What are the Biggest Music Festivals in the world, and how to book them? This post will tell you about their dates, line ups and prices! And just a click of the mouse, you will get more detailed information.

Glastonbury is renowned for its mix of music, from rock to pop and electronic. Besides music, the festival celebrates art, culture, and even has a free expression spirit. The Glastonbury Festival has been running since 1970 and has become a hot spot for music lovers worldwide.

Place: Pilton, Somerset, UK       Price: Around $420

Date: June 21-25,2024             Line Up Includes: To be announced

Ultra is an electronic music festival held annually in Miami, Florida. It’s a part of the larger Winter Music Conference. With its heart-pounding beats and top-tier EDM acts, Ultra has expanded its influence with events now in countries around the globe.

Place: Miami, Florida            Price: To be announced

Date: May 22-24,2024          Line Up Includes: To be announced

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, commonly referred to as Coachella, is an annual event held in Indio, California. Known for its diverse lineup of musical acts, art installations, and its celebrity attendees, it’s become a prominent fixture in pop culture and a must-attend for many festival-goers.

Place: Indio, California                    Price:3-day ticket costs $447.51

Date: April 12-14 & 19-21,2024        Line Up Includes: To be announced

Roskilde, based in Denmark, is one of Europe’s largest music and arts festivals. It has a rich history, running since 1971, and is run mainly by volunteers. The festival combines various musical genres, ensuring a comprehensive experience for attendees.

Place: Roskilde, Denmark        Price: Around $350

Date: June 29 -July 6,2024       Line Up Includes: Burna Boy, Christine and more

In a recent heartwarming story, Mr. Sun has touched the hearts of many by using AI face-swapping technology to create a video message from his late father.

The touching video captures Sun’s emotions as he replicates his father’s appearance and voice to convey a message of well-being to his grandmother. The entire process of face-swapping and video creation took a lot of effort and lasted nearly half a month, during which Sun couldn’t help but shed tears as he missed his deceased father.

In 2022, Sun’s father was diagnosed with a rare condition known as appendiceal mucinous adenocarcinoma (阑尾黏液腺癌). Despite Sun’s efforts to seek medical treatment for his father, the disease progressed rapidly, and his father passed away in 2023.

Concerned about his grandmother’s fragile health, the family decided to keep Sun’s father’s passing a secret. They fabricated (编造) a story, telling the elderly woman that her son was still receiving treatment in a Beijing hospital. The prolonged separation depressed the grandmother a lot, who continuously expressed her longing to speak with her son.

In a creative attempt to comfort his grandmother, Sun, inspired by science fiction films, decided to use AI face-swapping technology to create a video message from his father. Prior to recording the video, he even shaved off his bear d to look more like his late father. By using AI software, he successfully transformed his appearance into that of his father, delivering a heartfelt message to his grandmother: “Mom, it’s Jihai. I’m doing well in Beijing.” Despite the relatively low pixel (像素) quality, the grandmother believed the well-intentioned fabrication.

Sun admitted that his emotions almost broke down within the half-month, as every mention of his father’s name or a glance of his photograph brought great sorrow. He also expressed uncertainty about how long he can keep up the fabrication and whether he will make use of face-swapping again. Nevertheless, he is determined to follow in his father’s footstep to be a strong support for his family.

Learning to play the piano causes complex changes in brain activity that shift over time. Initially, certain areas of the brain become highly active, but this reduces as learners become more skillful. Previous studies have looked into the reorganization of someone’s brain activity while they are playing an instrument, but the research time has generally been short and the conclusion is based only on one scan.

To learn more about this process, Alicja Olszewska at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology in Poland and her colleagues studied 24 people as they learned to play the piano for 26 weeks. This involved a teacher showing them basic techniques, as well as coaching them through eight increasingly complex pieces of music, during 13 45-minute classes. The participants were also encouraged to practise at home for 4 hours a week.

After 1, 6, 13 and 26 weeks of training, the researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging（磁共振成像） to scan the participants’ brains as they attempted to play the increasingly complex pieces.

The scans showed that playing the piano activates various areas across the brain, including the auditory cortices involved in processing sounds and the motor cortices involved in planning and executing（执行） movements.

Over the 26 weeks, activity changed little in the auditory cortices, but generally decreased in the motor cortices. A reduction in brain activity represents its optimization（最优化）, which would be expected as the participants’ piano-playing skills progressed, says Olszewska.

The scans also revealed learning to play the piano initially activates other areas of the brain, including the cerebellum, which balances movement, and parts of the parietal cortex, which combine different types of sensory information. The researchers also found increased activation in the hippocampus, involved in memory, and the basal ganglia, a set of deep brain structures involved in controlling voluntary movements.

Activity in these areas similarly decreased as the participants’ training progressed. This suggests their underlying neural processes became increasingly optimized alongside improvements in their musical proficiency, says Olszewska.

Where is the line between art and advertising? A large painting in Conway, New Hampshire, has led to a zoning (分区) conflict, a First Amendment legal action and a local vote.

It started with a high school art project to paint a picture on a building in the town. The building houses a store called Leavitt’s Country Bakery. The picture shows the sun shining over mountains of cakes found in bakeries.

This leads to the town zoning board getting involved. It decided that the painting was more advertising than art. Officials said that, as an advertisement, the sign was too big. Its size broke town rules. The board ordered the sign be removed or changed. Bakery owner Sean Young faced possible fines if he did not follow the order. So, he decided to fight it in court. Young’s legal action charges the town of Conway of violating his right to free speech, guaranteed in the U. S. Constitution (宪法).

“They said it would be art elsewhere,” Young told The Associated Press. “It’s just not art here.”

Many, including the zoning board members, liked the students’ work. But they said rules must be followed. At about 8.6 square meters, the mural (壁画) is four times bigger than zoning rules permit for advertising signs.

Then, last week, residents voted against changes to the rules. The lawsuit (诉讼) argues that the town’s definition of “sign” is very general and its zoning rules do not include the word “mural”.

Board member Luigi Bartolomeo said he thinks the painting at the bakery is art, not advertising. “I think it’s a very badly written piece of code here,” said Bartolomeo. But Board Chairperson John Colbath said the board has to work with the rule, which was approved by voters. He argues that the mural would likely be seen-as art, and not advertising, if its subject did not represent the products found at Leavitt’s.

Social media scam is a form of phishing in which cybercriminals connect with their victims through social media platforms.     16     After the victim accepts it, they soon form a conversation. They can also publish a link that sounds attractive (“put your data and win a car”). Below, see how to protect yourself from scammers on social media;

    17     You should pay attention to when the account is registered and who accepts their friend request. Also remember to check the kind of information the person publishes.

No social media platform will ask its users to click an outside link to update their personal information. Check with the official customer support if you are unsure. Internet users should apply the principle better safe than sorry.

Do not use the same password across all your online accounts. If one account gets hacked, all of them will. It is always better to have distinct login details for each platform as well.

Do not publish your address, phone number, or place of work on your social media account for your safety.     19     Always be cautious if someone shows too much interest in your personal affairs. Even your friends might have been backed, so be careful.

When you get a strange message, or an offer to buy or sell something on social media, first check if the account is verified.     20    

Social media scams can be financially damaging and emotionally distressing. We hope that these tips will come in handy for you. Remember, safety first in the online world just as it is in the real world.

In February, I traveled to York in the UK to participate in the Jorvik Viking Festival, Europe’s largest Viking festival, which     36     (hold) annually since 1985.

In the city center were hundreds of people with swords, axes and helmets, all dressed as Vikings. Some played old instruments as more than a hundred Vikings took part in a great march through the city center. Stalls were busy selling Viking tools, costumes and mead, an old Viking wine     37     (make )from honey.

According to the Archeology in Europe Educational Resources website, the Vikings conquered York in     38     late 1800s and ruled there for almost a century. This was part of the Viking Age, which lasted     39     800 to 1150. During this time, approximately 200,000 Vikings from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark left Scandinavia in boats to settle in     40     (vary)parts of the world, including England.

    41     this period was far from peaceful. The Vikings were a warrior people who believed that being killed in battle would send them to Valhalla, the resting place for warriors. So their expansion took the form of brutal war, as well as exploration and trade. Their influence is still     42     (strong) remembered across Britain.

Today, there is a great fascination in the UK with Viking history. Besides the Jorvik festival, people hold Viking weddings     43     the couple may tie their hands together, drink from animal horns and even jump over a sword to get blessings from the Viking gods. In these ceremonies, guests are encouraged to dress in Viking clothes. Some people even name their children after Viking legends! For instance, one of my     44     (nephew) is named Heimdall, after the watchman of the gods in Norse mythology. The Viking legacy continues to interest and inspire people in the UK,     45     (find) its way into different aspects of our culture.