J’ai eu la possibilité de contribuer au Balaton trip, un voyage de 7 jours au Balaton Sound festival qui se déroule en Hongrie, auquel j’ai pu participer cet été. Une très belle expérience !
First and foremost, I thought it was a great opportunity that I was invited to join and this because I was responsible for all the marketing and communication for this summer project. And let’s just say that seeing it in the flesh is always more enjoyable and more enriching, because that way you can see how everything operates behind the scenes, which is something you don’t always get to witness.
We departed by bus in the direction of Balaton, I was responsible for keeping the animation on the bus alive and making sure everything went smoothly, the check-in of the participants, loading of the suitcases and the communication on the bus were all part of my job. Fortunately, I was able to do this together with Mie, a super enthusiastic girl who was more at home in the area as she accompanies us every year to help out because she is part of service du soleil, a volunteer legion of route du soleil.
The adventure began immediately when we arrived in Hungary. After unloading the suitcases, it was my job to check in at the campsite.
I had to give the participants a bracelet and inform them about the setting up of the tent and about all the facilities on the campsite. It was busy and intense, but this was immediately remedied by the good-humoured participants and the nice atmosphere that was created right from the start.
Le Balaton Trip, avait sa propre stage sur le terrain du Balaton où se passait le grand festival et cela avec des DJs belges de notre pays. Une super occasion de faire grandir la route du soleil!
Le camping du Balaton Trip était équipé d’une ‘stage’ de camping où des DJs jouaient tous les jour pour garder une bonne ambiance. Le camping avait également plusieurs emplacements où les festivaliers pouvaient se rendre. Il y avait un bar, un bureau du soleil, un bureau des urgences et même une coiffeuse, très chouette !
The days were always fully planned for our Balatonners, the way we call them! Every day we had a line-up of DJs playing the best records and tunes throughout the day, and there was also a fun activity on the programme daily, such as a boat trip, a city trip to Budapest or self-organised things at the campsite such as a fun water slide or an organised church party!
Being bored was definitly not on the menu
Quotidiennement, je devais me rendre au bureau du soleil, un bureau qui s’occupait des affaires pratiques du festival. Vous pouviez y aller pour louer un casier, pour réserver les activités que nous organisions et pour d’autres questions que les festivaliers se posaient, etc.
J’avais aussi la tâche d’écrire un journal chaque jour en indiquant ce que nous allions faire ce jour-là et le programme de la journée. Maintenir les médias sociaux en vie faisait également partie de mon rôle, en créant du contenu sur la page Instagram en écrivant des histoires et des posts avec de belles photos tous les jours.
J’avais également une permanence 2 fois par semaine, ce qui signifie que je devais surveiller le camping avec une autre personne et voir si tout allait bien sur le camping et s’il y avait des difficultés.
After the shift, I had the opportunity to see Balaton’s performances and DJ sets for myself. As I am a big fan of music, it was a great opportunity for me to be able to experience this. I have seen a lot of dj’s of which I am a big fan of, such as Paul kalkbrenner, Jamie Jones, Ben Bohmer and many more!
XOXO
It was a wonderful journey, I met a lot of lovely people and that made working on Balaton more pleasurable. The group of people was very close. Because the atmosphere was so good, it didn’t feel like work at all. Balaton sound will definitely see me again next year!
