I arrived to the Balaton Sound festival in the festival morning together with a friend and was really surprised to see the area. The stage was only two minutes walk from the beach, the place looked beautiful and people were starting their beach party wearing bikinis and swim suits. They had obviously come to see their friends and to party, not particularly to see the artists, so the whole day and night was relaxed, there was no pushing and we could easily leave our front row places to buy drinks or use toilets.

Balaton Sound was a proper festival and we watched two artists/groups before Mika. The first one was a local party band, I never caught their name but they were great, I loved them. The second one was a rap artist called Big Boi, and rap artists are not my usual style but I enjoyed the show. We met the most amazing and helpful Hungarian guy called Balázs, who came to see Big Boi but decided to see Mika too and kindly offered to film Mika songs with my camera so I could take some photos with my another camera. 

Mika started his show with Relax as usual and kept his eyes closed at first. He was probably a bit unsure how the audience will be (I heard the audience wasn’t so good in Budapest a year ago) but he opened his eyes soon and saw the audience happy, warm and partying with him. 

I really enjoyed it that everything in the show was kept really plain and simple. Mika had his old flower curtain as a background and he was wearing white clothes and took a lot of contact with his audience, and this is how I like him best. We can always read a lot of emotions from his face and he looked almost touched when he noticed that the audience knew lyrics for songs like Happy Ending even though he is not that well-known in Hungary. 

This was really a very basic show, meaning no new songs or not many show elements. It was mostly the audience which was so much better than I expected and Mika’s relaxed singing what made it so special, and although I couldn’t wait to see his new Marie Antoinette show and to hear his new French songs I really enjoyed this last show with Big Girls and Lollipop Girls. In the end of the show a random guy from the audience shouted “Mika, you rock!!” and it made me smile and was such great and well-deserved feedback.

I wouldn’t have missed the new show and the new stage. When everything was over at the festival I took a train to Budapest and was luckily on time at the airport for my flight to Paris and Compiéne.