I despise festivals (I guess it's ironic that I posted the Firefly post to start this)
I can't think of one that I've gone too that I thoroughly liked the performances
I've often had a fun time, but was way more due to the people I was with or the things we did between bands (and yes the intoxicants) ...almost never the actual band.
my exceptions to that rule are
Jazz Fest, but I spent most of my time at the smaller stages, some insane hidden gems of musicianship, avoided the big end of day shows
Hardly strictly is pretty darn good, especially the price point, curation was unflappable
Noise Pop was well done IMO. You could buy a wrist band that would get you in to 10~ different clubs for two weeks of curated shows and there were always a few must see shows that made it worth just getting the wrist band. I think there are other festivals like this, but I've never been/heard
I think DC could pull something like this off with the 20ish venues in the city limits now
Hopscotch and SBSW are bucket list IMO, just haven't been able to swing either for the last decade
I've never done any camping or European festivals
