Intonation

This July, Pitchforkmedia's curmudgeons/snobs/
tastemakers curated their very first rock festival, uniting a scene that owes no small debt to the site's tireless cheerleading. Pfork-anointed acts including Les Savy Fav, the Decemberists, Death from Above 1979, the Wrens, Broken Social Scene, and Four Tet endured the heat along with thousands of shaggy Chicagoans, all united by a love of inscrutable Internet-based criticism. -Todd Goldstein

MUTEK

The Montreal-based MUTEK festival has become a global concern in its six-year history, launching tours, satellite festivals, and "micro" events in Mexico, Chile, China, and beyond. Intent upon pursuing the limits of "live" electronic performance, MUTEK's emphasis on community, multimedia, and experimental forms serves as a model fests the world over could stand to learn from. -Philip Sherburne

PEN World Voices

The literary non-profit PEN couldn't decide which authors to invite to its first annual World Voices festival in New York, so it just invited all of them. From Atwood to Auster, Rushdie to Soyinka, the six-day gathering was a who's-who of global letters. Organized around a series of readings and roundtables — from panels on Cervantes and noir to a smirky evening with the Believer — the events set a new standard for literary festivals. -Toby Warner

Frieze Art Fair

Each October since 2003, the global art world has invaded Regent's Park, London, for the very posh Frieze Art Fair. As the London scene blows up, this gallery fair, organized by the publishers of Frieze magazine, becomes more of a destination. This year's edition featured commissioned works by Andrea Zittel and Matthieu Laurette and talks by Zaha Hadid and Walid Raad. -Bryony Roberts

Bicycle Film Festival

Engendered by founder Brendt Barbur's bike wreck, the Bicycle Film Festival began as a niche gearhead series in NYC. In the five years since, the BFF has gone global, transforming an extreme/activist lifestyle into an annual celebration that has featured work from Mike Mills, Jorgen Leth, and the Neistat Brothers. -Jocelyn K. Glei

Performa

In its inaugural year, Performa elegantly filled the performance art biennial niche. Organizer RoseLee Goldberg culled talent from around the globe for a three-week extravaganza, which coincided with a week of performances by Marina Abramovic at the Guggenheim. From found-footage projections to stripteases, the festival captured the state of performance today. -Bryony Roberts

Art Basel Miami Beach

Zurich's Art Basel may be older and wiser, but its younger sibling in Miami is having all the fun. Drawing crowds of art-world bigwigs for the fourth year running, Art Basel Miami Beach offers aficionados a temperate clime, exhibitions from over 200 leading galleries, and shipping containers full of cutting-edge art right on the beach. -Bryony Roberts

Under the Radar

Under the Radar's 2006 festival moves from Brooklyn's St. Ann's Warehouse to Manhattan's Public Theater and expands its scope to the international arena with 14 performances by theatre troupes from 10 nations. It's a fantastic sneak preview opportunity for stage enthusiasts, as budding companies showcase innovative works in return for possible production funding. -Stephan Paschalides

c/o Pop

When the Popkomm festival and trade fair moved from Cologne to Berlin in 2004, c/o pop emerged to fill the gap. The event's weeklong second installment — featuring rock and hip-hop stages, open-air raves, warehouse parties, and Kompakt's monumental Total 6 throwdown — became one of Germany's best parties, proving that Cologne is no second city. -Philip Sherburne

WIRED Next Fest

Combining the spirit of a 19th-century World's Fair with a 22nd-century techno-geek mindset, WIRED magazine brought the future to present-day Chicago with this past summer's second annual WIRED NextFest. Cloned cats, optical camouflage, and bionic prosthetic limbs were only a few of the 100 show-and-tell marvels on display. -Annette Ferrara