With the Bulgarian media and organisers of Elevation 2011 claiming that this summer’s newest live music event will change music history forever in the region, we take a look in detail at Elevation and the other live music events across Bulgaria to see why this festival is so unique.

The “true” festival experience

You say to someone from Britain (or most of the rest of the Western World) what comes to mind when someone says “outdoor music festival” and they will usually reply “tents, mud, music and a bloody good time”!

Say this to your average Bulgarian who has yet to visit the likes of Glastonbury, T in the Park or Reading & Leeds Festival and they will most probably give you three names; Spirit of Bourgas, SoniSphere and the Kavarna Rock Fest.

Don’t get us wrong, these are all great events and most importantly as close as it gets to the “true festival experience”… until now.

What do you mean “The True Festival Experience?”

Well, in most parts of the world, large scale music festivals are held in areas which don’t tend to bother other people. Bringing 50,000 plus people to one area to play extremely loud music and effectively “live” at the festival for several days can often irritate (at best) neighbours to the event site. It also means for events such as Spirit of Bourgas and SoniSphere that city regulations normally restrict how loud the music is and how long it can go on for each day so as to avoid upsetting the neighbours anymore.

Also, how can a 7 hour heavy metal concert such as SoniSphere call itself a “festival”? If Elevation 2011 is the “best value” festival in Europe then we expect SoniSphere must be the shortest festival in Europe.

Something for everyone

Not that the SoniSphere concert is bad. Not at all! In fact, you haven’t seen a live show until you see Alice Cooper (and his snakes), it’s almost hypnotic!

However, festivals in Bulgaria have traditionally focused on one type of music and this is especially true of SoniSphere and the Kavarna Rock Fest. Both usually have headline acts which are internationally acclaimed (even if some would say a little past their sell by date) and this is the first trend-to-be-bucked when you look at the better established European Festivals. Apart from one or two obvious exceptions (such as Donnington Monsters of Rock) very few international festivals focus on only one genre of music.

Take Elevation 2011 again. You have top-flight rap (Cypress Hill), acid-jazz/jazz-funk (Jamiroquai & Stereo MC’s), rock (30 Seconds to Mars, Dog Eat Dog), soulful listening (Mocheeba, Parov Stellar) and even break through artists such as Hurts. In addition, you have a separate stage for up-and-coming Bulgarian acts in all genres, and a list of internationally acclaimed DJ’s (yet to be announced) so really, no one’s musical tastes are excluded.

(Unless you are a Mozart fan but we wouldn’t be surprised if we heard some covers at least in Razlog this summer!)

I ain’t sleeping in that!

Camping at festivals has been the norm across the world since the Summer of Love in ’68. Not only is it cheap but it is almost essential for the true festival experience to be felt.

Joining a “tribe” of 50,000 other music fans in one field for several days is almost primeval. You and your fellow festival goers create a temporary community for the duration of the event and in almost every case the feeling of “being a part of something” unique prevails.

However, it is quite hard to lose yourself in your new tribe if you are waking up next to a major highway running through one of Bulgaria’s largest cities  such as Bourgas and why would you even consider taking your tent to SoniSphere; by the time you have put the thing up, it’s time to take it down again!

Having said that, many people do choose to accommodate themselves in more refined surroundings. Do a search now on hotels within a 50km radius of Glastonbury over the week of their event. Nothing? Didn’t think so! Pick any festival and all types of accommodation are in demand which makes Razlog “the best of both worlds” for both seasoned festival goers and true-experience-virgins alike.

It’s not just about the music

All of Bulgaria’s live music events offer something good to music fans. But again, looking at other, established events heading west and you will be amazed at the amount of other attractions they offer to visitors.

At Glastonbury for example, you can join a free yoga group each morning to perform Sun Salutations with hundreds of other like minded people. There are fortune tellers, rake healers, bongo classes, comedy tents and almost everything else in-between.

We have yet to see this phenomenon in Bulgaria until Elevation came along with promises of huge “extreme villages” with demonstrations from the world’s top BMX and skate riders. Bungee jumping (apparently from hot-air-balloons!), paint ball and even helicopter rides are also available.

Basically, due to the location (Razlog Valley) of Elevation and an extremely helpful local Mayor, the organisers can run wild with other attractions due to not being limited by space restrictions which limit every other event, especially those in an urban area.

Living the dream

The “true festival experience” has therefore eluded Bulgaria until now.

Very few Bulgarians (Or Greeks, Macedonians, etc.) have had the opportunity to come together with thousands of other music fans and join together as one community, regardless of where they are from. The one thing that unites us all at events such as Elevation is being there together, partying together and generally creating what could be considered as almost a small “nation state” with one principal piece of domestic policy – to have as much fun as possible with as many people as possible in as many ways as possible!

So if you haven’t got your passport (your ticket) for entry into The Free Republic of Elevation yet it seems you will be missing history in the making!