GALLERY: Massive dance festival doubles the size of Pärnu
The three-day electronic dance music event Weekend Festival Baltic brings 90,000 visitors to the Estonia's most popular resort town.
Pärnu has for long been the favorite summer resort of Estonians, as well as many foreigners, but the number of visitors largely depends on the weather. If it's hot, people from across the country flock in to get some sun on the kilometers-long sandy beach, but if the summer is slow to arrive – as has been the case this year – the local tourism industry mainly survives on Finnish tourists, who take advantage of Pärnu's well-established and relatively affordable spa and health treatments.
The ambitious dance festival will certainly turn the chilled atmosphere upside down and nightclubs, bars and restaurants may even find it hard to cope with thousands of mainly young revellers, as the Pärnu clubs can accommodate just 10,000 people at once.
But people do not need to worry about a lack of fun – the festival will not only bring world class DJs for the first time to Pärnu, but the country as a whole has not seen an event in this league before. Armin van Buuren, David Guetta and Tiësto will make one feel as if they have traveled to Ibiza instead.
Apart from superstar DJs, the stage which is built on the Pärnu beach, will see a long line-up of other acts entertaining and liberating the people – such as DJ Wire, Robin Schulz, Sub Focus, Hardwell, Nero, Rudimental, Darude, Brennan Heart, Headhunterz, Chris Lake, Super8 & Tab, and Estonia's own Beat Service and Syn Cole.
The festival is expected to benefit Pärnu's economy by 10 million euros in less than three days.
Editor: S. Tambur