The Island was recognized in a new category at the most prestigious international festival competition, the European Festival Awards. In the “Take a Stand” category, i.e. “Standing for social issues”, Sziget’s efforts were awarded this time by a jury of European professionals. The award ceremony took place on January 17 in Groningen, the Netherlands. Apart from the European Festival Awards, Sziget’s sustainability efforts were recently recognized with the “A Greener Future” certificate.
It is time to stand up for Europe, and indeed for the whole world. We need to create a movement that encourages social cohesion and supports tolerance, write the creators of the Take a Stand award, highlighting the need to encourage people to stand up for peaceful dialogue, humanism, tolerance and mutual understanding.
Every year, the Take a Stand award is given to the festival whose activities make an outstanding contribution to the achievement of these goals. Tamás Kádár, the main organizer of Sziget, said: “Since the beginning, Sziget has represented these values, it stands for acceptance, tolerance, and the freedom of the individual. These principles, our values that make up the DNA of Sziget, have been summarized under the auspices of the slogans Island of Freedom and Love Revolution for more than a decade, but they have also been defining pillars of our program organization and communication for 30 years.”
The highly prestigious European festival recognition, the European Festival Awards, was founded more than 10 years ago by the European festival association Yourope and the festival website Virtual Festivals Europe. In the history of the award so far, Sziget has won the “Best Grand Festival” main prize twice, it has also won twice in the “Best Line-up” category, and there has not been a year that Sziget has not been among the best in some category.
This year, the Sziget Szervezőiroda was also shortlisted in the “Promoter of the Year” category and the Sziget Festival’s “Lineup of the Year” category, and Heineken Balaton Sound was once again included among the best medium-sized festivals. Finally, Sziget came out on top in the “Take a Stand” category, competing with festivals such as Roskilde in Denmark, Sonraìz in Spain, Provinssi in Finland Pohoda in Slovakia.
Sziget – independently of the European Festival Awards – recently received another international honor, according to which the “A Greener Future” (AGF) certificate recognized Sziget’s sustainability efforts. The evaluation includes a detailed analysis of areas of sustainability such as transport, energy use, waste management, water use, protection of the local environment, CO2 emissions, and hospitality. “The AGF certification is very valuable to us, as it allows us to review and evaluate our efforts,” highlighted Ákos Dominus, Sziget’s sustainability manager. “With our participation, we not only gain additional knowledge on the subject but also build strong relationships with like-minded people in our industry. Thus, in addition to becoming more sustainable, we are also strengthening future partnerships and competitiveness.”
(Sziget)
