon (trend: rock), presenting Maxïmo Park, Klaxons, LCD Soundsystem, Scissor Sisters, The Rapture, Block Party, Arcade Fire, Interpol, TV on the radio, among others. The biggest festival is certainly the Festival do Sudoeste, in the southern coast of Portugal at Zambujeira do Mar, between 2 and 5 August.It invites groups like Oasis, The Streets, Mika, Bonde do Rolê, Patrick Wolf, Cassius, I'm from Barcelona, etc.

So... enjoy the summer, enjoy the music!