The Balelec Festival is the largest musical event organized by students in Europe. It is usually the first open-air music festival happening in Switzerland each year during Spring. It is organised by volunteers on the campus of

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

near

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Lausanne, Switzerland Lausanne ( , , , ) ; it, Losanna; rm, Losanna. is the capital and largest city of the Swiss French speaking canton of Vaud. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway between the Jura Mountains and the Alps, and fac ...

around the beginning of May. Originally the ball of the school's electronics faculty, the festival is known to happen on a rainy day. It has been held at EPFL since 1981. Each year on a Friday night the school welcomes 15'000 people (since 2003) and 30 live concerts. Concerns about excessive consumption of alcohol at the festival are denied by the organizers. In 2015 and again in 2016, the festival once again attracted a sold out crowd of about 15,000 spectators. The budget for the 2016 festival was 650,000 swiss francs.

History

Balélec ("bal"-"élec") was originally the yearly-held ball of the

electrical and electronic engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

students at EPFL. It was first organized by professors of the school of engineering, and was progressively adopted by students, who transformed it into a festival.

The organization

The Balelec Festival is planned and managed by a student club recognized by EPFL and listed as a

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

. A part of the funds to mount the festival comes from sponsorships and the other part comes from the tickets sold for the event. The student association has an overall budget of 800'000

Swiss francs The Swiss franc is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It is also legal tender in the Italian exclave of Campione d'Italia which is surrounded by Swiss territory. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) issues banknotes and the f ...

. All the money earned during the event is used to fund the next edition. The orgalization is composed of a main committee of 50 volunteers, mostly EPFL and UNIL students, who are divided into four teams: Animation, logistics, promotion and internal resources. In addition, more than 300 volunteers and professional staff help with the setup on campus during the setup week and after the festival. On site, there are seven musical indoor and outdoor stages and about 30 live concerts each the year.

Outdoor stages

The main live stages of the festival are outdoors. These 2 stages are called the Grande Scene (the main stage) and the Scene Azimuts. The main stage has an eclectic musical line-up while the other one is more rock/metal oriented. In 2012, the volume on these outdoor stages led to complaints from neighbouring residents, leading to a reduction in the volume of the bass frequencies in 2013.

Indoor stages

Indoor, the festival owns 4 scenes. The ''Satellite Scene'' is a live stage put in place in a collaboration with ''Satellite'', a bar on the EPFL campus. Its line-up is oriented towards French and Balkan music. The festival has also two electronic music stages called the ''Coupole'' and the ''SoundGate'', the last one taking place in the Faculty of Architecture's hall. The last indoor scene is called ''The Dome'' with a nightclub ambiance.

References

"20 minutes - Balélec: la fête aux belles découvertes - Festivals"
''20 Minutes''.

External links