The Sziget Festival is one of the largest music and cultural festivals in Europe. The festival is held annually in August in Budapest, Hungary and takes place on Óbudai-sziget (“Old-Buda Island”), a leafy island of 108 hectares (266 acres) on the Danube, thus Sziget stands for Island. Currently it boasts more than 1000 performances each year

Every year thousands and thousands, mainly the young generation come to Budapest in the middle of summer.

Why has Sziget Festival become so popular? The main reason is that it offers the best-value for your money regarding similar events in Central and Eastern-Europe.

No matter what music genre you like to listen to, you’ll find that appeals to your taste. Each year several internationally recognized music stars perform on 5 stages.

More than a dozen internationally well-known bands will be performing on the Sziget this including

  • Muse,
  • Faithless
  • The 69 Eyes,
  • Kasabian
  • Thirty Seconds to Mars
  • Calvin Harris
  • Nina Hagen
  • The Fear Factory

Other performers lesser known in Hungary include The Cribs and the Lyapis Trubetskoy.

The five stages of the Sziget Festival give place for different music genre concerts:

  • Main Stage: an open-air place with the capacity of 50.000 people: 3 international stars and one Hungarian band perform every day
  • World Music Stage: bands from all around the worls stage on this outdoor venue (caoacity: 15.000 people)
  • HammerWorld Stage: a tent that welcomes hard rock fans (capacity: 5000 people)
  • djuice Party Arena: the largest tent on the Sziget, a place for electric dance music
  • Wan2 Stage: here you can enjoy various music genres from world music to punk

For more melodic music visit the Siemens tent where you can sway to the music with your sweet heart from 11 pm till dawn.

Besides them you can listen to many local music talents you’ve never heard of.

You can enjoy many other programmes as well:

  • watch movies,
  • do sports,
  • visit exhibitions or theatrical performances,
  • dance, or
  • just walk around and contemplate passerbys.

Last but not least you can make friends from all over the world.

Children are welcome too; there’ll be plenty of programmes for them (e.g. puppet theatre). If you don’t want to take your kids to a certain event leave them in the day-care where qualified personnel looks after them.

Why has Budapest Sziget Festival became so popular? It’s more than just a few-day long pop-rock festival. It has a unique atmosphere, the so called “Sziget feeling”. Sziget is a meeting place for the young generation, where you can let yourself go and do what you’re feel like doing. No one’s going to stare at or criticize you. It’s also a place of learning about each other and the world.

Date: 11th-16th August, 2010

Tickets:

  • Camping Ticket in advance (until 30th April) 170 € (46 000 HUF), from 1st May: 200 € (54 000 HUF) with a camping ticket you can sleep in a tent (or caravan, but for this you need to buy a caravan camping ticket as well -100 €) in the camping area and you can use the camping facilities.

  • Caravan Camping Ticket uunitl 30th April: 110 € (30 000 HUF), from 1st May: 130 € (35 000 HUF)- If you wish to stay in a caravan apart from the camping ticket you also have to buy a caravan camping ticket (costs 110 €). Motor homes and caravans are entitled to drive in the caravan camping area (station wagons aren’t allowed).

  • Weekly Ticket Without Camping until 30th April 140 € (38 000 HUF), from 1st May: 170 € (46 000 HUF)
  • Daily Ticket bought inn advance 45 €: sold on the spot at the entrance, valid from 2 am 8 am on the day after the ticket was purchased.

http://www.budapest-tourist-guide.com

http://en.wikipedia.org