Day 3 was the best day which featured the most diverse line-up of leading musical entertainment for the entire time of VOLT Festival.
Indie rockers of Ivan & The Parazol were already playing their well-deserved Main Stage set when we arrived on site. The Rolling Stones-like performance and perhaps way too confident attitude would never make one think they are only at the start of their long journey. The songs sounded great and we were amazed by the voice of the singer live. It’s a shame they weren’t playing on the last day though – line-up and genre wise the band would’ve been the perfect addition to the likes of The Strypes and Arctic Monkeys. And also, just to show off how Hungarians do rock and roll – no, this isn’t biased at all…
In the hope of discovering new bands, we went to see the band Konyha. It figures, they were familiar already, which made their gig even more fun. Then, Random Trip took its place on the same stage. This act is the most unique of all because it unites various artists of the Budapest music scene with each performance. The main genre is something of freestyle, jazz, soul, or anything else. They improvise, therefore no other performance is the same. This time there was Judie Jay, iLLspokin from the USA, Balázs Fehér (who also had a show with his band The Carbonfools on the same day -more on that below) and MC Zeek of Rewind on stage and it was all happiness.
It was about time the big events of the day to start. Bring Me The Horizon had their first ever Hungarian show, among many more, and it was nuts. They mostly played songs off of the latest album ‘Sempiternal’ but old hits such as ‘Chelsea Smile’ also featured on the set-list. The mere one hour the band had spent on stage went by in a blink of an eye, and we are happy to have survived this highlight of the week without major injuries.
It would’ve been great to see Birdy‘s set as well but time was sacrificed in favour of BMTH. We’ve heard she was lovely though. Milky Chance seized the stage after her, leaving the radio hit ‘Stolen Dance’ to last. They were one of the most anticipated acts, and the amount of people in and outside of the tent proved it. For a change, it was nice to get lost in the music and simply pay attention to the sounds because their show isn’t really one to dance for yet we still had a great time.
The cream of the Hungarian alternative rock took our time up for the rest of the night. 30Y and Heaven Street Seven are both huge favourites with creative lyrics and great live performance. Sure they are the most played bands on the radio as well, so their set is basically a huge sing-along with the crowd together.
And finally, the most anticipated band by us, The Carbonfools started their set at 1AM. We’ve seen them live before but never ever had so much fun as this night. Everyone was in such a great state of mind, that it was hard not to smile, and it wasn’t only because of the alcohol people have previously consumed. Their songs are destined to sing and dance your heart out when they play and at this point the singer’s hilarious little dance cannot be left unmentioned either – Sorry, Balázs! If we were to die straight after the show, we would’ve died happily because huge international performers and everything aside, this is the concert we’re still longing for after all this time.
Catch up on previous reviews of VOLT Festival here and here.