Summer of 2008 Festivals at a Glance

CITY STAGES Birmingham, June 13-15. And the award for most incongruous headliners at an outdoor urban concert series goes to ... City Stages in Alabama, with the once-in-a-lifetime-at-most combination of Diana Ross and the Flaming Lips. Something for everyone, surely. Also on board: Buddy Guy, Frankie Beverly, the Roots, Citizen Cope, Sean Kingston, Ledisi, Galactic. (800) 277-1700, citystages.org.

California

HOLLYWOOD BOWL June 20-Sept. 27. A promising recent trend here has been to invite brainy indie-rockers for special shows with the power and grace of a full orchestra; the Decemberists did it last year, and Belle and Sebastian in 2006. Cheap Trick doing “Sgt. Pepper's ... Revisited" with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra (June 28) doesn't seem quite the same, but for the most part the pop and jazz offerings at the Bowl this summer do not disappoint. Thievery Corporation and Bebel Gilberto open the excellent KCRW series (June 22), followed by Gilberto Gil and Devendra Banhart (June 29), Feist with Sharon Jones (July 20) and Gnarls Barkley with Youssou N'Dour and Deerhoof (July 27). Other highlights: the Police (May 27 and 28), the Playboy Jazz Festival (June 14 and 15), Radiohead (Aug. 24 and 25) and Nick Cave with Spiritualized (Sept. 17). (323) 850-2000, hollywoodbowl.com.

MONTEREY JAZZ FESTIVAL Sept. 19-21. The 51st season of Monterey, which calls itself the longest continuously running jazz festival in the country -- Newport had a hiatus in the '70s -- includes Cassandra Wilson, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Christian McBride, Joshua Redman, Nancy Wilson paying tribute to Cannonball Adderley, and Kurt Elling. (925) 275-9255, montereyjazzfestival.org.

OUTSIDE LANDS Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, Aug. 22-24. Someday every designated market area will have its own Coachella or Bonnaroo. These “destination festivals" -- large, eclectic, unsummarizable smorgasbords over a few days -- have been oases of success in a decade of bad news for the music industry, and this year several new ones arrive. This is one of the best, with Radiohead, Tom Petty, Beck, Manu Chao, Wilco, Caf Tacuba, Broken Social Scene and Primus. On the downside these festivals are all starting to look the same. Case in point: Jack Johnson, who is here, there and everywhere this summer. sfoutsidelands.com.

WORLD FESTIVAL OF SACRED MUSIC Los Angeles, Sept. 13-28. Coming at the end of the season is this intriguing world music triennial. Founded in 1999, it faced a concert promoter's nightmare in 2002 with post-9/11 visa problems, but it returned on schedule in 2005 and has a strong lineup this year, with 40 events in 16 days. Highlights include the Tuvan throat singers Chirgilchin; Savina Yannatou, a Greek singer; Waldemar Bastos, from Angola; and Ali Jihad Racy, a Lebanese composer and musician who is also a professor of ethnomusicology at U.C.L.A. (310) 825-0507, festivalofsacredmusic.org.

Colorado

JAZZ ASPEN SNOWMASS This organization produces two well-stocked festivals each summer amid the grandeur of the Rocky Mountains. The first (June 19-24), in Aspen, has Dianne Reeves, Bebel Gilberto, Sharon Jones, Los Lonely Boys and Patti Austin. The Labor Day weekend festival (Aug. 28-Sept. 1), in nearby Snowmass Village, features John Fogerty, Widespread Panic, Yonder Mountain String Band and Jerry Douglas. (866) 527-8499, jazzaspen.org.

MILE HIGH FESTIVAL Commerce City, July 19-20. Depending on where you live, you will have a pretty good chance this summer of seeing one of the following four acts as part of a big, heterogeneous outdoor festival: Radiohead, Tom Petty, Dave Matthews, Jack Johnson. This new event outside Denver offers Mr. Petty and Mr. Matthews, along with a couple of dozen acts from the jammier side of the street, including John Mayer, Steve Winwood, the Black Crowes, Rodrigo y Gabriela, O.A.R., Michael Franti, Spoon and the Roots. (866) 461-6556, milehighmusicfestival.com.

MONOLITH Red Rocks Amphitheater, Morrison, Sept. 13-14. A true alt-rock festival, Monolith presents, in its second year, Justice, TV on the Radio, Devotchka, Silversun Pickups, Vampire Weekend, Band of Horses, Neko Case, Sharon Jones, Superdrag, Tokyo Police Club, White Denim, A Place to Bury Strangers and more. monolithfestival.com.