Sziget Festival: This is how people celebrate in Budapest
It was all over at eight o'clock Wednesday morning. After seven days of state of emergency the last party-goers leave Budapest. The reason for the ecstasy was the Sziget Festival, held annually in August since 1993, transforming the 108-hectare Danubian Island of Óbudai into a festival oasis in the heart of the city and providing a sensational flood of the highest proportions for a week.
This year, the festival counted record-breaking 565,000 visitors from more than 60 nations. But as big as the diversity of the fans, so overwhelming is the entertainment program of the fifth largest festival in the world. From karaoke, jazz sessions, chess tournaments, bungee jumping or a sports course to a beach to relax on the Danube with meditation classes and yoga or even a cinema and a complete art area in which painted and timbered can be found on the Sziget everything that the visitor can dream even remotely.
Even after seven days, discover new things on the huge terrain, new branches open up and especially at night, the island is transformed by numerous light installations in a mystical world. The Sziget conveys an atmosphere that can not be described. Every camping site is decorated with thousands of fairy lights and in the Hungarian heat of the ardor an inner peace spreads over the night when admiring the glittering lamps, which everyone would like to take with them into everyday life.
Unlike other festivals
The concept of the organizers deviates completely from the usual music festivals in the world. Despite a huge line-up and world-famous stars like Kendrick Lamar (31), Dua Lipa (22, "One Kiss"), Shawn Mendes (20), Kygo (26), Mumford and Sons or Liam Gallagher (45, "Greedy Soul "), the main stage, where more than 60,000 people can gather, is not the linchpin. Instead, campgrounds, big and small stages, party tents and food stalls blend seamlessly into one another and are joined together to a large whole by lanterns, lights chains or colorful flags.
If more than 100,000 people visit the festival every day, there are hardly any safety issues despite the large dimensions. Instead of brawls due to high alcohol consumption or numerous thefts, takes place on the Sziget an international exchange, which is so rare. For problems of any kind are immediately helpful people on the spot. The "Szitizens", as the inhabitants of the festival call themselves, are a big family.
The prices are more than fine for a festival, there is a beer for the equivalent of two euros and the numerous food trucks and food stalls offer something for every taste, including vegan dishes, gluten-free, lactose-free or simply vegetarian. The diversity runs like a red ribbon through visitors, music, entertainment and food.
Mix of mainstream and underground newcomers
Despite the big headliners, which made for great concert mood every afternoon on the main stage, even the lesser known artists on the more than 60 smaller stages were an experience. The Sziget records more than 1000 concerts in seven days. And thrilled Kygo with a lightshow, which even in the fasted state already provides for heart racing, cause smaller singers such as JP Cooper (34) or Lewis Capaldi (21, "Bruises") goosebumps into the last rows. And if you've had enough of heartbreak music, you can dance to the finest electro and grand dance sounds of world-famous DJs like All Colors or Elrow until dawn.
The Sziget offers a platform for every musical taste, culture and sexual orientation. Crazy cosplay costumes, glittering fairies or a Harry Potter costume - everyone can find their place on the Sziget and enjoy the collective sensory intoxication side by side with new friends from all over the world. Even families with small children are a welcome guest on the grounds, and even four-year-olds with earmuffs dance to the songs of Dua Lipa. The double distinction as the best European festival in the years 2011 and 2014 has earned this party.
