The 30-year-old Sziget festival is coming up with many innovations this year, the aim of which is to regain its leading position on the European festival market after the pandemic – said the main organizer Tamás Kádár at the event’s press conference.
Between August 10 and 15, many world stars will perform on the Island. Billie Eilish will give a concert in Hungary for the first time, alongside Florence + The Machine, Imagine Dragons, David Guetta, Mumford & Sons, Lorde and Macklemore. Performers come from sixty-two countries to about forty program locations.
“The two-year layoff due to covid caused a HUF 2.2 billion loss to the Sziget, which we were able to make up a bit last year with a HUF 400 million result. This year, there will be many innovations again, in terms of scenery, hospitality, sustainability, and comfort services,” said Tamás Kádár.
The main organizer-company manager explained that the advance ticket sales give cause for serious confidence, both in terms of season tickets and day tickets. “We expect more than a hundred thousand foreign guests, and like last year, we expect slightly more Hungarian visitors, we are very popular among young Hungarians”. He added: there is a good chance that Friday (Imagine Dragons), Saturday (David Guetta) and Tuesday (Billie Eilish) will be sold out.
Csiszár Virág, the Sziget booking manager, reported that the Sziget will be the first stop of Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy winner Billie Eilish’s European tour. He is not a headliner, but he will be a world star on the big stage, for example Sam Fender, Foals, Yungblud, Arlo Parks and Caroline Polachek; there will also be Hungarian performers on the special stage in the afternoons, Halott Pénz, Carson Coma and Dzúdló will perform with a special show.
In response to MTI’s question, Tamás Kádár said: he cannot mention specific numbers, but the amount spent on main stage performers is constantly increasing. “In the music industry, the increase in gas prices, which seemed to have stopped during the covid, has not stopped. We pay our performers in euros or dollars, the weakening of the forint exchange rate against these currencies does not help our budget. Nevertheless, we try to bring world stars here every day that are worth visiting”.
Bonobo, Loyle Carner, Moderat, SG Lewis will be seen in the Freedom tent, the second largest concert venue. In the Party Arena, different party brands present themselves every day, and in the Colosseum, home to underground electronic music, Jeff Mills, Sven Väth and Dixon also take the stage.
Program director József Kardos touched on the fact that this year the Europa Stage, which hosts up-and-coming talents, and the world music venue, the Global Village, will switch places. In the latter, for example, the Canadian-based Ukrainian Balaklava Blues, the Parisian band of gypsy singer Marcela, Reunion’s Ti’Kaniki or the American-French-Lebanese-Armenian collective Al-Qasar will take the stage. As mentioned, the hip-hop and rap artists will be at the drop yard location again, in addition to retro music (such as Bellini, Bon-Bon, Peter Srámek) on the Stereo Stage, there will also be artists known from domestic talent shows. This year too, the Music Box venue belongs to songwriters and singers, and the Magic Mirror offers round table discussions and stand-up in addition to films and music, and at night the British Queenz will appear.
In Cirque du Soleil, a thousand-seat circus tent, Ukrainian circus students who fled the war will present their skills in Prague’s Cirk La Putyka troupe, Canadian Cirque Alfonse and Australian Circa will also be coming again. The program of the walking street theaters will include Catalan human towers (Sagals d’Osona), but horses, sirens and dragons will also appear at various points on the Island. The theater and dance field (Theatre-and-Dance Field) will show, for example, the show of the Dutch Panama Pictures, the Basque Hika Teatro, the Basque Ertza, the French Compagnie Dyptik or the British truck and treadmill dance production, Future Cargo. As always, there will be a Civil Island this year as well.
Mobile toilets will be replaced by container toilets, camping services will be renewed, the spectacular outdoor installations of Art of Freedom will return, more money and resources will be spent on dust removal than before, the range of catering establishments will increase, and at the same time, it will be mandatory everywhere to sell a “well-priced” main course, for a maximum of HUF 2,500. Last year, 42 percent of the festival’s total waste was recycled, this year’s goal is to exceed the 50 percent rate. Vehicles with explosive engines will be replaced by electric ones, and the nature reserve will be closed again this year.
(MTI)
