Rock out for less at summer's best music festivals

For a music lover, it's perhaps the quintessential summer experience: sharing sweat, heat stroke and generational anthems with 200,000 of your shirtless, screaming peers at an outdoor music festival. But with ticket prices at the likes of Bonaroo and Lollapalooza soaring into the $300 range, what college student can even afford to participate in this rite of passage?

Rather than dropping a grand on a flight to Seattle and a Bumbershoot pass, why not snag a bus ticket and check out some of the nation's hottest free or cheap music festivals? True, you won't catch Lady Gaga or Kings of Leon at any of these smaller fests, but some of the country's best independent acts spend their summers on the minor festival circuit for a fraction of what the marquee names charge. Read on for Money College's guide to seven of the nation's best music festivals -- for less than $20 each.