By Daniel Betts
Many locals who regularly attend the Shambhala Music Festival will be very excited to learn that on March 4th, in London, England, Shambhala was named “Best Large Festival” at the 10th Annual Breakspoll International Breakbeat Awards. Shambhala came out ahead of much larger festivals including Burning Man in the United States (50,000+ attendees) and the United Kingdom’s infamous Glastonbury Festival (150,000+ attendees).
The Shambhala Music Festival began in1998 with just under 500 attendees and has grown to a phenomenal world-class event that attracts over 10,000 attendees from around the world and requires over 2,000 support staff, making Shambhala the largest city in the West Kootenay’s for five days out of the year.
The prestigious award was accepted by Shambhala icon, Simon Shackleton AKA DJ Elite Force. The Shambhala Music festival has already been experiencing its strongest year of sales on record. The first one thousand early-bird tickets were sold in under one minute when they came on sale in early October and currently the festival is over half sold even before this year’s talent line-up is released on March 14th.
The Shambhala Music Festival’s success is of particular interest to Andrea Scholz, who as Food and Craft Vendor Coordinator at Shambhala 2010 had the responsibility of organizing and managing over 70 vendors that serviced the festival during its award-winning year. “Shambhala’s success is inspirational. It is a great example for us to remember here in The Valley that a small idea can grow into something amazing.  Congratulations Shambhala!” says Scholz.