By Erika Ehmsen, Sunset copy chief

From the hot, hot heat of California’s Coachella all the way to the muddy mosh pits of England’s Reading Festival, I’ve planned quite a few vacations around music festivals (my husband and I even hit Reading on our honeymoon).
    I live for acoustic versions of obscure B-sides, blistering and bluesy covers, and voices and lighters raised in unison as the sun sets and the music soars. Especially when there’s a gorgeous vista involved. (Hey, Yosemite! Any chance of an intimate Dan Bern show at Glacier Point’s Lane Amphitheater, just as the alpenglow lights up Half Dome?)
    So I pogoed at the chance to research summer music festivals in the West for Sunset’s secrets-themed July issue. In it, two famous (and famously elusive) musicians weigh in with their best picks: quirky-cool singer/songwriter Aimee Mann and frequently barefoot roots-rocker Jack Johnson (who had so much to say—even tips for taking kids to concerts—that we gave him our back page, The Sunset View). Which festivals do they recommend? Find out this weekend, when the July issue of Sunset hits newsstands.

Aimee Mann is playing a few festivals this summer. Her top spot for a show? It's secret #12 in our July issue's 20 Secrets of Summer feature. Photo by Scott Wall   

In the meantime, here are the shows that I think you should hit this summer. First up, an ode to the Pemberton Festival—its setting, north of Whistler, B.C., is so beautiful, it looks worthy of planning your vacation around. The Pemberton tout is followed by a “short list” (ok, it’s long too) of fabulous fests around the West.
    Readers, do you have some favorites to recommend? Please share them in “Comments.”

Pemberton Festival
What: Can’t get Coldplay’s crazily catchy “Viva La Vida” out of your head? (Thanks, Apple.) Imagine it ringing through British Columbia’s breathtakingly jagged Coast Mountains at the first-ever Pemberton Festival.
When: July 25 to 27
What you should do: Go all three days, grabbing each day’s schedule and sampling all three stages. Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor can still hypnotize a crowd—if you’re there Friday night, rest assured that resistance is futile. And watch out on Saturday: If you’re up front during the Flaming Lips’ set, be prepared to provide a stiff-arm assist for frontman Wayne Coyne on his crowd-surfing quest.
What you must do: Go to Sunday’s show, with Death Cab for Cutie emo-ting their way into your heart, Vampire Weekend’s bouncy guitar riffs sneakily thieving your soul, and Coldplay worming their way into your head. Plus DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist burning up eight (eight!) turntables. Someday, you’ll be telling your grandkids about this day in rock history.
Where to rest your head: Bring your kids and pitch a tent. Or be a rock star and splurge on a real room (a shower at the end of each day in the sun? yes, please).

More great festivals around the West

All summer
Stern Grove Festival
June 15 to August 17
Free performances—from New Orleans jazz and Afrofunk to the SF Symphony and Opera—in a stunning spot in San Francisco.

San Francisco's Stern Grove on a fog-free day. Photo by Scott Wall

Olympic Music Festival
June 28 to September 7
Classical in a cow pasture and dairy barn on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.

June
Taos Solar Music Festival
June 27 to 29
That hot New Mexico sun scorching your shoulders is also powering this green festival, with legends like Steve Earle mixing it up with Collective Soul and the Bodeans.

July
High Sierra Music Festival
July 3 to 6
Folkies, hippies, and adventurous yuppies: Pack your camping gear, load up the kids, and head to the hills of Northern California’s Quincy to get a broad music education while getting your groove on.

Crested Butte Music Festival
July 4 to 31
This Colorado festival has it all: classical and chamber, opera and dance, even bluegrass.

MountainFest
July 10 to 13
Country in the north country: Merritt Mountain Music Festival is Canada’s biggest country festival, and it’s a lovely drive from Vancouver.

National Folk Festival
July 11 to 13
Get in touch with your roots under the Big Sky in Butte, Montana.

Reggae on the River
July 19
The original reggae fest returns to the river in Northern California’s Humboldt County.

Calgary Folk Music Festival
July 24 to 27
Loyal, dance-happy crowds flock to the lush, riverside setting in Alberta, Canada's rodeo capital. This year, they’ll groove to Calexico, Ani DiFranco, Aimee Mann, and Los Straitjackets with Big Sandy.

Calgary's four-day folk festival will have you on your feet. Photo by Sebastian Hanlon

July and August
Bear Valley Music Festival
July 26 to August 10
Sizzling Broadway and jazz tunes plus classical standards in the Sierra, 2 1/2 hours from Sacramento.

Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music
July 27 to August 10
Orchestral maneuvers in California’s Mission San Juan Bautista, Santa Cruz, and beyond.

August
Pickathon
August 1 to 3
Roots-rock at Portland’s Pendarvis Farm, with Jolie Holland, Langhorne Slim, and Loch Lomond.

Reggae Rising
August 1 to 3
Head back to the river in Humboldt, California, for the three-day reggae fest featuring big names like UB40, Sly & Robbie, and Don Carlos.

SummerFest
August 1 to 24
Symphonic splendor by the sea in San Diego’s La Jolla.

Real Quiet promise to take La Jolla's SummerFest by storm with their "hard-edge" chamber music. Photo by Paul Body

Salmon Arm Roots & Blues Festival
August 15 to 17
Lakeside listening, five hours north of Vancouver, B.C.

Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival
August 22 to 24
Radiohead will be the first band to rock after dark in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. The three-day lineup of this eco-friendly fest is pretty amazing, with Jack Johnson rounding out the last night of the festival. Besides Thom Yorke and the boys, I’ll definitely catch sets by Beck, Cold War Kids, Nellie McKay, Regina Spektor, Manu Chao, Rodrigo y Gabriela, and Wilco, who wrote a song about a certain magazine called Sunset.

Edmonton Folk Music Festival
August 7 to 10
Can you imagine Ani DiFranco, Barenaked Ladies, and Elvis Costello at the same festival? That’s the kind of weekend I had up in Alberta, Canada, in ’95. And I wish I could be there this year to catch Cat Power, Aimee Mann, Ron Sexsmith, and Jakob Dylan, there with his new project.

Bumbershoot
Labor Day weekend (August 30 to September 1)
The Seattle extravaganza is practically the granddaddy of music and arts festivals—it started way back in 1971 as the Seattle Arts Festival, and its acclaim grows each year. In '08, expect the usual mega-wattage of star power; Beck, Neko Case, Stone Temple Pilots, the Whigs, and former Soul Coughing frontman Mike Doughty are confirmed, and the official lineup will be posted in mid-July.