Who won the European Festival Awards 2025? Full list

Paléo Festival Nyon won Best Major Festival, Pohoda Festival won Best Medium-Sized Festival and Dynamo Metalfest won Best Small Festival at the European Festival Awards 2025. Fourteen awards were handed out on 14 January 2026 at De Oosterpoort in Groningen, on the opening night of ESNS. The full category by category list is below.

This page is a record of who won what, where the shortlists came from, and how a festival gets into the running next time. Every winner here is checked against the awards' own winners page and against the independent write-ups from ESNS and Pollstar.

European Festival Awards 2025 winners: the full list

Fourteen winners, nine countries. The Netherlands took three categories, the Czech Republic and Slovakia took two each.

What the European Festival Awards are

The European Festival Awards have run since 2009. They cover popular music festivals held in Europe, and nothing else: the rules state that events outside that definition are withdrawn from the competition by the jury. The awards sit in the project list of YOUROPE, the European Festival Association, and the awards' own About page lists a four person team working from Swiss addresses, with Christof Huber as promoter and Fabienne Wolfschläger running voting and event coordination.

The ceremony has become the opening night of ESNS in Groningen, the January conference and festival week where most of the European festival business is in one building anyway. The 2025 edition was hosted by IQ journalist Lisa Henderson and A Greener Future chief executive Claire O'Neill.

Scale of the 2025 round, per ESNS: 104 shortlisted nominees, festivals from over 30 countries taking part, and 300,000 public votes cast. Those numbers hold up against the published shortlists, which add up to exactly 104 names once you count the Lifetime Achievement Award as a single unopposed entry.

How the judging actually works

There is no single mechanism. The 2025 category rules describe three different routes, and knowing which one applies changes how you approach a category.

1. Self-registration, then public vote, then jury

Best Major, Best Medium-Sized and Best Small Festival work this way. A festival registers itself, the public vote produces a longlist of 20, and a jury of festival promoters and experts cuts that to a shortlist of 10 and picks the winner. The public gets you onto the board. The jury decides the result.

The three size categories are set by daily capacity:

• Best Major Festival: over 40,000 visitors per day
• Best Medium-Sized Festival: 10,000 to 39,999 per day
• Best Small Festival: under 10,000 per day

2. Jury shortlist, then public vote

Line-Up of the Year and Newcomer of the Year invert it. A jury picks the 10 nominees, then the public vote decides the winner outright. This is the only pair of categories where a fan vote is the final word.

3. Jury only

Everything else. The Green Operations Award is judged by a panel inside GO Group, the Green Operations Europe think tank that co-founded the category with YOUROPE back in 2012, with the previous year's winner invited to cast a vote. The Event Safety Award is judged by committee members of the YES Group, YOUROPE's event safety group. Brand Activation, Take A Stand, New Kid on the Block, Agent of the Year, Promoter of the Year, Lifetime Achievement and Excellence & Passion are all decided by jury panels with no public vote at any stage.

For the specialist categories you submit a written application, and the panels are made up of people not directly linked to the festivals in the running. New Kid on the Block is different again: your own team has to nominate you, and the award is limited to people under 30 working in the festival business.

How to enter the next round

The 2025 cycle ran to this calendar. Treat it as the shape to plan against rather than as confirmed 2026 dates, and check the awards site in September.

ESNS 2027 runs 13 to 16 January 2027 in Groningen, so that is the window to hold if you want someone from your team in the room.

Two practical notes. The main-category registration window closes eleven days before public voting opens, so if you miss late October you are out for the year. And the specialist categories need a written application describing a specific project from that season, which means the work has to be documented while it is happening, not reconstructed in November.

Five things the 2025 results tell you

The operational awards went to smaller events

Štěrkovna Open Music, the Green Operations winner, is a Czech festival on the shore of Hlučín lake with a capacity nowhere near the majors it beat. It has measured its carbon footprint at 135 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, worked out that catering accounted for around half of that and audience and crew travel for over 37%, and set a target of carbon neutrality by 2028. It did that work with the technical university in Ostrava. The shortlist it beat included Boom Festival, Øyafestivalen, Roskilde Festival and Valley of Arts.

The lesson for an organiser is not about size. It is that the sustainability jury rewarded a measured number and a dated target over a bigger name with a bigger programme.

Czech and Dutch festivals took over half the categories

Two Czech wins (Green Operations and Event Safety, both operational categories) and three Dutch ones (Best Small, Line-Up of the Year and Brand Activation). Rock for People also made the Best Major shortlist. Lowlands and Pinkpop, the two Dutch winners besides Dynamo Metalfest, are both Mojo events, and Lowlands was shortlisted in Brand Activation as well as winning Line-Up.

Pohoda doubled up after a hard year

Pohoda won Best Medium-Sized Festival and its team member Kristína Mlynárová won New Kid on the Block. Founder Michal Kaščák framed the win against 2024, when the festival was cut short. Pohoda was also shortlisted for Promoter of the Year and Take A Stand.

Sponsorship is being judged on the guest experience

The Brand Activation shortlist was six festival and brand pairings: Bilbao BBK Live with Repsol, Lowlands with Bol, Mighty Hoopla and Milkshake Festival with DHL, Øyafestivalen with Unicef, Pinkpop with Libresse and UNTOLD with Visa. The category rules ask for sponsor activity that adds to the experience rather than detracting from it, which is a different brief from logo placement. If you are looking at your own commercial inventory, our piece on how festival sponsorships work on charging hardware covers the same ground from the supplier side.

Most winners are YOUROPE members

Nine of the fourteen awards went to festivals or festival organisations rather than to individuals. Eight of those nine appear on YOUROPE's published festival member list: Paléo Festival Nyon, Pohoda, Dynamo Metalfest, Lowlands, EXIT Festival, Rock for People, Pinkpop and Sziget Festival. The exception is Štěrkovna Open Music, which is not listed as a member and won the sustainability category anyway.

The 2025 shortlists in full

Winners in bold. Country codes are as published by the awards.

Best Major Festival: Colours of Ostrava (CZ), Electric Castle (RO), Exit Festival (RS), Mad Cool Festival (ES), Paléo Festival Nyon (CH), Pinkpop Festival (NL), Rock for People (CZ), Rock Werchter (BE), Summer Breeze Open Air (DE), Sziget Festival (HU).

Best Medium-Sized Festival: Azkena Rock Festival (ES), Codru Festival (RO), Dauwpop (NL), Greenfield Festival (CH), Mystic Festival (PL), OpenAir St.Gallen (CH), Orange Warsaw Festival (PL), Pohoda Festival (SK), Sea Star Festival (HR), Sunny Hill Festival (XK).

Best Small Festival: 18. Festival Week-end au bord de l'eau (CH), Arsenal Fest (RS), Botanique (IT), D Festival (MK), Dynamo Metalfest (NL), Jazz in the Park (RO), Maifeld Derby (DE), Seaside Festival (CH), Sofia Live Festival (BG), Stars in Town (CH).

Line-Up of the Year: Hellfest (FR), Lowlands (NL), Mad Cool Festival (ES), Open'er Festival (PL), Øyafestivalen (NO), Primavera Sound (ES), Pukkelpop (BE), Rock Werchter (BE), Sziget Festival (HU), Way Out West (SE).

Newcomer of the Year: Addison Rae (US), BUNT. (DE), CMAT (IE), Fcukers (US), Kneecap (IE), Lola Young (UK), MJ Lenderman (US), Royel Otis (AU), Sombr (US), Zaho de Sagazan (FR).

Promoter of the Year: Alter Art (PL), Arcadia Live (AT), Barracuda (AT), EXIT Festival (RS), FKP Scorpio (DE), Friendly Fire (NL), Pohoda (SK), Rock for People (CZ), Sziget (HU), Tomorrowland (NL).

Agent of the Year: Adele Slater (Wasserman Music), Alex Hardee (Wasserman Music), Chris Ibbs (CAA), David Bradley (WME), Geoff Meall (Wasserman Music), James Whitting (Wasserman Music), Jules De Lattre (UTA), Kiki Ressler (KKT Berlin), Ryan Penty (Wasserman Music), Steve Zapp (ITB).

New Kid on the Block: Attila Ernhaft (Valley Of Arts, HU), Kristína Mlynárová (Pohoda Festival, SK), Tudor Tataru (Untold, RO).

The Green Operations Award: Boom Festival (PT), Øyafestivalen (NO), Roskilde Festival (DK), Štěrkovna Open Music (CZ), Valley of Arts (HU).

The Event Safety Award: Pinkpop, Down The Rabbit Hole, North Sea Jazz and Lowlands (NL), Rocco del Schlacko (DE), Rock for People (CZ), Roskilde Festival (DK).

The Brand Activation Award: Bilbao BBK Live x Repsol (ES), Lowlands x Bol (NL), Mighty Hoopla x Milkshake Festival x DHL (UK/NL), Øyafestivalen x Unicef (NO), Pinkpop x Libresse (NL), UNTOLD x Visa (RO).

The Take a Stand Award: Boom Festival (PT), Øyafestivalen (NO), Pohoda Festival (SK), Sziget Festival (HU), Way Out West (SE).

The Award for Excellence & Passion: Beatrice Stirnimann (Baloise Session, CH), Chokri Mahassine (Pukkelpop, BE), Cindy Castillo (Mad Cool, ES), Claire O'Neill (A Greener Future, UK), Emily Eavis (Glastonbury Festival, UK), Greg Parmley (ILMC, UK), Henrik Bondo Nielsen (Roskilde Festival, DK), Ivan Milivojev, Dušan Kovačević and Bojan Bošković (Exit Festival, RS), James Barton (Superstruct Entertainment, UK), Stephan Thanscheidt (FKP Scorpio Germany, DE).

The Lifetime Achievement Award: Ewald Tatar (AT), announced without a shortlist.

Where the winners' official pages are

• Paléo Festival Nyon, Switzerland
• Pohoda Festival, Slovakia
• Dynamo Metalfest, Eindhoven, Netherlands
• Lowlands, Netherlands
• EXIT Festival, Serbia
• Štěrkovna Open Music, Hlučín, Czech Republic
• Rock for People, Czech Republic
• Pinkpop, Netherlands
• Sziget Festival, Hungary

FAQ

Who won Best Major Festival at the European Festival Awards 2025?

Paléo Festival Nyon in Switzerland. Paléo president Daniel Rossellat called the title a reward for a collective effort by the whole Paléo community.

When and where was the European Festival Awards 2025 ceremony?

14 January 2026 at De Oosterpoort in Groningen, the Netherlands, on the opening night of ESNS.

How many awards were given out?

Fourteen, from 104 shortlisted nominees, with 300,000 public votes cast and festivals from over 30 countries taking part.

Can the public vote for the European Festival Awards?

Yes, in five categories. Public voting decides the longlist for Best Major, Best Medium-Sized and Best Small Festival, and decides the winner outright for Line-Up of the Year and Newcomer of the Year. Every other category is judged by a jury.

How does a festival enter the European Festival Awards?

Through self-registration on the awards website. In the 2025 cycle the main size categories opened on 1 October and closed on 20 October, and the specialist categories stayed open until 9 November. Specialist entries need a written application about a specific project from that season.

Which awards are decided by YOUROPE groups?

The Green Operations Award is judged inside GO Group, which co-founded the category with YOUROPE in 2012. YOUROPE also publishes the European Green Festival Roadmap 2030, the framework most of these festivals work to. The Event Safety Award is judged by YES Group committee members. Take A Stand is also a YOUROPE project.

One line about us

Volt runs charging, Event Lockers and cloakroom on site at over 120 festivals and events in 2026, including Roskilde and Smukfest. None of the awards above are ours, and none of the winners are named here as clients. We wrote this page because organisers keep asking who won and there was no clean list.

If your own site plan is at the stage where the services on the ground are the open question, we have written up building charging yourself versus bringing in an operator and how many Event Lockers a festival actually needs. There is more for organisers on our organiser page, or write to hello@getvolt.dk and we will size it to your event.

Winners verified 29 July 2026 against the European Festival Awards winners page, the ESNS results announcement and Pollstar's report.