What’s your go-to European city for an ideal night out?
London and its Ministry of Sound? Berlin for some Berghain bops? Or Mykonos’ Cavo Paradisco, perchance?
And what about music festivals?
Barcelona’s Sónar? Novi Sad’s Exit? Maybe Lyon for some Fourvière frolics?
Whatever your pleasure, every European city has its scene and copious draws. But considering we’re spoiled for choice, it’s not always easy picking a destination for a lively weekend away or selecting the right music festival during the summer fest season.
Enter: Travel booking site Omio, which has established a ranking of the continent’s best music destinations in 2025. Their team has done so by looking into concert and musical ticket prices, the number of nightclubs and gig venues, as well as the number of open-air music festivals - all across 50 cities in Europe.
Topping the list is London, which boasts an impressive 75 nightclubs, 26 concert halls and 25 music festivals according to the study. However, it also has the second most expensive average ticket price for both musicals and gigs – only behind Zurich and its ridiculously high prices.
Paris comes in second place with 53 nightclubs, 19 concert venues and 15 festivals, and Budapest has overlapped the renowned nightlife capital Berlin to the third spot.
Here are the music capitals of Europe for 2025:
- London
- Paris
- Budapest
- Berlin
- Prague
- Copenhagen
- Dublin
- Barcelona
- Madrid
- Naples
- Athens
- Warsaw
- Lisbon
- Lyon
- Rome
- Tallinn
- Florence
- Cork
- Amsterdam
- Riga
The full breakdown of Omio’s study can be found here.
In case you were wondering, the European country with the most cities in the Top 50 is Spain, with six destinations: Barcelona (8th spot), Madrid (9), Sevilla (28), Valencia (36), Bilbao (41), Ibiza Town (50).
Second most represented country in terms of music options is Germany, with five destinations: Berlin (4), Munich (32), Frankfurt (38), Cologne (40) and Hamburg (44).
Rounding off the podium are France, UK and Italy who are joint-third with four destinations apiece – with Italy having the distinction of the cheapest average when it comes to concert ticket prices (in Naples), according to the study. Budget wise, Omio seems to conclude that the likes of Cork, Lyon, Tallinn and Vilnus are some attractive destinations when it comes to not breaking the bank and getting some bang for your buck.
Elsewhere, and perhaps to no one’s surprise, Berlin topped Accor’s study on the best cities for live music, based on venue ratings, the number of scheduled gigs and monthly search trends.
The German capital has 1161 gigs scheduled, 365,630 monthly searches online for gigs, and an average venue rating across the city of 4.56.
On the whole, Germany fared well as three other German cities made the top 15, with Hamburg coming in sixth, Munich ninth and Frankfurt thirteenth. This means that the country had more entries in the roundup than any other European country.
Check out Accor’s European Music Map.
These are the best cities in Europe for live music:
- Berlin
- Manchester
- London
- Dublin
- Paris
- Hamburg
- Birmingham
- Prague
- Munich
- Amsterdam
- Vienna
- Copenhagen
- Frankfurt
- Budapest
- Milan
