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As temperatures begin to creep up, music festival season is fast approaching, and each year, more and more events are joining the lineup, expanding and diversifying the music festival circuit in North America. Our panel of music festival aficionados has hand-picked 20 essential festivals from coast to coast where music fans can see dozens of artists in one place. For the last four weeks, our readers have been voting for their favorites, and the results are in.
The top 10 winners in the category Best Music Festival are as follows:
- Musikfest - Bethlehem, Penn.
- Riot Fest - Chicago
- Life is Beautiful Music & Art Festival - Las Vegas
- Outside Lands - San Francisco
- Old Settler's Music Festival - Tilmon, Texas
- Desert Daze - Lake Perris, Calif.
- BottleRock Napa Valley - Napa, Calif.
- Fortress Festival - Fort Worth
- Austin City Limits Music Festival - Austin
- Coachella - Indio, Calif.
A panel of experts partnered with 10Best editors to pick the initial 20 nominees, and the top 10 winners were determined by popular vote.
Congratulations to all these winning festivals!
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The Experts
Rich Lesperance
Rich Lesperance has more than 25 years of... Read More
Rich Lesperance has more than 25 years of experience in marketing, ecommerce, and digital strategy, and has built digital businesses for globally recognized companies like Walgreens, Dell, Grubhub and Swap.com, an online apparel startup. As Vivid Seats’ Chief Marketing Officer, Rich is focused on pushing North America’s largest independent ticket marketplace further through deep capabilities in analytics and innovation. A graduate of Northwestern University and the University of Michigan Ross School of Business (MBA), Rich spends his free time playing music, remodeling his old house and having adventures with his three children.
Rich Lesperance

Rich Lesperance has more than 25 years of experience in marketing, ecommerce, and digital strategy, and has built digital businesses for globally recognized companies like Walgreens, Dell, Grubhub and Swap.com, an online apparel startup. As Vivid Seats’ Chief Marketing Officer, Rich is focused on pushing North America’s largest independent ticket marketplace further through deep capabilities in analytics and innovation. A graduate of Northwestern University and the University of Michigan Ross School of Business (MBA), Rich spends his free time playing music, remodeling his old house and having adventures with his three children.
Tamara Mendelsohn
As the VP and GM of Consumer at Eventbrite, Tamara... Read More
As the VP and GM of Consumer at Eventbrite, Tamara is responsible for helping event creators sell more tickets by growing Eventbrite's global audience of consumers. She was one of Eventbrite's earliest hires in 2009, and before taking on her current role, Tamara built the company's global marketing team from the ground up. When she's not at work or home, you'll find her in a yoga class or checking out a new band at one of the many great SF venues.
Tamara Mendelsohn

As the VP and GM of Consumer at Eventbrite, Tamara is responsible for helping event creators sell more tickets by growing Eventbrite's global audience of consumers. She was one of Eventbrite's earliest hires in 2009, and before taking on her current role, Tamara built the company's global marketing team from the ground up. When she's not at work or home, you'll find her in a yoga class or checking out a new band at one of the many great SF venues.
Zack Sabban
When Festicket CEO Zack Sabban was a successful... Read More
When Festicket CEO Zack Sabban was a successful investment banker, he traveled the world to fulfill his passion for live music. After attending countless festivals, Zack realized the need for a music festival community website and founded Festicket in late 2012. Festicket empowers music fans with a seamless service to discover and book tickets and travel packages to music festivals worldwide. The platform has quickly grown to become an influential live music travel platform and the world’s largest seller of travel packages for music festivals. Based in London UK with smaller bases in the Netherlands, Germany and Portugal, Festicket recently opened an office in San Francisco to accelerate its international expansion.
Zack Sabban

When Festicket CEO Zack Sabban was a successful investment banker, he traveled the world to fulfill his passion for live music. After attending countless festivals, Zack realized the need for a music festival community website and founded Festicket in late 2012. Festicket empowers music fans with a seamless service to discover and book tickets and travel packages to music festivals worldwide. The platform has quickly grown to become an influential live music travel platform and the world’s largest seller of travel packages for music festivals. Based in London UK with smaller bases in the Netherlands, Germany and Portugal, Festicket recently opened an office in San Francisco to accelerate its international expansion.