Balaton Sound

MasterCard Balaton Sound
Genre	Electronic music, Pop, Hip Hop, World music, New wave music, Neo soul
Dates	Four days, usually starting on the second Thursday of July
Location(s)	/ Zamárdi / Lake Balaton / Hungary
Years active	2007 – present
Website
http://www.sziget.hu/balatonsound/

Coordinates: 46°53′2.55″N 17°55′31.43″E / 46.8840417°N 17.9253972°E / 46.8840417; 17.9253972

Balaton Sound (between 2007 and 2012 also known as Heineken Balaton Sound, since 2013 as MasterCard Balaton Sound^[1] for sponsorship reasons) is one of Europe's largest open air electronic music festivals. Held annually since 2007 on the southern bank of Lake Balaton, Hungary, it features live acts and DJ's from all around the world, from established artists to new names. The event was co-created by the organizers of Sziget Festival.^[2]

Background

As the festival gets more famous and popular each year, tickets are usually sold out before they go on sale at the official ticket vendors; this event sets new attendance records yearly.

The first Balaton Sound festival was held between 12 July and 15 July 2007. The fact that the event was held on the shore of the largest lake in Central Europe in mid-summer, its twenty-hour music schedule, and the line-up gained it significant public interest.

The festival is located on the west part of Zamárdi at the crossing of Panoráma and Zöldfa utca (street).^[3]

Inside the festival area variable stages, lounges, and tents are established for the performances.The sponsors of the festival create luxurious chill-out facilities with hammocks, bean bags, easy chairs. Visitors to Balaton Sound can stay at a special camp site with several pubs, cocktail bars and restaurants equipped with accoutrements absent from Hungary's other summer music festivals. The Main Stage area has a capacity of about 50,000.

According to a KPMG study over the 4 days of the event in 2008, 88,000 attendants visited the festival while the daily average reached 22,000. Over 1.6 billion HUF was spent by visitors in total, 41,000 HUF per person, mostly spent on entrance fee, food and accommodation.^[4] In 2009, the number of festival visitors reached 94,000.^[5] Later, in 2012 the festival came out second largest music festival in Hungary (after the Sziget Festival), and one of the most populated electronic music festival in Europe.^[6][7]

The 2012 festival won the European Festivals Award in the category Best Medium-Sized European Festival in early 2013.^[8]

Pre-sale ticket prices:^{[9][10][11][12]}

Line-ups

The following are the festival line-ups for 2007,^[13] 2008,^[14] and 2009.^[15]

2007:

2008:

2009:

2013: ^[16]

Picture gallery

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Balaton Sound.

• List of electronic music festivals

References

External links

• http://www.sziget.hu/balatonsound/
• http://globetrekker.hu/balaton-sound-09/
• http://www.hungarotickets.com/balatonsound/