This year’s MasterCard Balaton Sound attracted the same record number of visitors as it did last year. A total of 145 000 fans over 3 days from almost 60 countries came together to celebrate at the sunny shores of Lake Balaton. The festival even had a sold-out day on Saturday, when more than 35 000 visitors enjoyed Faithless and Afrojack.
“We had a great festival from all angles” – said main organizer Zoltán Fulöp. “We never had so many stars playing at our event and we got a great number of positive feedbacks from them. They were very happy with the venue, the lake, the beach and the generally high standards of the event”- he added. The fans seemed to have the same opinion, as this year’s Sound was close to the full capacity of 35 000 on all 5 days.
“We don’t aim to raise the capacity of the festival, as we think the current format is the right one to make sure we keep the premium quality in the long term.” – said Norbert Lobenwein, the other main organizer of MasterCard Balaton Sound. Just like last year, the organizers had to stop day ticket sales on Saturday to make sure this statement stays valid.
Day 0 brought some rain and thunderstorms affecting the warm-up phase of the event, but it was also a great test for the improved infrastructure of the area. New roads, pipelines and other developments made sure that now the venue is almost bullet-proof when it comes to bad weather and the party was great already on the first night. And luckily we had 4 sunny days to come with an average of 28-30 degrees!
Sun, beach and party are the 3 main elements of MasterCard Balaton Sound and these were fully supported by the newly introduced lakeside venues, like the Telekom Rave yacht that basically ran on full capacity non-stop. We saw great gigs and also a great get-together when Jason Derulo and Hardwell realized they were playing at the same festival only at mainstage backstage. They were so happy about this that the result was a surprise performance of their song Follow Me. The fans loved it and so did the artists.
For the next few weeks Zamardi will once again become a silent holiday town, but those who are ready to come back and party can already do so late August, when B.my.Lake and Strand festivals will share this same venue. Can’t wait so long? See you at Sziget in Budapest between 10-17 August!