Take the Ferry to Festivals

Crazy, quirky fun at Bestival - just a quick ferry from the mainland.Many of Europe's best festivals are often a short and cheap ferry ride away. Using our Ferry Journey Planner, discover how you can take ferries from the UK to a huge range of destinations across the rest of Europe, many of which offer easy access to some of the continent's best festivals. We explain how to take the train to your departure port and onward transport from your port of arrival: with plenty of rail connections on to the host cities of major festivals, getting to almost any European festival is easy by train and ferry. But there's even better news for festival-lovers who fancy a sea voyage en route: for some festivals, the ferry is the easiest way to get there - with no lengthy transfers from your arrival port.

Still to come this year are Electric Picnic, one of the biggest and best festivals on the Emerald Isle - with everyone from indie-folkk darlings Mumford & Sons to big-guns LCD Soundsystem and Massive Attack, by way of Jonsi, Fever Ray, Roxy Music and much more, if you needed another excuse to head to Ireland, this is it. Just south of Dublin, this year's festival takes place on the 3rd - 5th September, and is easy to get to with Irish Ferries or Stena Line (ferry from Holyhead to Dublin), DFDS Seaways (ferry from Birkenhead to Dublin, formerly Norfolkline) or P&O Irish Sea (ferry from Liverpool to Dublin).

Also in September is this crazy, quirky hilarity of Bestival, on the Isle of Wight. Amidst the lush scenery of Robin Hill Country Park, you can expect dazzling costumes and great music from the likes of Dizzee Rascal, The Prodigy, Ellie Goulding and The Flaming Lips - for more information see greentraveller's guide to Bestival. You can make the quick crossing from the mainland to the Isle of Wight with Wightlink - crossing on the ferry from Portsmouth to Fishbourne (fares start at only £7.90 each way).

These aren't the only festivals you can easily get to by ferry, however - it may be too late this year, but in 2011 and years to come consider these great festivals:

Main Square Festival in Arras, Northern France, takes place in early July and is one of France's premier Summer music festivals, taking place in the charming main square of a city recognised by UNESCO for its historic architecture. This year's diverse line-up included big name popstars the Black Eyed Peas and Pink alongside David Guetta, Pearl Jam, Yeasayer and Julian Casablancas, and next year should be similarly eclectic. Arras is just a hop, skip and a jump from Calais by train, and you can get regular, ultra quick, ferries from Dover to Calais with P&O and SeaFrance.

One of Europe's biggest music festivals is Roskilde, which takes place on the island of Zealand, Denmark every July. This year's festival saw musical legends Patti Smith and Prince alongside contemporary heavyweights The Prodigy and Muse and everyone from Vampire Weekend to Delphic and Florence + the Machine in a beachside location outside Copenhagen, and plans are already underway for 2011's event. The festival has its own railway station, making transfers from the ferry port at Esbjerg supremely straightforward. The overnight ferry crossing from Harwich to Esbjerg is a bargain, starting at just £43 one way with DFDS Seaways.

Also in July is the North Sea Jazz Festival, in the buzzing modern metropolis of Rotterdam. One of the world's largest and best-regarded jazz festivals, previous years have seen true greats from Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie to Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Jamiroquai and Alicia Keys. Rotterdam's Centraal station is a hub of the Dutch rail network and is easily accessible not only from Rotterdam Europort (the ferry from Hull to Rotterdam is operated by P&O), but also Amsterdam (DFDS Seaways run overnight ferries from Newcastle to Amsterdam from only £27 one way) and the Hook of Holland (Stena Line run a regular ferry from Harwich to Hook of Holland) - making the festival easy to get to by ferry and train from the UK.

Travel with Stena Line to the North Sea Jazz Festival. Photo © Stena Line