So Hot In Sopron

Average temperatures hovered around 90 degrees F as about 24,000 per day showed to help Hungary’s Volt Festival celebrate its 20th anniversary.

Along with the upcoming Balaton Sound (July 12-15), it’s one of the package of outdoors that the owners of Sziget Festival sold to media giant Econet for $30 million in 2008.

Downtown Sopron benefited from the donation of some new street furniture, including some unique artistic chairs that will be signed by the major acts that play Volt. The plan is to have about 50 to 100 chairs like this in the streets of the city within a few years, reproducing a more relaxing version of something like a Hollywood Walk Of Fame.

Another boost for Sopron and the cities just on the other side of the nearby Austrian border is the financial benefit that hotels and other local businesses get from so many people descending on the region.

The local authority reckons the service sector – hotels, restaurants, shops and taxi companies – will turn over up to 10 times the revenues it’s getting throughout the rest of the year.

“This year’s 20th edition was a milestone in our lives and we did our best to make it memorable,” Volt founders and directors Zoltan Fulop and Norbert Lobenwein said. “And we are pleased by the result. The atmosphere was just perfect, happy fans and performers celebrated the anniversary with us.”

The acts helping to keep Volt Festival and the city of Sopron happy June 27-30 included Faith No More, Snow Patrol, Skrillex, Akos, Chase & Status and Royksopp.