Located just 10 minutes from central Budapest, the Sziget Festival is simply Europe’s biggest party. Taking place over seven days in August, it’s where Hungary and the rest of Europe collectively let their hair down!
This year’s festival was the largest yet, with up to 70,000 people per day hitting the Obuda Island in the middle of the Danube. It’s simply a week for 24-hour-party people, with bars rarely shutting and the fun never ending.
The key is the atmosphere, because the camping is free and plentiful. As well as an on-site supermarket and blood-bank, the island turns into a mini city for the week.
With football tournaments by day and the best part of 100 bars and restaurants by night, it’s a hugely different experience from the traditional two-day festival.
With that much time and that many people, there has to be some pretty special acts to hold their attention and, after sun-soaked days, night-time sees the action really hotting up.
You haven’t seen a party until you’ve witnessed all those people bopping to Basement Jaxx, who proved at Glastonbury that they know how to pull off a huge show.
It’s simply fun, fun, fun, with five vocalists, percussionists and a brass section featuring in a fantastic 100-minute set. It’s easy to admire their ambition, but even easier just to sip your freshly made mojito, move your feet and enjoy.
While the London boys know how to throw a shindig, it’s on Sunday that Glasgow’s Franz Ferdinand simply blow everyone away.
They deftly interweave new songs from the forthcoming You Could Have It So Much Better…With Franz Ferdinand with the more familiar tracks from their eponymous debut.
With similar gusto Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds provide an epic performance – one to whet the appetite for the Electric Picnic – and as Cave’s antipodean voice booms across the night sky with “köszönöm, köszönöm” (thank you, thank you), it’s clear that the Hungarians are in awe of his presence.
It isn’t really about the big shows. They’re just the jumping-off point. It’s in the small tents that you encounter the real gems. Wander into the Roma tent and the dancers amaze, but there’s also great performances from the likes of the almost burlesque-fuelled folk performers Casino Gitano. It’s impossible to pick out other names because there’s simply so many.
It’s just a pleasure to venture from stage to stage (there’s over 40). The likes of the open roofed Cinetrip (cool tunes with fantastic visuals) or the absolutely unique Magic Mirror Theatre (bawdy Hungarian gay cabaret) are a fantastic introduction to Hungarian culture.
It’s an adventure – with no Glastonbury next year, you’ve no excuse not to take the trip to one of Europe’s most charming cities to enjoy it.