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Why no one is going to Glastonbury.

RawRip artists playing festivals this summer:

Beans On Toast - Blissfields, Secret Garden Party, Glastonbury, 2000 Trees

Captain Phoenix - Blissfields, The Great Escape & Secret Garden Party

Imperial Leisure - Blissfields, Camp Bestival, 2000 Trees, Sound Island, Maker, En-Dorset, Beachdown, Bristol Harbour and the Cider Festival

Lazy Habits - Blissfields, Glastonbury, Rocket, Hub, Sunrise, Regent's Park free festival, Wehn The Cows Come Home, 2000 Trees, Secret Garden, City Roots, En-Dorset & Grass Roots festival

Modernaire - Blissfields, Woolfire Festival

Pistola - Blissfields, Rutsfest

Are you on Rawrip and playing a festival? Let us know here in time and we'll get your name up in this feature.

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UK Festivals

The British festival is as quintessential to the country as Prince William's girlfriends and biscuits at break time. They are, certainly for the student masses, the highlight of the year and a place to realise the dreams we had as children which we can now explore as adults through whatever means that might take.

Although events like Glastonbury and Reading Festival are more acknowledged they are however, no matter how stylishly they're promoted, poor examples of what a concrete British date should resemble. This year Bestival, Green Man, Blissfields and Secret Garden Party are at the forefront of what a festival should be, the events being likened to what Glastonbury was like 30 years ago; inviting people to police themselves and indulge in forgotten fantasy with celebrations that really reflect the carnival like vibe weíre coming to expect as standard. Such is the popularity of these generally family orientated occasions that they have found a glorious middle ground of merriment vs. quality. In 2008 for instance, the Secret Garden Party (July 24th to 27th) will once again be offering up the eccentric with a whole manner of treats in store under the theme of "Come the Revolutions". This will backdrop acts such as Grace Jones, Sons and Daughters and Glasvegas in a weekend truly unlike any other youíve experienced. A playground for adults, the party has become an inspiration for music fans who have also started events that have become as important, if not so much more than, larger counterparts.

Blissfields Festival for instance (July 4th to 6th) has opened doors into our inner childlike minds via an almost 'Being John Malkovich' way it too has managed to secure top names such as Roni Size Reprazent, Maps, The Whip and The Wonderstuff, but delivers so much more from its humble ticket price. A mass birthday party, tons of space and guaranteed top quality new bands along with frenzied frolicking will separate Blissfields from anything sporting a mass of logos or City funded line-ups this year.

It's these boutique events that display what British festivals should be about, and it's these which inevitably offer the most fun and thus value for money. New bands make them as vital as any other festival if not more so, and for those people scoping the internet amid a haze of new artists that will be playing Leeds and Reading in two or three years, these festivals are the best place to observe, first hand, which acts have the talent to do so.

New bands festivals are what we do best in Britain, the Red Stripe Camden Crawl, In The City and Great Escape being the taste-makers of the country's, and often even the worlds, music industry. At times you canít escape the idea of discovery among our festivals and for all the headliners; it's the promise of finding the new preeminent in sound that will have us ruffling our backpacks each year.

Then there are festivals like Wakestock which never intended to be music festivals, this wonderfully sunny event being the championship final of wakeboarding until very recently when a new direction and a nice budget has given it enough flight to become the best Glastonbury alternative this summer. Groove Armada, Supergrass, The Streets, Young Knives and Mark Ronson will play the idyllically waterfront festival in 2008 showing that a big event can exist without malevolence as long as it has a point. A vital distinction.

Whether it's a niche festival, one that has grown from an idea outside that of simply charging people to watch music, the inspiring new-artist orientated events or the wonderfully serene boutiques... it's their individualism and heart which has us flocking to them for a short period when you can be whoever you want to. And in numerous cases, do whatever you want to. For British people, the music festival is an absolute institute, and thatís for sure.