SZIGET FESTIVAL REPORT
In seven days 441.000 people gathered on one island: ‘The Island of Freedom’, or better yet known as the Sziget Festival. The island is located in Hungary, Budapest to be exact, and I was one of those 441.000 people.
Thursday morning I flew to Budapest and after a quick pit stop at my hotel I headed straight to the festival grounds. The temperature was a cordial 39 degrees Celsius with a humidity of what felt like 3000% (or so) with a blinding sun. What I encountered was a festival with people who had already given there all for half a week, but were far from finished. At the entrance people were already amped up and happily babbling and prancing around with friends and as soon as you entered the playing field, you were in the midst of all the bliss.
You can rent bikes, you can get married, Sziget has some sort of Immigration service – Sziget can rightfully be called a city and exceeds the festival label completely. With half a liter of beer in my hand I scurried towards the main stage where the Ting Tings would be taking the stage an hour later. The first time I saw them perform was about 4 years ago in London and I’ve been a fan ever since. And they didn’t disappoint here as well. My press badge allowed me to enter the VIP area which belted the main stage and with possibility of sounding like a snob: this was my savior. It was nearly 40 degrees and I can tell you, when you’re surrounded by 30,000 dancing people, a nice little breeze is hard to find. The VIP area was tucked away in a little bush and therefore a great place to catch your breath. With a fresh bucket of beer I was ready to head back onto the terrain.
The terrain is so big it’s impossible to see everything in one day. I spoke to someone who was attending the festival for the third time and they still hadn’t seen everything. Big commercial names were booked like The Ting Tings, as well as artists like Ellie Goulding, Kings of Leon, Avicii, Martin Garrix, Limp Bizkit and Florence + The Machine. Additionally there was room for other music genres this year. There was a pavilion where opera was being performed and people could hang out and recharge on cute little beanbags watching interactive opera concerts. There were reggae tents, acoustic tents, classical music – pretty much anything you can think of.
Exhausted from the heat, the beer and the insane amount of meters we trekked without realizing it, I rolled into a cab at around 1 am straight to the hotel. And yes, I stayed at a hotel. Ten thousands of others didn’t by the way, they spent the week living in little tents spread out around the festival grounds.
The following day it was time for a little excursion through Budapest because believe it or not – at least I wasn’t expecting it – Budapest really is a beautiful city. It kind of reminded me of Paris, in terms of romantic architecture and dozens of cute little terraces and squares. The heat was a little overbearing so we carefully navigated from one terrace to the next, ending up at the Széchenyi baths, a gigantic outdoor swimming pool in the center of the city. After a quick dip in the pool, a beer and a nap I headed back to the hotel for a shower. That evening we set out for a bite at a recently crowned Michelin star restaurant, the bees knee’s apparently, and it really was. We ended the day with drinks at the 360 BAR, with evidently, a view of the entire city.
The next day we roamed around the city and as soon as the heat scaled down a bit in the evening, we would head back to the terrain. And again we kept walking, looking around and discovering all amazing things. After every little step you take you think: ‘Okay this is the coolest thing ever.’ And then you turn a corner and you arrive at a 30 meter long illuminated dragon completely made out of plastic and about 3000 man hours. “Okaaaay this is the raddest thing ever.” And then the mouth of the dragon just happens to have smoke machines and lasers and then THAT is the raddest thing ever. And so it goes, all the live-long day.
Spread throughout the entire terrain are water vapor sprays to combat the heat, I never had to wait in line for food, drinks or the bathroom and the atmosphere was perky, rambunctious and festive. Sunday night was the final night and Martin Garrix, the 19 year old DJ from the Netherlands who became a world sensation overnight, closed off the festival. And his show was definitely superstar worthy.
At around 21:30, 70.000 or so people gathered at the main stage to bid their farewells to Sziget. People are wacky, a combination of pure exhaustion and excitement has them leaping all over the place screaming and dancing. The lasers, the smoke, the fire spewers and the firework, everything is just so spectacular it gives you the chills, even when it’s 38 degrees out.
The following morning it was time to head home. After grabbing some breakfast at the airport we spotted a little guy wearing a black hoodie being photographed with 5 blonde girls and after carefully inspecting the situation it was indeed: Martin Garrix. The man, or actually, the boy, who was performing for over 70.000 people the night before was heading back home on the same KLM plane. We were seated three seats behind him and you could hear everyone mumbling that THE Martin Garrix was on our plane. After being up in the air for about five minutes, the majority of the plane was already sound asleep. One week is brutal, but by the looks of it, everyone will be back again next year. And that, I get.
