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Sun-seekers look abroad for their festival fix Guaranteed sunshine, air-conditioned apartments, cheap beer and dancing till the sun comes up. If this isn’t your idea of a festival, then you’ve never been to one outside the UK, says Liam Pook.
Let’s try a bit of word association. I say “festival ” – what’s the first word that comes into your head? If you said “mud” then I hate to break it to you like this, but you’re doing it all wrong. I would have accepted any of the following: sunshine; beach party; all-nighter. But the top answer – and if you’d said this you could have gone on to play for the speedboat – Europe. The idea of sitting around a sputtering camp-fire in the early hours of the morning, trying to stop your tent getting washed away in the rain has always had a fairly limited appeal, if we’re being honest. But at 3am at a European festival , you’re more likely to be just warming up than trying to keep warm. From Spain to Serbia, and from Norway to the Netherlands, music festivals are big business, with big name acts and even bigger crowds. And more and more of the people who go to them are from the UK. So how did Britain become a nation of world champion festival-goers? “European festivals have always attracted a fair few intrepid travellers,” says Dermot O’Flynn of festival transport company eufest. “But it was in 2006 that all the elements came together to make the scene really take off in the UK. It was the last time Glastonbury took a year off, so the ‘big’ festival of the summer wasn’t an option, and the last few years had been pretty much mudbaths anyway, so people were thinking about going somewhere with a bit of sunshine for a change. “At the same time, the strong pound meant that Brits could get more bang for their buck all over Europe, budget airlines were slashing prices, and festivals like Exit and Benicassim were really starting to gain a reputation after having a pretty underground following until then. And then it all went ballistic. “Suddenly everyone just seemed to notice that you could go to somewhere like Exit in Serbia, including flights, transport to the festival and the cost of the ticket, for the same price as Reading or Glastonbury. And when you were there it was cheaper too; a beer would cost you maybe £1, even inside the festival site. The weather was better, the line-ups were better, the music went on till 8 in the morning – it was about as close to perfect as you could get.” The opportunity to combine a truly awesome festival with a cheap holiday proved too tempting for most revellers to pass up, and the scene began to take on a life of its own as the next couple of years saw a massive increase in the popularity of European festivals . Big name events like Benicassim may have drawn the majority of the crowds, but festivals such as Pohoda in Slovakia, Lowlands in Holland and Roskilde in Denmark all started to feature on the radar of the discerning festival-goer. But if the economists are to be believed then we’re staring down the barrel of a recession, which means people will have less money available for non-essential spending on things like festivals. Over the last 12 months, the value of the pound has dropped sharply against the euro, meaning that the cost of everything in the eurozone has gone up in relative terms. Could the looming financial crisis mean that fewer Brits will now seek their festival fix abroad? Not a bit of it. “I think that the idea of going abroad for a festival is pretty well established now, regardless of the credit crunch.” Dermot concludes. “They still hold up well against domestic festivals in terms of prices, they still have some massive names, the atmosphere is completely different to festivals at home, and they’re infectious – once you go to one and you realise what you’ve been missing out on, then you want to try them all. “Ultimately, the kind of people who go to festivals are probably not going to be sitting around worrying about their stock market portfolio. They might not be sure they’ll have enough money to buy food next week, but if this band or that DJ is playing this festival in Germany in three months time, then you can bet your life that they’ll be there one way or another. “The pound might not be doing so well right now, but there are plenty of places in Eastern Europe that aren’t in the euro where you can still have an amazing time without it costing a fortune, and new festivals are always popping up. And if you go somewhere like Bulgaria or Romania, you’re just a few hours from the Black Sea Coast or even Istanbul, so after the festival’s over you can squeeze in a bit of a holiday as well. You can’t do that in Reading!” eufest provide airport transfers for festivals including Exit, Benicassim, Rock am Ring, Pohoda and the Spirit of Burgas, as well as running an accommodation service for Exit and Burgas. For more information, visit their website at www.eufest.com.
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