European Festivals 2011 Round-Up

Be different - take a festival break in Europe instead of the UK, and catch a different landscape. While artists in both new music and classical are constantly circling the world in search of more picturesque settings, you can find your alternative Glasto in Denmark or Belgium, or you can find favourite chamber musicians in Austria rather than London. theartsdesk brings you listings of this year's major European festivals: rock in Sonar, Sziget and Stradbally, opera in Bayreuth, Verona and Salzburg, dance in Vienna, Epidauros and Spoleto, visual arts in Istanbul, Zurich and Avignon. This is the indispensable clickable guide to a cultured break in Europe.

Festivals are listed chronologically. For UK festivals, see theartsdesk's complete listings.

Berlin, Germany, February, FILM

The Berlinale, or Berlin International Film Festival, is no place for a suntan but it remains one of the big three film festivals, after Cannes and Venice, with about 400 films shown, and Golden Bears handed out to the best of the 20 competing films. Aimed at industry professionals, it incorporates the influential European Film Market, a bazaar of world cinema in a city that takes being hip very seriously. www.berlinale.de

Cannes, France, 11-22 May, FILM

The starriest of film industry festivals, accessible to professionals only in person, and by global TV and media coverage to everyone else. But there are open-air screenings of movies on the beach too, Cinéma de la Plage, for ordinary joes. As usual 20 films compete for the Palme d’Or, 10 short films compete for the Short Film Palme d’Or, and another 20 feature-length movies are selected from around the world for the Un Certain Regard section. Various other films are shown out of competition, including top film school work. Intriguingly, Cannes was set up post-war as a reaction to political corruption by the Fascists of the Venice Film Festival (see August below).

Venice, Italy, 4 June-27 November, VISUAL ARTS

The most glamorous festival of all, the Art Biennale, now in its 54th edition, with national pavilions around the city featuring 83 artists, Mike Nelson doing the honours for the UK (pictured left). Other British artists represented include Martin Creed, Ryan Gander, Haroon Mirza, Amalia Pica, Rebecca Warren, Nick Relph, Emily Wardill and Anish Kapoor. www.labiennale.org

Leipzig, Germany, 10-19 June, CLASSICAL MUSIC

The 86th annual Bach Festival seasons a banquet of music by the great Leipzig genius with other composers, Telemann, Britten and Saint-Saëns among them. Among artists appearing in dozens of concerts are the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, conductor Sir André Previn and the kora players of African Reflections. www.bach-leipzig.de

Sonar 2011, Barcelona, Spain, 16-18 June, NEW MUSIC/MEDIA

An advanced music and multimedia festival that attracts serious dance music fans to the capital of Spanish hip where a big Radio 1 presence includes DJs Annie Mac, Benji B and Toddla T. Artists range from Steve Reich to Janelle Moráe, Aphex Twin, MIA (pictured right) and Underworld. This year's media draws include sonic adventurers Alva Noto and Ryoji Ikeda and video producer Chris Cunningham. 

Schubertiade, Schwarzenberg, Austria, 18 June-3 July, 27 August-11 September, CLASSICAL MUSIC

Major chamber music festival celebrating Franz Schubert attracting the finest Lieder interpreters, this year including a strong British contingent including Mark Padmore, Paul Lewis, Christopher Maltman and Ian Bostridge, and chamber music luminaries such as Alfred Brendel, Bernarda Fink and the Belcea Quartet. In fact, it's practically the Wigmore Hall on busman's holiday in the mountains. www.schubertiade.at

Spoleto, Italy, 24 June-10 July, MUSIC/DANCE/FILM/THEATRE

Embraces all arts in a variety of venues from palaces to piazzs around this gorgeous town. Italy’s most glamorous people turn up and the increasingly international programme this year includes the Corella Ballet, the first Spanish classical ballet company set up by New York superstar Angel Corella, with a programme including Christopher Wheeldon's Royal Ballet creation DGV (pictured left) Also Menotti's comic opera Amelia Goes to the Ball, Julia Migenes singing Leonard Bernstein, and Neil Simon's romantic theatre comedy Barefoot in the Park. www.festivaldispoleto.com

Zurich, Switzerland, 17 June-10 July, OPERA/DANCE/VISUAL ART

Zurich Ballet in ballets by two master-choreographers Jerome Robbins and Hans Van Manen, Daniele Gatti conducting Zurich Opera in Parsifal, Ingo Metzmacher conducting Janacek's From the House of the Dead, Vesselina Kasarova as Bizet's Carmen, and a considerable variety of lyric arts in the Swiss town's Opera House, concert halls and in the open air. www.zuercher-festspiele.ch

Verona, Italy, 17 June-3 September, OPERA

Opera doesn’t come grander than these spectacular arena opera productions of six favourite biggies, Aida, La Traviata, La Bohème, The Barber of Seville, Nabucco and Roméo et Juliette. Artists include Ermonela Jaho and Inva Mula as Violettas in a newly designed Traviata under conductor Carlo Rizzi, and Marcelo Alvarez as Rodolfo in La Bohème. www.arena.it

Fête de la Musique, Paris, France, 21 June, NEW & CLASSICAL MUSIC

Same day every year, Paris opens its streets, stages, hospitals and prisons to any and all musicians in a huge all-day free music fête. All concerts and events are free, and include performances by the largest and most famous institutions as well as amateurs. Now in its 30th year, it was (characteristically) started by the French government as a social act of culture. www.fetedelamusique.culture.fr

Athens and Epidauros, Greece, June-September, THEATRE/DANCE/CLASSICAL MUSIC

Despite the Greek financial collapse, the Acropolis and the Epidauros amphitheatre continue annually to be decorated with mouthwatering contemporary and classical arts. Though Robert Wilson's Lulu was cancelled, other attractions include Ariane Mnouchkine's Théâtre du Soleil, a Yannis Xenakis tribute including the Arditti Quartet and London Sinfonietta, the Bolshoi Opera's stunning new Eugene Onegin, contemporary dance from the Forsythe Company and Maguy Marin, and a new Greek theatre production about dance legend Nijinsky. www.greekfestival.gr

Aix-en-Provence, France, 5-25 July, CLASSICAL MUSIC/DANCE

International classical music festival in gorgeous Aix venues inside and out includes the London Symphony Orchestra under Valery Gergiev in this year's featured composer Shostakovich, Saburo Teshigawara's new production for Aix of Handel's Acis and Galatea, Natalie Dessay in a new La Traviata under Louis Langrée, Les Talens Lyriques with Véronique Gens, and the world premiere of Jérôme Combier's Austerlitz. www.festival-aix.com

Rock Werchter, Belgium, 30 June-3 July, NEW MUSIC

One of Europe's Glasto equivalents, this year headlined by Magnetic Man, Seasick Steve, Arctic Monkeys, Kings of Leon, Queens of the Stone Age, P J Harvey, Portishead... in fact every band from every big UK festival will turn up. www.rockwerchter.be

Roskilde, Denmark, 30 June-3 July, NEW MUSIC

Another European Glasto, running since 1971, with interesting Scandinavian bands admixing the international names such as Arctic Monkeys, P J Harvey (pictured left), the Strokes, Iron Maiden, Seun Kuti, Dåm Funk and Gold Panda. www.roskilde-festival.dk

Hérouville Saint-Clair, Normandy, France, 1-3 July, NEW MUSIC

Festival Beauregard fills the Chateau Beauregard with rock - this year Kasabian, ZZ Top, Two Door Cinema Club and Motörhead headline three days of music. www.festivalbeauregard.com

Savonlinna, Finland, 1-27 July, OPERA

A grand opera festival in the serene Finnish lake district, founded in 1912 and set inside the magnificent 15th-century St Olaf's Castle on Lake Saimaa. Don Giovanni, Lohengrin, Tosca, Don Carlo and Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle are the operas. Tenor José Cura in concert, and the annual Timo Mustakallio Singing Competition is of major league - plus there are steamer cruises on the lakes. www.operafestival.fi

Montreux, Switzerland, 1-16 July, NEW MUSIC

BB King, Carlos Santana, Rumer, Laura Marling, Ricky Martin and George Benson headline the renowned Montreux Jazz festival on its 45th appearance. At this Lake Geneva mecca for music, the free stages increasingly compete for fans attention with the major-league concerts. www.montreuxjazz.com/2011

Avignon, France, 6-26 July, CONTEMPORARY ART/DANCE/THEATRE

Booking opens 13 June for this modish French arts festival, founded in 1947 to showcase contemporary art in ancient settings. This year offerings include contemporary dance stars Boris Charmatz, Meg Stuart and Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker's Rosas, Frédéric Fisbach and Patrice Chéreau in productions of Strindberg's Miss Julie and  Jon Fosse's I Am the Wind. The venues include chapels, cloisters and above all the Pope’s Palace. www.festival-avignon.com

Novi Sad, Serbia, 7-10 July, NEW MUSIC

EXIT Festival was started by rebellious uni students in protest against Milosevic, and is now a huge, laid-back rock festival in the grounds of the Petrovaradin fortress on the Danube. Headlined by Photek, Loefah, Boddika, Kink City and others. http://eng.exitfest.org/

Benicassim, Spain, 14-17 July, NEW MUSIC

Big rock festival headlined by The Streets, The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, Arcade, Plan B, Paolo Nutini and Mumford & Sons on a long, long list of international visitors to the Mediterranean resort. www.fiberfib.com

Vienna, Austria, 12 July-14 August, DANCE

ImPulsTanz, Vienna’s annual international dance festival, with Jan Fabre, Akram Khan's Vertical Road (pictured right) Marie Chouinard and Bollywood choreographer Terence Lewis among many vying for attention in venues from cafes to opera houses. www.impulstanz.com/festival10

Orange, France, 17 June-2 August, THEATRE/CLASSICAL MUSIC

Racine's Andromache, Verdi's Aida conducted by Tugan Sokhiev, pianist Denis Matsuev in Rachmaninov's 3rd piano concerto, Beethoven's Choral symphony are some of the attractions inside the fabulously well-preserved Roman Théâtre Antique in southern France - itself vaut le détour. www.choregies.asso.fr

Verbier, Switzerland, 15-31 July, CLASSICAL MUSIC/ DANCE

The constellation of some of the greatest musical talent in the world in the Swiss Alps each summer remains phenomenal, with young stars like Khatia Buniashvili, Leonidas Kavakos and Llyr Williams alongside mature masters Charles Dutoit, Martha Argerich and Gidon Kremer. Rock violinist David Garrett and the Béjart Ballet in two of the late Maurice Béjart's more celebrated pieces, Sacre du Printemps and The Firebird, offer less classical alternatives. www.verbierfestival.com

Gstaad, Switzerland, 15 July-3 September, CLASSICAL MUSIC

The other great Swiss classical music festival, established by Yehudi Menuhin, one of Gstaad’s many musical luminaries living in political and tax liberation here. This year’s headliners include clarinettist Sabine Meyer, conductor Valery Gergiev, the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta, soprano Renee Fleming, and the remarkable Russian pianist Grigory Sokolov (pictured left). www.menuhinfestivalgstaad.ch

Torre del Lago, Italy, 22 July-27 August, OPERA

Near Viareggio, the Tuscan lakeside town hosts an annual Puccini Opera Festival dedicated to Giacomo Puccini near his birthplace, Lucca. A huge open-air theatre stages Turandot, Tosca and Madama Butterfly. www.puccinifestival.it/website/eng/index.asp

Bregenz, Austria, 20 July-21 August, OPERA

The famous opera-on-the-lake setting at this big-scale open-air opera festival staged partly on a floating stage on Lake Constance. The core attraction is Keith Warner's staging of André Chenier with casts including Amanda Echalaz.  (Remember that heat and water means mosquitoes for which Bregenz is notorious.) More contemporary tastes will prefer the world premiere of Judith Weir's Achterbahn, a co-commission with the Royal Opera House at the Festspielhaus.  Among the concerts, Sir Mark Elder conducts the Hallé in Elgar, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky. www.bregenzerfestspiele.com

Bayreuth, Germany, 25 July-28 August, OPERA

The legendary Wagner opera festival now run by his two great-granddaughters. Comprehensive programme of Tannhäuser, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Lohengrin, Parsifal, Tristan und Isolde with interpreters including Daniele Gatti in Parsifal (see Zurich in June). www.bayreuther-festspiele.de

Salzburg, Austria, 27 July-30 August, OPERA/CLASSICAL/THEATRE

De luxe opera festival much featuring the Vienna Philharmonic and traditional sweetmeats of opera. The Marriage of Figaro with Simon Keenlyside and conducted by Robin Ticciati, Anne Schwanewilms in Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten staged by Christof Loy, the world premiere of Friedrich Murnau's Faust with Ensemble Resonanz, Verdi's Macbeth, Stravinsky's Rossignole, a Polish co-production of Janacek's The Makropolos Affair with Angela Denoke, concerts by the Berlin Phil, Vienna Phil, and a production of Goethe's Faust among the numerous plums. www.salzburgerfestspiele.at

Musique Cordiale, Seillans, France, 3-13 August, CLASSICAL MUSIC

A fortnight’s fresh, unpretentious and sociable music-making near Nice between student professionals, established names and good amateurs in southern France. La Bohème and Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale staged outdoors in Seillans’s town square, and concerts in various nearby venues include horn-player Timothy Brown's recital and Bach's St John's Passion. www.musique-cordiale.com

Budapest, Hungary, 10-15 August, NEW MUSIC

One of the best European rock festivals, Sziget this year headlines with Amy Winehouse (pictured right), Kasabian, Manic Street Preachers, Dizzee Rascal and La Roux etc, some of them  on Obudai Island in the Danube. www.sziget.hu/festival_english

Lucerne, Switzerland, 10 August-18 September, CLASSICAL MUSIC

Everybody who is anybody in classical music plays here during a month packed with superlative musicians - this year on a theme of "night", which means dreamers, visionaries and darkness. Conductors include Claudio Abbado, Bernard Haitink, Pierre Boulez, Vladimir Jurowski, Daniel Barenboim and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Muti with the Chicago SO, Rattle with the Berlin Phil and Christophe Rousset with Les Talens Lyriques. Soloists include violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, singer Christine Schäfer, pianist Hélène Grimaud. Occasional modern relief includes the Arditti Quartet and contemporary choreographer Emio Greco. Scenery includes mountains, lakes and extraordinary bridges. www.lucernefestival.ch

Cavan, Ulster, 13-22 August, NEW MUSIC

The annual Fleadh Cheoil - a huge national celebration of Ireland's traditional music, dance and arts that travels the island - with over 10,000 musicians competing to raise standards (or so the thought is). This year in Cavan in Ulster. www.fleadh2011cavan.ie

Berlin, Germany, 12-28 August, DANCE

Tanz im August (Dance in August) is a major German contemporary dance festival in Berlin. Edouard Lock's Canadian troupe La La La Human Steps is up with a world premiere, and Senegalese company Andréya Ouamba also performs. www.tanzimaugust.de

Venice, Italy, 31 August-10 September, FILM

The second of the "big three" world film festivals, along with Cannes (see May) and Berlin, though the oldest of them all, founded in 1932. The 68th Venice Film Festival awards its Golden Lions under a jury chaired by Darren (Black Swan) Aronofsky. Al Pacino and Marco Bellochio will be two major career award-winners. www.labiennale.org

Stradbally, Eire, 2-4 September, NEW MUSIC

Electric Picnic 2011 is the Irish equivalent of Bestival, with Sinéad O'Connor, P J Harvey, Lykke Li, Mogwai, Big Audio Dynamite and a lot of big names finishing up their European festival circuit in this laidback event where there are even bike racks for the eco-conscious traveller. www.electricpicnic.ie

Venice, Italy, 4 September-16 October, NEW/CLASSICAL MUSIC & THEATRE

Autumn festivals for contemporary music (24 September-1 October) and international theatre (10-16 October) complete the Venetian cultural festival year. www.labiennale.org

Warsaw, Poland, 7-16 October, FILM

The fourth significant European film festival where a film likes to be noticed (past UK winners include Trainspotting and The Full Monty), but it puts its Warsaw audience first, aiming to show them the best new world movies before they win Oscars. It was set up in the dying days of Communism to open Poland's long-restricted eyes to international film. www.wff.pl/en

Wexford, Eire, 21 October-5 November, OPERA

The 60th Wexford Opera Festival is renowned for insinuating forgotten operas back into public consciousness: it's Ambroise Thomas's year, evidently, with La coeur de Célimène (you can take in his Mignon at the Buxton Festival in July), Polish composer Roman Statkowski's Maria and Donizetti's comedy Gianni di Parigi the choice resurrections this year. www.wexfordopera.com

Istanbul Contemporary Art Festival, 24-27 November, VISUAL ARTS

The 6th international festival of contemporary art with galleries from the UK, France, Spain, Germany and Iran among the confirmed exhibitors as well as the latest from Turkish contemporary artists. www.contemporaryistanbul.com

• See theartsdesk guide to UK Festivals 2011