RA picks the November festival highlights from across the globe.
As things begin to fully cool down in the Northern Hemisphere, things are heating up closer to the Equator and below it. This month, we've got festivals in South America, Mexico and Australia. But don't count out Europe quite yet: The partying doesn't stop just because it's cold outside. It just means that things are moved into arenas like the Flanders Expo Centre and Katowice's Spodek. Read on to find out what's good near you...
Photo credit: vjd3mian
10. Creamfields Buenos AiresNovember 8
Autodromo de Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Another year, another Creamfields. But if you think that this celebrated festival brand has lost its luster, think again. The organizers for the Argentinean edition this year have enlisted just about every genre star you could think of with the likes of UNKLE, Hernan Cattaneo, Carl Craig, Gorillaz, Erick Morillo, Simian Mobile Disco, Booka Shade, Derrick May, Deadmau5, Apparat, Radio Slave, Gui Boratto and more scheduled to play. Sure, you may standing among thousands of your best friends for 16 long hours to see everything you want, but when has that ever stopped an enterprising partygoer?
RA pick: Simian Mobile Disco's live set was built for big arenas like this.
09. Coma Festival
November 14 - 15
Al Maya Island | Forum De Beyrouth
United Arab Emirates | Lebanon
Day 1 | Day 2
Do you love a bit of electronic music and happen to be independently wealthy? Coma, the Middle East's first music festival of its kind may just be for you. The first edition of this fascinating sounding party is set to go off on a private island twenty minutes from the coast of Abu Dhabi. (Don't worry, they'll pick you up and take you there by boat.) Then, the second day of the event is set to be held in an entirely different country (Lebanon). We're still not sure if the organizers expect revelers to attend both, but we're booking a private jet to take us there anyway. Sandy Rivera, Meat Katie, Wally Lopez, Nic Fanciulli are set to play the first date, while Lopez will play Lebanon as well along with Christopher Lawrence, John Acquaviva and Cosmic Gate.
RA pick: Chat up Nic Fanciulli about his not-so-secret love of drum & bass.
08. Southport Weekender
November 7 - 9
Pontins Holiday Centre
North, United Kingdom
Coming up on its 43rd edition, the Southport Weekender is in almost uncomfortable position. How do you continue to top yourself after 20 solid years? How do you convince people to come to the second part of your 21st birthday when you went all out the previous year? The answer to these questions are pretty simple: Book a great lineup. And that's exactly what they've done. As always, the focus is on the soulful side of things, with plenty of respected names. Dennis Ferrer, Gilles Peterson, Rick Wilhite, Tony Humphries and hip-hoppers De La Soul all will feature and help to make it one of the most mature fun times you may ever have. Until next year that is.
RA pick: Look for recent RA podcaster Greg Wilson to break out some of his signature edits for this special show.
07. Mayday Festival
November 10
Poniedzialek Spodek
Katowice, Poland
Questions about stability have dogged Katowice, Poland's Spodek throughout its history. But the city's large saucer-shaped arena has endured Boney M, Slipknot, Megadeth and Jean-Michel Jarre over the course of its near-40 year history, so we're going to assume that the monolithic minimal of Sven Väth, techno godfather Westbam, Bad Boy Bill and a host of others won't make the thing cave in. But we're also pretty sure that they're going to do their best to see if they can't tear the roof off nonetheless. With Extrawelt and Lützenkirchen also playing live—among others—don't be surprised if you find yourself seeing daylight as Uncle Sven unleashes his headlining set.
RA pick: Gregor Tresher's DJ sets have restored our faith in electrohouse more than once. Expect him to do it here again.
06. Bordernoise
October 31 – November 2
Moroccos
Juárez, Mexico
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3
Whether it be the experimental-leaning Mutek or Interface or the big room sounds of Creamfields, Mexico has become a strong player on the festival stage in the past few years. (With artist guarantees that boggle the mind, we can't blame 'em.) Bordernoise, which will hold its third edition in November, hews closer to the Creamfields template, but with a slightly more credible line-up. To wit: This year's line-up boasts Soulwax, Boys Noize, Adam Freeland, James Zabiela, Steve Lawler, Tiefschwarz and Audiofly. With a human-scaled three day agenda in place, we're betting that after Bordernoise that the region's reputation is only going to rise.
RA pick: Soulwax's live show is a sight to behold. Don't miss it.
05. Stereosonic
November 22, 28, 29, 30
Various
Various, Australia
Brisbane | Melbourne | Adelaide | Perth
Sydney Satellite V 1.0 | V 2.0 | V 3.0 | V 4.0
Want to know what it's like to live the life of a superstar DJ? Follow around Carl Cox on November 22 and November 29 as he plays two headlining shows at the Stereosonic08 Festival in different cities on the same day. Cox-y, Booka Shade and other will be playing double duty on a Brisbane/Sydney double bill on the first weekend, while they'll do the same thing in Melbourne and Adelaide the next. It'll make for some confusing set times, we're guessing, if you happen to live in one of those cities, but then again you'll still be seeing the likes DJ Hell, Sneaky Sound System, Vitalic, Crookers, Paul Van Dyk and others throughout the day, so just make sure you get there early—just in case the one that you want to see is booked elsewhere for later.
RA pick: The brutal electro live set from Vitalic should hopefully contain some work from his upcoming album.
Photo credit: Nicole Cussell
04. Global Gathering AustraliaNovember 22, 23, 29, 30
Various
Various, Australia
Brisbane | Melbourne | Sydney | Perth
Kraftwerk. It's pretty much the only word you need to know about Global Gathering Australia. Sure, they may have Mark Ronson, Fischerspooner's Oz debut, prog kingpin Sasha, trance gods Above & Beyond, Chicago house don Felix Da Housecat, ambient overlords The Orb and many more set to perform in the festival brand's debut jaunt across the continent. But, seriously, Kraftwerk makes this the easy choice for any electronic fan trying to figure out how to begin their festival season Down Under.
RA pick: Ralf und Florian.
Photo credit: kanuka
03. Time Warp HollandNovember 29
Maassilo
Rotterdam, Netherlands
It seems like you're not a festival these days if you aren't doing a version of your festival in another city. Time Warp, one of Mannheim's best, is no exception. This year, they're taking their party on the road to Rottedam for a Holland edition of the celebrated event. The organizers are billing it as a friendly competition between the two countries with Joris Voorn squaring off with Johnny D, up-and-comer Rauwkost aiming his gear at Marco Carola and France's Laurent Garnier and Romania's [a:rpia:r] boys presumably acting as neutral observers to it all.
RA pick: We still can't get Laurent Garnier's RA podcast out of our heads. Maybe seeing him here will do the trick?
Photo credit: Nik Torrens
02. Club to ClubNovember 6 - 8
Various Venues
Turin, Italy | Rotterdam, Netherlands
As RA's Lee Smith pointed out in his review of Club to Club 2007, the festival only seems to be getting better and better. Judging by this year's line-up, we can't help but think that assessment will be much the same come November 9th. A fascinating triple bill of Ellen Allien, Magda and Theo Parrish has got our mouths watering, while James Holden playing for three hours after a live set by Four Tet doesn't sound that bad either. Factor in some Raster-Noton and Moritz von Oswald Trio experiments and dubstep from the likes of Benga and Skream and we're just about ready to book our flight.
RA pick: On Day 3, check in with the simultaneous party going off in Rotterdam before heading out to Allien, Magda and Parrish.
Photo credit: Bart.la
01. I Love TechnoNovember 15
Flanders Expo Centre
Ghent, Belgium
The Belgians love their techno festivals, and I Love Techno might just be one of the best. Underworld, Richie Hawtin, Justice, Booka Shade, Robert Hood, Marcel Dettmann, Kabale und Liebe and a ridiculous amount of others are all set to perform at the 13th edition of the festival which brings together 35,000 festival goers to the Flanders Expo Centre. Sure, it's only one night. But that's a good thing: If someone isn't having a good set, there's plenty more to choose from.
RA pick: Underworld's been at this thing for years, but we can't help but think that there's a reason for that.
Need more festivals? Check out our full international festival listings.