Summer music festivals might seem an age away but the big players are already busy announcing lineups and selling early bird tickets. To avoid scouring the web the weekend before for people flogging tickets at vastly inflated prices use our guide to snap up an early bird ticket, pencil in release dates or, if Christmas has given your bank account a bruising, enroll in a payment plan. Who says rock'n'roll is dead?

BBC 6 Music Festival
Dates: Fri 12–Sun 14 Feb
Lineup: Primal Scream, Roni Size, Tricky, Beak, The Blue Aeroplanes and Pinch.
Ticket price: Not announced yet but last year it was £25 per event.
On sale: Tue 19 Jan

Eden Festival
Dates: Thu 9–Sun 12 Jun
Lineup: Not confirmed as yet but with 250 acts performing across 9 stages there will be plenty to chose from.
Ticket price: Adults £95, teens £75. This will increase to £125 and £99 so don't dither.
On sale: Tier 2 tickets on sale now

Isle of Wight
Dates: Thu 9–Sun 12 Jun
Lineup: Queen + Adam Lambert, Stereophonics, Faithless, Iggy Pop, The Damned, Buzzcocks and Adam Ant.
Ticket price: Weekend £195, student £175, teen £145, children free.
On sale: Tickets are on sale now with a variety of payment plans to help split the cost. The Red Funnel plan only requires the first 20% of the ticket price at the time of booking.

Download
Dates: Fri 10–Mon 13 Jun
Lineup: Headliners Rammstein, Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden plus Korn, Nightwish, Megadeth, Deftones, Motorhead, Disturbed, Atreyu, Down, Lawnmower Deth, Skindred, Rival Sons, Killswitch Engage, Ghost, Gojira and Twin Atlantic.
Ticket price: Five nights camping £205, three nights camping £195, weekend arena only £170, day tickets £75.
On sale: Tickets are already on general release. Deposit schemes available.

T in the Park
Dates: Fri 8–Sun 10 Jun
Lineup: The Stone Roses, Disclosure, The 1975 and Courteeners.
Ticket price: Thursday weekend camping £205, Friday weekend camping £194, Friday weekend no camping £184, day tickets £82.50.
On sale: Early bird tickets currently on sale, the first limited release of tickets sold in under 10 minutes. Payment plans are available for an initial payment of £50.

Latitude
Dates: Thu 14–Sun 17 Jul
Lineup: Will be announced in 2016. Last year featured Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Manic Street Preachers, La Roux, The Vaccines, Django Django and Young Fathers.
Ticket price: Weekend £192.50, accompanied teen weekend ticket £132.50.
On sale: Early bird tickets are available at last year's prices for a limited time only. Installment plans are available with an initial purchase of £50.