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Bulgarians to Rock with International Stars at New Festival

Bulgaria's brand new festival for pop and rock music, Elevation, will have its first edition in June and will be staged in the south western town of Razlog.

At a press conference on Thursday, the organizers announced that Elevation 2011 will take place on June 24-25 and will feature international and Bulgarian musicians.

The headline's will be announced in several weeks. According to Boris Milanov from the Bulgarian promotion company Symphonic's Entertainment, their participation has been negotiated at 99%.

"
We are talking about a big pop funk band, a big rap band and a pop singer,"
Milanov said.

So far, the organizers have announced several participants – 30 Seconds to Mars, Hurts, Gentleman &
The Evolution, Parov Stelar, Cyanna and Dog Eat Dog.

The Bulgarian bands Odd Crew, Sepuko 6 and Monyx will also take part in the first edition of the new festival.

One of the organizers, Alexandar Evtimov, said that the crew is negotiating with several companies to provide direct transport from large Bulgarian cities to Razlog. A camp will also be staged near the festival.

The mayor of Razlog, Krasimir Gerchev, confirmed that the municipality had negotiated the cooperation of all institutions that will take care the festival runs without accidents.

The organizers said they want to make Elevation the biggest music festival on the Balkans.

Is this not the same rock festival that Oldun refers to each year?

Oddy

If my memory serves me right this is not the same one and I think they are about 250km apart

Definitely not Oddy but they might have copied our idea! Its also not a Rock festival but sounds more Pop and its in June and ours is in August. Good luck to them though and remember we will always have been the first for a village free Fest.

Ooop!!!! Me having a blonde moment thansk for clearing that up.

Oddy

oldun wrote:

Definitely not Oddy but they might have copied our idea! Its also not a Rock festival but sounds more Pop and its in June and ours is in August. Good luck to them though and remember we will always have been the first for a village free Fest.

Looking forward to it

This was the original intention of Evgenii Dainov to show what a village can achieve. Any event or new business in a Bulgarian village should be a cause for celebration and deserves support.
I am in the process of composing a letter to the British Council in Bulgaria to explain what our Rockfest is all about and trying to get funding for a film about British people living in Bulgaria and their efforts to integrate and help cultural relations. If funding becomes available from any source for this film we will be looking for Brits in the Veliko Turnovo region who might like to take part. However this is all in the future so watch this space!
For myself, I believe we should do all we can to help Bulgarian villages who have been happy to accept us. Others may disagree of course but don't forget, British people are angry at immigrants coming to Britain who contribute little and take a lot.

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Bulgarian Pop, Rock Festival Refutes Jamiroquai Participation

The organizers of the new Bulgarian pop and rock music festival Elevation have refuted information in the media about participation of British acid and funk jazz band Jamiroquai.

The speculations about the musicians began after Elevation organizers said that they have negotiated at 99% the participation of a popular funk band, one of the most popular hip hop bands and a young singer who has already topped the charts.

As a result, a Bulgarian music website announced that Jamiroquai, Cypress Hill, Bruno Mars and The Chemical Brothers will participate in the first edition of the festival, which will be held June 24-25 in the Bulgarian town of Razlog. .

However, on Wednesday, the organizers announced the actual performers - the American hip hop band Delinquent Habits and electro band Stereo MC's.

So far, the other confirmed musicians are 30 Seconds to Mars, Hurts, Parov Stelar, Dog Eat Dog, Gentleman and the Evolution, Cyanna, Monyx, Sepuko 6 and Odd Crew.

[size=55:kp9741ax]Sofia echo

From Jamiroquai to Cypress Hill: At Bulgaria's Elevation festival

It's a multi-million euro event. It cost its organisers "
blood, sweat and tears"
and months of fraught negotiations but, with big names lined up like Jamiroquai and Cypress Hill, it looks like Elevation will be a big success when it's staged in Razlog this summer.

Electronic, rap and hip hop fans in Bulgaria will have the chance to attend what has been dubbed the country's "
newest open air music festival"
on June 24-25. So far – apart from Jamiroquai and Cypress Hill – Thirty Seconds To Mars, Hurts, Stereo MCsS, Dog Eat Dog, Delinquent Habits, Gentleman &
the Evolution, and Cyanna have all confirmed they will perform.

Before Elevation, the biggest event in the region was the Bansko Jazz Festival. Getting a new festival off the ground was not easy. "
We had a lot of sceptics but our partners were able to demonstrate that we knew what we were doing,"
says Simon Feek, pre-event sales, marketing, logistics and security manager at Elevation.

Covering a 110 000 sq m area, Elevation has capacity for four or five times the amount of tickets currently on sale, but Feek says that the organisers decided to keep the event manageable in the first year. There will be two stages – possibly a third stage for Bulgarian artists – as well as an extreme village with paint ball, bungee jumping, sponsors and a large food and drink area.

A two-day ticket is currently on sale at a 20 per cent discount (just 96 leva), rising to a normal price of 120 leva, making it one of the best value events in Europe this summer. The fact that it's located in Razlog, rather than on the Black Sea, ensures that prices undercut those of other (seaside) festivals like Spirit of Bourgas where rooms would be at a premium during the summer.

Based on current ticket sales, 80 per cent of visitors will be from inside Bulgaria. The other 20 per cent are from Greece, Macedonia and Serbia. With bands like Jamiroquai, Thirty Seconds To Mars and Dog Eat Dog, there's something for every taste. Feek remembers seeing Dog Eat Dog in Switzerland in 1997. "
That was 14 years ago. The weird thing is that they are as popular in Bulgaria today as they were back then in the US,"
he says.

Jamiroquai, in particular, is one of the most popular bands in Bulgaria. "
Jamiroquai actually sells CD's in Bulgaria,"
says Feek. "
Everybody else downloads torrents but Jamiroquai's fans are a little older and more affluent. Other artists, such as Thirty Seconds To Mars, perhaps target the under 21's."


Feek has been careful not to count his acts before they were signed up. "
It would have been easy to approach sponsors back in November and claim we had unconfirmed acts. But we didn't want to do that. Some of the groups we wanted were fully booked. Others – like Bon Jovi – well, you wouldn't get any change from a million Euro for an hour and a half's work!"


Security will be tight and professional throughout, promises Feek. "
We will have stop and search procedures. Some measures may appear a bit draconian but we need to be grown up. We have to be aware of drugs but there are certain things we can do to mitigate them. We're sending through a formal request to get sniffer dogs. If I were an 18-year-old with illegal substances and I saw a few Alsations I'd probably drop what I was carrying quite quickly. The Americans have not managed to keep zones drug-free but we're trying to limit it as much as possible. Bulgaria is a better behaved country than the UK when it come to public order events. But, nevertheless, safety from my point of view is our biggest concern,"
says Feek.

With up to 800 sq m of food courts – selling hot dogs, kebapche and vegetarian snacks – and pints of beer and hot-dogs on sale for just two to three leva, they will neither go hungry nor be ripped off. "
Go to Glastonbury and see if you could get a beer for one pound fifty sterling,"
says Feek. He also cites the wide-ranging accommodation nearby, from 10 leva per tent at the camp-site through to the top end – 300 Euro for a residential suite at the Kempinski in Bansko.

Feek is also trying to arrange transfers between Sofia and Bansko. Negotiations are currently ongoing with bus companies and, again, securing a good deal is vital. "
We want a price from Bourgas to Razlog direct and we've asked them if they can do it cheaper than the main bus company. Revellers can't bring in food or bottles into the grounds but we've estimated that your average festival-goer can live very nicely for 10 Euro a day. If they want to sit up and party for two days, then they can."


Feek has worked out that if visitors took a bus from Burgas, staying at the four-star Bansko Royal Towers, the whole weekend would cost them about 118 Euro. Although the UK's Glastonbury Festival may not be a strict comparison – in terms of size and prestige – Feek points out that it would be difficult to get a ticket for less than a couple of hundred pounds and you certainly wouldn't get a snack for just over a Euro.

Get ready to be lifted...