It is not a surprise that more and more promoters are getting into organizing lake-side festivals – some of them are successful, some aren't – because the shores of Balaton cannot be replaced. The receipt of the success may appear to be obvious to outsiders: happy beach atmosphere, with wordwide famous star-performers for four days.

However, this would be impossible to achieve without the open beach of Zamárdi: you actually need the perfect view facing Tihany, and you need international superstars like David Guetta, Pet Shop Boys, Jamiroquai, Chemical Brothers, Paul van Dyk, Tricky, and the superstar Paul Kalkbrenner dressed in the shirt of his country's national selected team, celebrating Germany's third place in the FIFA tournament, but it is also important to have a wide range of premium services available.

A fullhouse arena partied to the show of David Guetta on Saturday, twenty-five thousand people came together to enjoy one of the most beautiful beaches of Balaton. It has been the third time the world's perhaps most popular popstar has played at Heineken Balaton Sound, and he has assured both organizers and guests about the fact that he thinks Balaton Sound is the best festival in the world.

Besides the usual services, this year saw a number of new things, too. One of the greatest innovations this year came to be the card-based paying system, which has been introduced at Balaton Sound together with the first festivals all over the world. According to this new system, each guest received a free card, and you could buy credit for it at several locations of the festival – this way it became easier to make purchases at the festival site.

As Károly Gerendai, chief organizer of Sziget has pointed out: “with this system, festival-goers can feel more comfortable, they do not have to stand in the row for too long, since you won't lose any time searching for cash or waiting for the return. I the long run, our plan is to make this system perfect at our other festivals.”

Zoltán Fülöp and Norbert Lobenwein, chief organizers of Heineken Balaton Sound have concluded the festival had been successful, in spite of people spending less on amusement as a result of the on-going recession, the number of visitors have almost reached last year's peak: Hungary's most popular non-Budapest-based event in Zamárdi attracted 88 thousand people from the country and also from abroad.

In the last few hours of the festival, thousands were watching the Spanish-Dutch FIFA-finals on the beach, Jamiroquai started his show when the stoppage time started, and then Jay Kay did a great gig: the friendly popstar had fun with his crew in the backstage area behind the main stage until it was dawning.

Festival-atmosphere to be continued soon: see you all at Sziget in August!"

Source: Balaton Sound Festival