Modern yet charmingly traditional, the Portuguese capital has been ranked as Europe’s underrated capital more than once. Lisbon’s music scene has a lot to offer that you would not normally expect. The locals really love music and meet regularly at public places to display this love and merge it with another: their worship for the sun.

From late spring throughout the summer and well into fall, the city is one of the top locations for outdoor music fests in the country. This year, Rock in Rio is coming to the city, and everyone is already pumping for the world-famous music event.

City parks and public monuments come alive with families, picnickers, and activity groups. The Out Jazz festival ensures a good mood with free live jazz. This Lisbon initiative started in 2006 and takes place annually. Electronic music lovers will delight in the atmosphere the city’s nightclubs can offer.

Two hotspots are Music Box and Lux Frágil, offering a mix of international electronic hits. American actor John Malkovich owns half of Lux.

The city has also been home to what is known as Brunch Electronik for two consecutive years. This is an outdoor electronic music fest, as the name implies, which takes place over three months, almost all summer long. (The summer is Portugal lasts relatively long, we are so jealous of their amazing climate and nature, by we I mean anyone living in a place like England or a northern US state or anywhere else really dark and cold).