The second STRAND – Nagyon Zene Festival, organized in Zamárdi as part of the Nagyon Balaton event series, came to an end in the early hours of Sunday morning, proving to be a new success story in the Balaton region. Attendance was way higher than expected, with 72,000 festivalgoers visiting the joint event of VOLT Produkció and Petőfi Rádió over four days.
Wellies and macs are regarded as festival staples all over the world, as the biggest festivals get routinely hit by rainstorms. It seems like this summer we managed to catch up to our Western European role models in terms of weather as well because STRAND Festival was soaked by a heavy downpour not once but twice. The rain caused the most trouble to the camping crowds. “With the help of pumps and groundworks machinery, more than a hundred members of our organizer team made a successful effort to ensure that the festival continues under safe conditions. As a result, there was no need to cancel any of the concerts and programmes, and we were able to deliver to our audience what we have promised,” said leader of VOLT Produkció and STRAND main organizer Zoltán Fülöp. “It was great to see that festivalgoers and performers had an exceptionally good time despite the gloomy weather, we have been receiving thank you letters by the hundreds for days. Our most important achievement is that in the second year of STRAND a new and successful festival was born, which was attended by 72,000. By now it has become indisputable that this is the beginning of a success story, which, apart from being a source of fun and entertainment to tens of thousands of festivalgoers, is also one of the most attractive touristic events in the Balaton region,” said Norbert Lobenwein, the other main organizer of STRAND Festival and Nagyon Balaton.
In the last week of August the Balaton was indeed teeming with bigger crowds than usual. Young festival attendees flocked to the southern shore, all rooms were booked in and around Zamárdi, and service providers, catering establishments and towns in the area could all record several times the usual volume of turnover.
“What I’ve been hearing in the backstage for days is really true: you guys are the best festival crowd!” – these were the opening words of Bori Péterfy and the Love Band, the last band to perform at STRAND, as they hit the stage in the wee hours of Sunday. An array of international stars as well as the cream of the crop of the Hungarian music scene played on the Zamárdi public beach – mainly the performers labelled Petőfi Rádió favourites by the organizers.
Following the birthday concert of Tankcsapda on opening day, it was time for California-based Papa Roach to hit the strings. The next day almost 20,000 checked out the smashing concert of Austrian Parov Stelar, and the Australian duo Knife Party rocked out to Kiscsillag and DJ Palotai after playing a mean gig for the main stage audience. The most highly anticipated concert of the festival was the Saturday evening performance of 23-year-old superstar John Newman, which was also attended by roughly 20,000 despite the fact that it was pouring with rain.
What is more, the tallest tower of the Balaton region was erected in Zamárdi. In the Széchenyi 2020 Adventure Park hundreds of adventurous festivalgoers took a plunge from 30 metres to slide the entire length of a 200-metre course above the audience.
The programme of the Diákhitel Kávézó proved to be a success as well, featuring the team of Design Terminal, a standing room only lecture by Gábor Zacher, and live editions of Petőfi Rádió’s popular show Kultúrfitnesz, where host Gergely Horváth talked to Hungarian musicians.
