Europe's best music festivals this summer that you might not have heard of

Who doesn't love a music festival. That moment when the sun is out, you have a cool drink in one hand, your friends by your side, and one of your favourite bands is blasting out their best tunes; there's little better. 

After multiple years of cancelled music festivals, this is the second summer where all the main names are back in force. Unfortunately, that also has meant huge interest in music-deprived revellers and tickets are being snapped up at a faster rate than ever. 

While Coachella may have all the social media influencers enraptured, and the online queues to buy Glastonbury tickets remain impossible to traverse, we've brought you a line-up of Europe's finest festivals off the beaten track.

So if you're yet to plan your perfect summer music experience, we've got your back. Here are Euronews Culture's personal recommendations for lesser-known but brilliant music festivals you have to check out.   

The Paleo Festival, held in Nyon near Lake Geneva, is one of the oldest music festivals in Switzerland and one of the largest open-air events in Europe.

Paleo is also much more than a music festival; the annual event will be held on 18-23 July this year, featuring six days and nights of music in all sorts of styles spread over seven stages from pop, reggae, metal, electro, punk, jazz and even classical music, as well as circus and street arts.

Switzerland and Lake Geneva are extraordinary settings and the organisers take care to make the festival welcoming, with food and craft stands from all over the world.

The festival started in 1976 as the Nyon Folk Festival with 1800 spectators, its now capped at 300,000. It has had some epic line-ups, from Kiss, Sting, Rag’n’Bone Man (2022), Gorillaz, The Killers, Lenny Kravitz (2019)