Sophie McNulty is a freelance writer whose work has been published by DJ Mag, Resident Advisor, Mixmag and Dekmantel. They like to write about arts, food and culture in general. They're particularly interested in platforming the voices and lives of marginalised people and do so through journalistic and fictional writing.

Sophie McNulty

CTM Festival is an annual display of thought-provoking, site-specific works, created in response to a chosen theme. The event has gained a reputation for championing adventurous art that questions the future and our current realities.

Chosen for: Innovation, Sustainability and Driving Diversity.

In 2022, CTM Festival’s chosen theme was Contact, and this year it’s Portals: looking at sound and music as gateways to other realities. In exploring a theme that is linked to the now, there’s a cultural relevance to CTM Festival that simultaneously feels future-facing.

CTM acknowledges the political roots of electronic music, and uses the event to fundraise for various communities. Last year, the festival stated it was committed to supporting Ukraine and hosted a fundraiser concert at Kraftwerk. It also raised money via its Plus 1 – refugees welcome initiative and supported the K41 community fund.

What’s more, CTM has been a place of many firsts in Berlin. They were the first event to host a ticketed event at Berghain, for example, but most importantly, CTM consistently premieres new works from artists outside of the West. One particular example is a debut performance from Kuwait’s Van Boom, listed on this year’s line-up. Artists who are already established in Europe have premiered new and unexpected works at CTM, such as Nene H who collaborated with the Bassiani Ensemble in 2020 on the piece 

At CTM you can expect to hear music that demands you listen to it differently. As a festival, it expands the ways in which music and art can be. Its adventurous programming provides a contrast to some of the more rigid techno you can experience in the capital city, and gives artists from different backgrounds the freedom and platform to create.

CTM Festival takes place across various venues in Berlin from 27 January to 5 February 2023.

Germany

Berlin

CTM Festival

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This Ugandan festival takes place at the Jinja Agricultural showground in 

, a brand new site which sits by the banks of the River Nile.

The area also includes the ‘Source of the Nile’ Reptile Park, Jinja Golf Course and Nile Park. By now, for fans of experimental music and diasporic African sounds, Nyege Nyege is a world-renowned festival. The event's line-up focuses on pushing artists and performers locally in Uganda and beyond into the African continent, with only a handful of bookings from outside. 

In order to keep their crowds as African-centred as their programming, they lower their price mark for Ugandan and East African residents. Aside from the music, Nyege Nyege also offer visitors the opportunity for excursions such as bungee jumps, rafting and quad biking. They also work with local vendors to deliver delicious and traditional African fare, for any foodies out there.

Nyege Nyege is one of the finalists for Trippin 50, a cultural calendar featuring the best events around the world. 

Nyege Nyege Festival

Conceived over 60 years ago, Monterey Jazz Festival is the longest-running celebration of the genre. Honouring the roots of jazz, the organisers also work on creating an awareness of imbalances within the scene today.

Chosen for: Preserving Culture, Driving Diversity and Long-Term Impact.

Founded in 1958 by two jazz enthusiasts – DJ Jimmy Lyons and the critic Ralph Gleason – the first edition of Monterey Jazz Festival hosted titans of the genre, such as Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday. With over 60 years in the game, Monterey Jazz Festival is the longest-running event of its kind in the world. Its impact is such that it has become a cornerstone display for jazz music, and welcomed pioneers to its bandstands over the years: Tony Bennett, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and Norah Jones, to name a few.

Monterey Jazz Festival extends beyond being an event. While this annual celebration is an anchoring point for musicians and the international jazz community, it’s also an organisation that pays homage to the roots of the genre whilst tackling imbalances within the scene. Jazz has always been political by nature, its origins stemming back to protest music. It reflected the struggles of Black folks and advocated for social change.

These values are a part of the festival’s ethos, who have worked on addressing, and creating an awareness of, inequalities across the international community today – particularly racial and gender imbalances. In 2019 they launched their Next Generation Women in Jazz programme to champion women in the genre. Year-round, they also run an education programme introducing jazz into local schools. Furthermore, the team runs summer camps and hosts a smaller Next Generation Jazz Festival for young people. This educational programme seeks to inspire a new generation. The annual festival not only celebrates jazz, it preserves it as an art form for generations to come.

Monterey Jazz Festival takes place at Monterey County Fairgrounds on 23-24 September 2023.

Monterey Jazz Festival 

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At the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale, attendees are able to explore over 230 artworks throughout the Echigo-Tsumari Art Field in Niigata. 

This region in Japan is a place characterised by heavy snowfall in winter, therefore depopulation is an ever-growing issue along with rapid ageing–the Triennale helps to combat this with its tourism. Artworks are scattered across 200 villages in the area, where visitors not only come into contact with contemporary art but also with the ongoing practises of satoyama that prevail there–’sato’ meaning village, ‘yama’ meaning mountain, this ancient Japanese practise is applied to areas where arable land meets the foothills of mountain terrain. 

The Echigo-Tsumari region has cultivated its land for rice production since ancient times, forever under the harsh conditions like heavy snowfall, therefore locals understand and engage with their inseparable relationship with nature. During a trip to the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale, attendees have the chance to explore their own relation to nature too.

Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale is one of the finalists for Trippin 50, a cultural calendar featuring the best events around the world. 

The Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale is taking place at Echigo-Tsumari Art Field from 13 July to 10 November 2024.

The Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale

Australia’s Pitch Music and Arts Festival invites the best in contemporary electronic music to perform against a backdrop of the Grampian Mountains. Located on indigenous land, the organisers use the event to pay homage to the area’s original inhabitants.

Music festivals often seek to forge a connection between sound and its surroundings. The success of Pitch Music & Arts Festival lies in how well it implements this strategy, championing the visual arts as much as the sonics – rather than as an accompaniment. As a platform for groundbreaking visual artists, architects and DJs, the event has grown to become an internationally renowned spectacle.

The area on which Pitch takes place has its own distinct identity too. Belonging to the Djab Wurrung people, the space is sacred, indigenous land. This doesn’t go unnoticed by the organisers, who, each year, integrate the Djab Wurrung people into the event. As an act of cultural exchange, Pitch marks the beginning of the festival with a Welcome to Country ceremony. This act is considered a rite of passage in Aboriginal communities and welcomes visitors to the land of the host nation. It’s a highly significant event as it reflects a relationship of deep respect for the land between the visitor and host. Traditionally, the ceremony requires long periods of negotiation for this rite of passage to be held.

Furthermore, Pitch partners with independent initiatives like Good Intentions, who provide rental of high-quality camping gear and also the repair of camping gear to reduce waste after a long weekend in the rave.

Pitch Music & Arts Festival takes place at Moyston, Australia, on 10-14 March 2023.

Australia

Melbourne

Pitch Music & Arts Festival

Situated in the Ossola Valley in northern Italy, near the Swiss border, Nextones is simultaneously a festival and a project for environmental redevelopment.

Tones on the Stones, the collective spearheading Nextones, converted the long abandoned Roncino quarry in the small village of Oira into a large stone theatre, surrounded by the valley’s rugged, mountainous landscape. This theatre is the centrepiece of Nextones and sees an industrial workspace transform into a site for cultural communion, whilst also converting a space of critical environmental damage into something more future-facing. Outside of the festival, the site is a place for continued research into technologies that bring outdoor events such as Nextones to life.

During the event, there are also site-specific activities that allow attendees to explore the surrounding landscape and ancient villages, which are still visibly tied to the area’s stone quarrying history.

Nextones is one of the finalists for Trippin 50, a cultural calendar featuring the best events around the world. 

Nextones is taking place at Tones Teatro Natura in 2024. Dates are yet to be announced.

The closest airport is Milan Malpensa Airport, where you can take a shuttle to the festival. If you are already local to the area, there are other public transport options you can find on their 

You can camp in the festival’s campsite or use 

Nextones

 has become one of southwest China’s most well-loved independent festivals with a lineup of art and music that promotes Chinese artists only.

The festival takes place annually on the third weekend in April, and its name aptly translates to 'Spring Outing' in English. April is when the weather begins to warm up in Chengdu, and the surrounding natural landscape begins to bloom. Situated in the foothills of Heilongtan, Chengdu, Chun You encourages attendees to be at one with the environment, and to connect with others around them. Aside from their music and arts programming, Chun You boasts chill areas, a vinyl market and opportunities to soak in the surrounding natural landscape. They also have an impressive food village, which hosts a true Sichuan food experience in Heilongtan.

Chun You Festival is one of the finalists for Trippin 50, a cultural calendar featuring the best events around the world. 

Chun You Festival is taking place at Heilongtan Zhongtie FanMu Musical Park, Chengdu from 19 to 21 April 2024.

Chengdu is easily accessible via public transport. Options include flights, trains, coaches and the underground system.

Chendu's city centre has a range of hotel options.

There is currently no information on accessibility.


Chun You Festival 

, attendees are able to explore over 230 artworks throughout the Echigo-Tsumari Art region in Japan’s Niigata prefecture. 

This region in Japan is characterised by heavy snowfall in winter, and therefore depopulation is an ever-growing issue along with rapid ageing. The triennale helps to combat this by drawing in travellers around the world. Artworks are scattered across 200 villages in the area, where visitors not only come into contact with contemporary art but also with the ongoing practises of satoyama that prevail there. ‘Sato’ means village and ‘yama’ means mountain; this ancient Japanese practice is applied to areas where arable land meets the foothills of mountainous terrain.

People living within the Echigo-Tsumari region have cultivated the land for rice production since ancient times. Forever under the harsh conditions of snowfall, artwork created within this region often delves into ideas on nature and an individual’s relationship to the outdoors. During a trip to the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale, attendees are encouraged to explore their own relationship to the natural world too.

is one of the finalists for Trippin 50, a cultural calendar featuring the best events around the world. 

The Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale is taking place at Echigo-Tsumari Art Field, Japan, from 13 July to 10 November 2024.

There are many ways to travel to the triennale. Have a look at 

The triennale offers a range of on-site accommodation. Find your options 

Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale

Sustain-Release is one for those in the know and that’s largely due to its low-key, anti-commercial approach. Amongst a packed circuit of summer events, this US-based techno camp sees an impeccable line-up consistently bring their A-game.

Chosen for: Innovation and Preserving Culture.

Describing themselves as an “adventurous music weekend in upstate New York featuring shared cabins for all participants, heated pools, a lake, bonfire and forward-thinking music across two stages,” Sustain-Release is an off-grid selection that draws a tapped-in audience year on year. The annual event takes place at Camp Kennybrook, a two-and-a-half hour’s drive from New York City. 2023 is set to mark its ninth edition, and in keeping with the festival’s low-key ethos, details on the website are scarce. Rather, information will be announced in June via a mailing list.

This secretive approach is what makes the festival a subtle standout. Swerving the mechanics of marketing growth, you can’t simply buy a ticket, you must be a member in order to attend – or a guest of a member. While the event receives some press each year – select publications cover the line-up announcements – this is kept to a minimum. The organisers have also confirmed that this is a deliberate tactic, stating on their website that they’d prefer to “go under-the-radar with minimal press”. By avoiding mass market appeal, a tight-knit community attends each edition and the festival grows organically.

This anti-commercial approach creates a headsier feel to the event, and consistently brings out the best in the artists on the line-up as a result. Similar to events like Freerotation, the stakes feel higher when met with a smaller audience of tapped-in music fans . Sets are made up of forward-thinking selections, unswayed by mass interest, and artists often dive into deeper journeys with the audience.

On the ground, the festival’s makeup shows in the small details too. Guests bunk together in cabins with shared facilities, set times are printed on photocopied handouts alongside hand-drawn maps of the site. This analogue feel ensures the festival doesn’t have a large digital footprint during the event.

Talk of Sustain-Release usually revolves around its unique atmosphere and the sets. In the past, line-ups have featured the likes of Helena Hauff – who played in 2017, just before her meteoric rise – DJ Fart in the Club, Juliana Huxtable and Priori. The programme usually leans towards local US artists, but mainly champions the most current, exciting names setting the international circuit on fire.

Sustain-Release takes place in Camp Kennybrook, Monticello, on14-17 September 2023.