I’ve been quite partial to the idea of outdoor music festivals ever since I attended Lollapalooza in Chicago a few summers ago — there’s just something about the mix of sunshine, public drinking, and communal grinding that makes me feel like I have a firm hold on that slippery temptress we call youth. I’ve already signed myself up for New York‘s Electric Zoo over Labor Day weekend, but I’m aching to attend a festival abroad now that I spend all day thinking and writing about travel. Lucky for me, I think I found the perfect outdoor party to suit my needs: Calvi on the Rocks in Corsica.
Calvi, a small beach town located on the northwest coast of Corsica, first hosted Calvi on the Rocks in July of 2003. Every summer since, acts like LCD Soundsystem, Hot Chip, and A-Trak have joined dozens of DJs to rile up masses of beautiful European twentysomethings all day and night. To make the whole package even more irresistible, Calvi on the Rocks is thrown on the town’s 5 mile stretch of beach as well as in the many nightclubs that line it. Compare that to most other music festivals, which herd concertgoers onto grassy knolls for a sweltering three-day weekend, and you’ll understand why this one is really special.
You may be wondering why someone, especially an American tourist, would venture to a small town in Corsica to dance on a beach for a week. And to that I say, why not? Calvi is easily accessible by ferry from the popular travel spot of Nice in southern France, and you can find relatively inexpensive flights from Paris to Corsica in July. Oh yeah, and there’s the fact that you get to spend a week on the sunny coast of Corsica getting drunk with hotties and dancing in the waves of the Mediterranean Sea. Duh.
This year’s Calvi on the Rocks festivities last from July 6 to 11. Tickets haven’t gone on sale yet, but as soon as they do you best believe I will be tweeting about it.
If you need more inspiration before you start researching hotels in Calvi, take a look at this video from the 2008 festival in which a British “reporter” gets drunk and dances around. Warning: there are a couple brief flashes of boob throughout, but hey, it would’t be Europe if there weren’t.
[youtube id=”Bzq16sOzI2I” width=”600″ height=”350″]
