Sziget Festival

Sziget Festival
GenreRock · alternative rock · psychedelic rock · punk rock · heavy metal · pop · synthpop · reggae · hip hop · indie · world · electronic
DatesSeven days, usually starting in the first week of August
Location(s)Budapest, Hungary
Years active1993–present
FoundersMüller Péter Sziámi, Károly Gerendai and others
Attendance530,000 (2019)[1]
Capacity92,000[2]
Websitesziget.hu
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The Sziget Festival (Hungarian: Sziget Fesztivál, pronounced [ˈsiɡɛt ˈfɛstivaːl]; "Sziget" for "Island") is one of the largest music and cultural festivals in Europe. It is held every August in northern Budapest, Hungary, on Óbudai-sziget ("Old Buda Island"), a leafy 108-hectare (266-acre) island on the Danube. More than 1,000 performances take place each year.

The week-long festival has grown from a relatively low-profile student event in 1993 to become one of the prominent European rock festivals, with about half of all visitors coming from outside Hungary, especially from Western Europe.[3] It also has a dedicated "party train" service (with resident DJs) that transports festival-goers from all over Europe.[4] The second event (1994), labelled Eurowoodstock, was headlined by performers from the original Woodstock festival. By 1997, total attendance exceeded 250,000, and by 2001 reached 360,000.[5] In 2018 that record was broken when 565,000 visitors attended the festival.[6] Since the mid-2000s, Sziget Festival has been increasingly labelled as a European alternative to the Burning Man festival due to its unique features ("an electronically amplified, warped amusement park that has nothing to do with reality").[7]

In 2011, Sziget was ranked one of the 5 best festivals in Europe by The Independent.[8] The festival is a two-time winner at the European Festivals Awards in the category Best Major European Festival, in 2011 and 2014.[9]

In 2002, Sziget branched out to Transylvania when its organisers co-created a new annual festival there titled Félsziget Fesztivál (Romanian: Festivalul Peninsula) that soon became the largest of its kind in Romania.[10] In 2007, the organisers co-created Balaton Sound, an electronic music festival held on the southern bank of Lake Balaton that quickly gained popularity.

  1. ^ "Sziget Festival Draws 530,000 Visitors". 14 August 2019.
  2. ^ Yorke, Ana (2022-07-27). "Sziget Festival 2022 Is Back With Joyful Exuberance". Popmatters. Retrieved 2023-08-09.
  3. ^ "Latest Singapore and International News on xinmsn News". News.sg.msn.com. 2014-06-12. Archived from the original on 2012-05-30. Retrieved 2014-06-27.
  4. ^ "Állami támogatást kér a Sziget" [Calls for state aid to island] (in Hungarian). Archived from the original on 11 April 2009.
  5. ^ "Sziget Festival sees record attendance of 441,000". Budapest Business Journal.
  6. ^ "Sziget 2018: 9 Millionth Visitor, Record Number of Festival Goers and Last Concerts in the Rain". Hungary Today. 2018-08-15. Retrieved 2019-08-04.
  7. ^ "Index - Kult - Mikor égetnek már óriási bábukat a Szigeten?". Index.hu. Retrieved 2014-06-27.
  8. ^ "Index - Kultúr - A Sziget az öt legjobb fesztivál között van". Index.hu. 2011-03-10. Retrieved 2014-06-27.
  9. ^ "Sziget=Best Major European Festival". szigetfestival.com. 2015-01-15. Archived from the original on 2015-07-01. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
  10. ^ "Félsziget - Peninsula 2014". Felsziget.ro. Archived from the original on 2017-08-03. Retrieved 2014-06-27.