Do you prefer English or European music festivals?

I've always been a lover of live music from the early days of attending V Festival in my home town of Chelmsford enjoying the thrill of my first big festival. I remember seeing the Stereophonics and Nickleback but soon my music tastes changed and I realised that there were lots of small music festivals with equally as good atmospheres of the big festivals but paying a quarter of the cost for a ticket. Not to mention the live gigs following around my favourite acts.

Over the years I've seen The Prodigy, Newton Faulkner, The Levellers, and even James Morrison at my local pub and that was a free gig! As well as many Willie and the Bandits gigs and even New Zealand band Fat Freddies drop.

But this year I attended my first European music festival, and was thoroughly impressed. This year I made the journey over to Amsterdam to attend the Pitch festival. It just happened that I was going to be in Belgium the weekend before so when I found out that Fat Freddies Drop and Dizzy Rascal were playing at the Pitch festival in Amsterdam and tickets were less than £30 each for over 13 hours of live music it was a no brainer.

Arriving early at the festival we were one of the first in to the venue. In true British style we are used to queuing to get every where but here it was a very simple process, a quick back check and we were in, not to mention each festival goer getting a festival zip up bag/blanket on entrance as well. With the weather so nice we bought some beer tokens unfolded our blanket and enjoyed the sunshine and DJ set coming from one of the smaller stages.  

Above is the inside of the main arena and below is in my opinion the best gig venue ever! The festival was split into several stages of different music and my favourite stage was in a converted gas building. I've never been up close to one of these gas cylinders let alone inside one with a stage and two bars.

As the evening went on the sun went down but the festival atmosphere continued with a silent disco until 4am. 

I've been to a lot of UK festivals across the country and I have to say I was really impressed with my first European music festival. Simple things like the cost of tickets being a lot less than UK festivals. I know this will sound an odd one to compare but the festival toilets at the Pitch festival were immaculate at all times with a team of cleaners on hand all night. Part of a UK festival is stinky porta loo's and no loo roll! Now maybe the good weather had a lot to do with the success of this festival for me, and I will admit that i've never been to Glastonbury festival which i'm sure is amazing it's just a pure cost factor which has stopped me from ever attending. 

Where is your favourite festival? Do you go to European festivals? Let me know your favourites in the comments below and I will compile a top 10 festival list.