EEET2013 - Day 3-7 - Festival Edition

Volt Fesztivál's mascotte is a robot.

Getting to the festival was one thing, but getting in and finding a place for our newly bought tent, another. After waiting about half an hour at the entrance, a couple of Dutch guys, accompanied by a Belgian, told us that we had to get our wristbands somewhere else. Well damn. I left Liesbeth in the line and went to get our tickets exchanged. Once this was done, I ran into a friend from home who was at Volt Festival as well! A nice surprise indeed to see Kyra, a colleague-volunteer from AFS here in Sopron, Hungary.

Liesbeth and I got our wristbands on, we finally got in and started looking for a spot for our tent. Not easy as the camping site had been open for a couple of hours and almost all the spots which would cover you with shadow in the morning were taken. We managed to find one, after almost an hour of wandering around with our backpacks on in almost 30°C and got installed. In the evening, we met up with Toon & Heike to go discover the festival site on DAY 0. What a pre-party that was! It’s really hard to explain, as I am a big fan of Belgian festivals. But the way Volt was illuminated, designed, made and fabricated made it so amazing to wander around with lights, chill-out places, food & drink boots and mini and big stages all over the place. Adding a (quite good) beer, called SOPRONI, to that and themeratures of +25°C all day without encountering too many Belgians, Dutch or any other western Europeans made this a festival I would definitely recommend! If you’re interested: website, review & image gallery.

Besides the group of Dutch guys, which Liesbeth loved as they were from the Dutch Limburg area, we also met up with a great threesome of Belgians. One of them is even from my home town in Belgium! He has a website on festivals which I would like to recommend to you: MyFestivalWorld.com, thence the reason they were at Volt Festival. The second guy, Philippe, lives close to us as well and the girl, is from the same town as one of the guys I went on International Workshop with last April. Yes, the world is that small…

So apart from our group of four, being: Toon&Heike and Liesbeth&me, we also hang out a lot with the Dutch guys and the three Belgians. Jeroen, Philippe and Sien are definitely an awesome group of people we will hopefully meet up with again in the future. Thanks guys and enjoy Balaton Sound Festival. & to you Dutch guys, a) sorry for not knowing all of your names (but I remember yours:Maks), b) hopefully you enjoyed Bratislava and c) maybe see you at another festival soon!

Belgium represented at Volt Festival

What is awesome about Eastern European festivals is that they usually don’t start before 4PM. Just like last year’s Heineken Open'er Festival in Poland, Volt Festival doesn’t start before 4 or 5PM, as it is simply too hot to go outside. In reverse the party continues every day until 6, 7, 8 or even 9A.M. (Don’t worry mom and dad, I never made it any later that 4A.M. Not because I was too drunk, but simply because we were too tired. Yes, we start getting older too …) Given the festivals start so late, we as foreigners have the opportunity to discover a country during the day and enjoy the party during the night for the price of one! 

The first official day of the four-day Volt Festival, we enjoyed the quiet and rather small town of Sopron where the festival took place. It is a nice, little and picturesque town but that’s basically everything there’s to say about it. Until… we were chilling near a non-functioning fountain on a small square, when suddenly classical music started playing and the fountain started working on the rhythm of the music. All pieces were made by the famous composer Joseph Haydn. It was so cool to see the fountain go up and down and from left to right and young children running around the fountain and applauding it, while we were sitting there, trying to understand what was happening… A must-see if you ever happen to end up in Sopron!

The second day, and the last day as well actually, we went to chill at the local outdoor swimming pool, a bit like a mini water park, where we enjoyed the sun, refreshing water (it is 28°C all day….) and water slides. Yes I do sound excited!

Fertõd Castle

Day three was all about an excursion to the city of Fertõd where the Castle of Eszterháza stands. It is one of more than a hundred castles in southern Austria and northern Hungary from the Habsburgian era and today is it still private property but used as a museum. It’s nickname is: “Versailles of Hungary”, and although I haven’t been to Versailles (yet), I am pretty sure that –expect for the gardens- the building, style, etc. is pretty similar! 

The day after the festival, on Sunday, we got up way too early, got on the train and headed to Budapest, Hungary’s capital, for about eight euro’s per person for +250kms. Yes, this is why we love Eastern Europe. ‘cause the nature and sightseeings are amazing and, which is probably the main reason why I travel these countries at the  beginning of my twenties: 'cause it's cheap!

peace out_

Toon&Heike, Liesbeth&Thibault

Chilling at the fountain