The festival season is almost upon us and over the next few weeks we'll be bringing you various tips, tricks and picks, in what we're imaginatively titling, 'A guitarist's guide to the festival season'. First up – the festivals themselves.

Not only is the mainstream scene in its rudest health in years, it's also more diverse than ever and guitar-fans are spoilt for choice. We felt it was important to stick our oar in and highlight our top five picks for the 2010 festival season.

Glastonbury

23 – 27 June - full line-up - tickets (good luck with that)

The UK's most famous festival by a country-mile and certainly the BBC's favourite corporate jolly, Glastonbury is generally thought to have something for everyone. Everyone that is, that doesn't like metal.

Yeah, it's not exactly the ideal stop-off for heavy rock, but we reckon Glastonbury holds a special place in the hearts of most musos, whether it's the astonishing diversity of the acts it hosts, or the legendary atmosphere.

This year Worthy Farm is leaving the Saturday night headline slot in the very-capable hands of TG's Guitarist of the Decade, Matt Bellamy of Muse. If that's not enough for you U2 are stopping-by on the Friday and Slash will drop in on the Sunday.