Glastonbury, England: OK so this time we were prepared for it to rain, we just didn't know that it wouldn't stop until August. You might have missed the secret gigs but luckily everyone got to share in the main event — the mud. Photograph: Dylan Martinez/CorbisThe Big Chill, Herefordshire, England: Most of us had given up packing the flip-flops by this stage ... but Norman Jay's legendary powers of bringing out the sun won through for yet another year.Photograph: Martin Argles/GuardianRoskilde, Denmark: Denmark's biggest rock festival proved to be another sludge fest as record rains fell on the site. No doubt this will evoke fond "I was there in 2007" boasts, even if at the time you wished you'd opted for Benicàssim in sunny Spain. Photograph: Carsten Snejbjerg/Carsten Snejbjerg
The Sziget Rock festival, Budapest, Hungary: No need to mention the 'm' word — the picture says it all. Other highlights at the week-long event were Chemical Brothers, The Killers and Nine Inch Nails.Photograph: Laszlo Balogh/CorbisLatitude festival, Suffolk, England: Like a small-scale Glasto, before the dance tent came and booted the hippies into the Greenfield. A woodland stage, a gondola-lake and multi-coloured sheep add to the enchantment. Aah.Photograph: Jon Appleyard/Jon AppleyardThe Green Man festival, Wales: The one where small is beautiful and you get to see the "little man" acts taking the stage over the big-budget headliners. Unless you were unlucky enough to be standing behind these two, that is.Photograph: Mary Wycherley/Mary WycherleyThe Electric Picnic festival, Stradbally estate, Ireland: Billed as a boutique festival, the line-up read like a who's who of the year's festival stalwarts, as if they'd all got together for an Irish knees-up: Iggy, Bjork, Jarvis, Beastie Boys and Primal Scream to name but a few. Photograph: Kirsty Umback/CorbisBestival, Isle of Wight, England: A glorious sun-kissed event in September where the crowds turned out in their fancy dress best for the likes of The Go! Team, Gossip and Soul II Soul.Photograph: Deirdre Kelly/GuardianReading festival, Reading, England: 'Areas of the site are above wellie level' ran reports in the run-up to the festival. But in the event you were more likely to get a soaking from one of those famous Reading bottles of wee. Photograph: Yui Mok/PAT in the Park festival, Kinross, Scotland: Voted the UK's joint-third best music festival by NME readers. The line-up included Arctic Monkeys, Lilly Allen, the Scissor Sisters, and generous helpings of mud.Photograph: Shaun Curry/AFPExit festival, Serbia: At Exit the rule seemed to be the party doesn't end until dawn. None of this shutting down at midnight nonsense — crack open a tinny and watch the sun rise over the Danube. Photograph: PRRoskilde, Denmark (again): That's it. Time to pack away your tents for another year - and if you really can't wait, tickets for some of 2008's festivals are already on sale. Photograph: Carsten Snejbjerg
Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.