Raging hay fever, dehydration, sunburn, and trenchfoot… It can only mean one thing – the festival season is underway. Previously the preserve of the bedraggled hippy or beer-throwing mosher, festivals have moved on, and this year offer something for everyone – whether you fancy a chilled Pimms on the lawn of a stately home, or four days of mud and mayhem. So numerous are the summer gatherings vying for your hard-earned cash this year, that, in the interest of public service, TIM HUGHES has made your choice easier, by whittling down the contenders to 10 of our favourite al fresco bashes – including some local gems. If you're going to one of the sell-out events, this is what you can expect... if not, it's still not too late to get tickets for many of the others – so get in quick. You’ll be talking about it all year round; we guarantee it!

* Glastonbury The biggest and best, this granddaddy of festivals needs no introduction.

If you’ve never been, you’ll have no doubt seen the images – the stars, the crowds, the mud and the aerial views of what amounts to one of Somerset’s largest, albeit temporary, towns.

It’s a party of superlatives, which is watched on TV by music fans across the world. But to be there is to feel at the center of the universe… because at Glastonbury nothing else matters.

It has the biggest site and the best bands, all playing in a lovely vale presided over by the mystical Glastonbury Tor.

But the real fun takes place away from the main stages – in the outer fields and at night, where naked creativity, and not a little craziness, reigns. Hedonism at its best, the fun comes with a conscience; it also raises millions for the charities Water Aid and Oxfam.

* Cornbury (Main picture) Draped across beautiful stately home grounds on the edge of the Oxfordshire Cotswolds, Cornbury has a reputation as the smartest festival in the kingdom.

Dubbed ‘Poshstock’ by regulars, it is a curious combination of aristocratic tea party and freewheeling rock festival, where the likes of David Cameron, Jeremy Clarkson and Prince Edward rub shoulders with eccentrics from the Oxford music scene, Morris dancers, farmers and local families.

Even without the music you’d have a great time here, but promoter Hugh Philimore has a reputation for pulling some ludicrously good bands out of his straw hat. This year sees Jackson Browne, David Gray and Buddy Guy – ensuring a mix of lively and chilled rhythms for a luscious weekend in the country.

* Truck The undisputed champion of the cool festival premier league, Truck is, for many, the highlight of the summer.

Starting as an intimate gathering for friends of brothers Robin and Joe Bennett, it has grown and grown but still feels like a family party, with Joe and Robin still at the helm.

This is the place to broaden your musical horizons, with all the quality of a major festival yet on an endearingly compact site, where the vicar sells ice cream and the Rotary Club flip burgers.

Beloved of country-rock fans it’s also a showcase for local bands and some scorching rock and banging dance. Oh, and expect to bump into all your friends while you’re there.

* Big Chill This weekend is designed for those whose idea of a festival is not to get ‘off their face’ but restore their spirit. So relaxed it’s horizontal, it’s a smart and beautifully-designed event, held around a real castle with painstaking attention to detail. A classic ‘boutique’ festie, it’s mellow but serious about its sounds – boasting the likes of Massive Attack and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke.

* Bulldog Bash This eye-popping gathering is not so much a festival as a petrol-head pilgrimage.

Imagine thousands of leather-clad Hell’s Angels, clued-up bike enthusiasts, rock freaks and hardcore techno nuts all tearing around an old airfield. Music takes a back seat during the day to drag racing, custom shows, topless bike-washes and rides around the Warwickshire and North Oxfordshire countryside... but by night rock reigns.

* Fairport’s Cropredy Convention Rivaling the Bulldog Bash as a showcase of fine facial hair, and actually taking place over the same weekend, Cropredy is an altogether more sedate proposition. Think deck chairs, pewter tankards, real ale and woolly jumpers and you’re pretty much there.

Still headlined on the Saturday (there is no Sunday) by hosts Fairport Convention, ‘Croppers’ has become a more eclectic do in recent years, moving away from pure folk to include the likes of Status Quo, Rick Wakemen and The Selecter.

This lovely party attracts the same revellers year after year, which gives it a real family feel.

If it’s sunny there’s nowhere nicer. If it rains… well, let’s not think about that.

* WOMAD The spiritual home of 30,000 World music lovers, Peter Gabriel’s WOMAD (World Of Music and Dance) brings the rhythms of Africa, Asia and Latin America, to pastoral Wiltshire for probably the most wholesome festival of them all.

This is the place to fall in love with styles of music you never new existed from places you’ve barely heard of. Expect everything from salsa to soukous, and soca to throat-singing.

A little slice of utopia, on a lovely rolling site, WOMAD makes you feel better about the world and each other…aah!

* Latitude Floating fire lanterns drift across a lake on the edge of a wood, while healthy-looking people dance all night in a clearing, sipping cocktails. Suddenly a flock of acid red, yellow and green coloured sheep stroll by… it’s a dream surely.

The temptation might be to pinch yourself, but it’s all real, folks. Latitude is a polymath’s dream which pulls together the best of the worlds of new music (Grizzly Bear, Florence & The Machine), classical music (Nigel Kennedy, the Royal Opera House and Sadler’s Wells), literature (Sebastian Faulks, Bret Easton Ellis and Hanif Kurieshi), and comedy (Rich Hall, Marcus Brigstocke and Ardal O’Hanlon).

Not so much a music festival as an education.

* Reading Guns ‘n’Roses, Blink-182, Arcade Fire, The Libertines, The Gaslight Anthem, Queens of the Stone Age, Gogol Bordello, Pendulum and about 100 other bands, with thousands of beer-swilling teenagers all in one big messy field over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

‘The job’, is quite definitely, ‘a good ‘un!’ It’s not pretty… but with a line-up like this, who cares? The ultimate band-fans festie. (Don’t take an expensive tent, though, unless you want to see what it looks like barbecued.) * Bestival The best in boutique festival-going, ‘Bestie’ re-wrote the rules on how to lay on a spectacular, yet lovely, stylish and intimate bash.

Boasting a dazzling line-up of stars – ranging from classic acts (Echo & the Bunnymen and Glenn Matlock) to chart hits (Dizzee Rascal and La Roux), world heroes (Wailers, Dengue Fever) and hardcore party acts (LCD Soundsystem, Kicks Like a Mule, Audio Bullys) this end-of-season bash is for those who thought they were tired of festivals.

Set in a wooded valley on the Isle of Wight, the crowd are as much a part of the action as the bands, donning fancy dress. This year’s theme is ‘fantasy’ – so start making your Alice, Peter Pan, King Arthur or Dorothy outfit now.

* Glastonbury Where: Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset When: June 24-27 Top acts: Stevie Wonder, Muse, Gorillaz, and our own Foals, Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band and Stornoway, left Typical punter: Hardened festie-goer who treats it as a military operation Headgear: Bandana Drink of choice: Pear cider Tickets: Sold out glastonburyfestivals.co.uk * CORNBURY Where: Cornbury Park, Charlbury When: July 3-4 Top acts: Davd Gray, right, Jackson Browne, Dr John, Buddy Guy, Squeeze, Noisettes Typical punter: Yummy mummies, cool dads and the Cotswold set Headgear: Harris tweed cap Drink of choice: Pimms Tickets: £95 (£55 day) cornburyfestival.com * TRUCK Where: Hill Farm, Steventon, near Didcot When: July 24-25 Top acts: Bellowhead, left, Teenage Fanclub, Mercury Rev Clearlight Orchestra, Blood Red Shoes and Stornoway Typical punter: Chilled out Cowley Road gig-goers and musicians Headgear: Straw stetson Drink of choice: Real ale served by a fez-wearing transvestite Tickets: £80 (weekend) thisistruck.com * BIG CHILL Where: Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire When: August 5-8 Top acts: Massive Attack, M.I.A., Lily Allen, Roots Manuva and Thom Yorke, right, Typical punter: Trendy Hoxton-types and those who love festivals, but without the hassle Headgear: Beanie with flowers Drink of choice: Mango smoothie Tickets: £155 bigchill.net * BULLDOG BASH Where: Shakespeare County Raceway, Stratford-upon-Avon When: August 12-15 Top acts: Headliners to be announced but other acts include Hamsters, Breed 77 and Hells Bells Typical punter: Bearded, leather-clad, old-skool biker Headgear: Helmet Drink of choice: Slabs of Stella and Newcastle Brown Tickets: Early bird £50 bulldogbash.eu * CROPREDY Where: The clue is in the name When: August 12-14 Top acts: Bellowhead, Status Quo, Little Feat and Fairport Convention, left Typical punter: Tankard-wielding folkie Headgear: Jester’s hat Drink of choice: Wadworth 6X Tickets: £90 (weekend) plus £30 camping fairportconvention.com * WOMAD Where: Charlton Park, Malmesbury When: July 23-25 Top acts: Horace Andy, Salif Keita, right, Nouvelle Vague, Ska Cubano, Gill Scott-Heron, Rolf Harris and Stornoway Typical punter: Chilled-out hippies, modern parents and itchy-footed world traveller-types Headgear: llama wool Andean hats Drink of choice: Guarana punch Tickets: £125 weekend womad.org * LATITUDE Where: Southwold, Suffolk When: July 15-18 Top acts: Florence & the Machine, left, Belle and Sebastian, Vampire Weekend, Crystal Castles, The National, Grizzly Bear, Nigel Kennedy Typical punter: Intelligent grown-ups who still like a bit of a jig Headgear: Trilbies for chaps, designer cowgirl hats for the ladies Drink of choice: A nice chablis Tickets: Sold out latitudefestival.co.uk * ACREADING Where: Guess?!

When: August 27-29 Top acts: Guns ‘n’ Roses, Arcade Fire, Blink-182, The Libertines, Pendulum, Klaxons, right, Foals Typical punter: Inebriated kids celebrating A-Level results, emo-fans and sweaty moshpit rockers Headgear: No hats… they get knocked off Drink of choice: Tuborg all the way Tickets: Sold out readingfestival.com * BESTIVAL Where: Newport, Isle of Wight When: September 9-12 Top bands: Dizzee Rascal, The Flaming Lips, left, The Prodigy, Roxy Music, Hot Chip, Echo & The Bunnymen, Marc Almond, and... Stornoway Typical punter: Fancy-dress clad nutter Headgear: Something tall, lavish and constructed of papier mache Drink of choice: Absinthe Tickets: Sold out, but check for returns bestival.net