Sziget 2023

[activean]

1 hour ago, rowexx said:

it says on the app that lorde’s set is only 45 mins long..is this possible!?!? or maybe a bug?

75 minutes (insted of 90)

[Newjem]

3 hours ago, activean said:

75 minutes (insted of 90)

The FB event they made suggests she will get a full 90 minutes headline set.

[eyebrain]

On 4/1/2023 at 12:29 PM, kristofm said:

Reasons I don’t like living in Hungary under the current regime, number 484188. Pointless threats towards the festival again.

“Sziget could easily cease to exist if we, at the (newly created) cultural committee decide that we won’t allow any festivals to take place at the part of Hajógyári Island that now belongs to us.”

“If I would get really tense I could say that since it’s not owned by Hungarians anymore that means we’re not interested in keeping Sziget Festival alive. Of course, we can’t think like that, because the cultural value of this festival is much more important than what I’d like to do with the island.”

“I sat down with Tamás Kádár (CEO of Sziget) and told him that from now on we’re not allowing 30-year-long contracts but a one year contract that can be renewed annually, when we can discuss who’s doing what, when and where (…).”

It’s probably nothing and won’t have any consequences, I’m just sick of these clowns threatening everyone all the time. A friendly reminder that it only takes a second for them to abolish anything good.

Great content! 

Can you tell us more about this? What is this newly created cultural committee and why does part of the island now belong to them? 

What do you think is the real motivation of this committee for making such comments? 

Is the economic impact of the festival known among locals? I imagine great tax revenue, larger incomes for local businesses around the city and great advertisement for Budapest/Hungary overall.  How much has the organization of Sziget tried to publicly defend themselves through these points? 

How much (if any?) negativity does Sziget get locally considering the festival being very LGBT friendly? 

[Akujin]

21 minutes ago, eyebrain said:

Great content! 

Can you tell us more about this? What is this newly created cultural committee and why does part of the island now belong to them? 

What do you think is the real motivation of this committee for making such comments? 

Is the economic impact of the festival known among locals? I imagine great tax revenue, larger incomes for local businesses around the city and great advertisement for Budapest/Hungary overall.  How much has the organization of Sziget tried to publicly defend themselves through these points? 

How much (if any?) negativity does Sziget get locally considering the festival being very LGBT friendly? 

1. They clearly make these comments to have a tougher stance on the organisers, to have a better position in negotiations. If Sziget is treated as an absolute necessity than it is very difficult to negotiate anything. So it’s a power move, that’s all.

 

2. It’s insane to me that Hungary is portrayed as such backwards country that Sziget in your mind could be hated because they are lgbt friendly… The main reason people hate it in the area is simply the noise. Which is understandable. There are gay people in Hungary, pride parade, gay bars, drag shows, what have you. Believe me it’s not a shock factor of Sziget…

[kristofm]

10 hours ago, eyebrain said:

Great content! 

Can you tell us more about this? What is this newly created cultural committee and why does part of the island now belong to them? 

What do you think is the real motivation of this committee for making such comments? 

Is the economic impact of the festival known among locals? I imagine great tax revenue, larger incomes for local businesses around the city and great advertisement for Budapest/Hungary overall.  How much has the organization of Sziget tried to publicly defend themselves through these points? 

How much (if any?) negativity does Sziget get locally considering the festival being very LGBT friendly? 

It's hard to show a wider context in a few sentences and I pretty much posted here because I was angry. 🙂

There's a lot of potential reasons, one of them could be being in a better position for negotiations as someone mentioned, most people mention the personal motivations of the head of the committee (being a sadistic w*nker basically), some do talk about the lgbt/human rights issues but for me that's the least likely (my personal vote goes for the guy being obsessed with power, but that's just a guess).

The committee is just something that's been created in the past few days, 12 men (no women), most of them are close-ish to the government have been appointed to "guard Hungarian culture". It's uncertain if they'll have any effect on anything, best case scenario is that it's just a way to put taxpayer's money in their pockets. Worst case scenario is obviously that they will actively start working on regulating music and making things even more difficult for artists who are not kissing the arse of the government (it must be noted that some of them do have some knowledge about the industry, and I must mention Peter Müller who's basically one of the founders of Sziget and a regular performer there).

I'd say that - and that's just my opinion - Sziget doesn't really have a very positive or negative reputation among people in general. It's locals who are mostly concerned of the noise, rightfully so, a few thousand (possibly tens of thousands) people don't really sleep during the festival, while they do have to wake up in time the next morning to go to work, but the noise is pretty loud until about 5am. That's one thing you hear in the press, the other thing is how expensive Sziget is for Hungarians, and how it's full of tourists and foreigners. It's mostly uni students in Hungary who tend to go. As of now it hasn't been really connected to human rights or anything like that, there was some noise around Magic Mirror more than 20 years ago, but I believe that's the past. My only concern is that you never know what's happening next week, some of the anti-LGBT laws (making adoption and media appearance tougher) were created in a couple of days. They wake up on a Monday, decide to create a random law, by Wednesday it's done and dusted, it's been happened before, hence the lack of trust.

I think Sziget itself hasn't been a hot topic in politics and I really hope that it stays that way.

10 hours ago, Akujin said:

2. It’s insane to me that Hungary is portrayed as such backwards country that Sziget in your mind could be hated because they are lgbt friendly… The main reason people hate it in the area is simply the noise. Which is understandable. There are gay people in Hungary, pride parade, gay bars, drag shows, what have you. Believe me it’s not a shock factor of Sziget…

It simply depends where you're looking from. We're far, far better than Russia, Belarus, Turkey, or even Poland - because of the reasons above. On the other hand, we're definitely lagging behind Western Countries and Scandinavia in basic things such as portraying gay people in the media, gay marriage, adoption, etc. Being where we are at is not the scary bit, but the direction we've been going in the last couple of years is worrying. I do have a good friend who moved to Scandinavia because of the obvious boundaries we have here, wasn't really comfortable holding his bf's hand in the streets, etc, so we're not exactly a gay paradise either.

[thetime]

Seems odd Budapest having an issue with Sziget, Hungary have a struggling economy and bring in many many tourists into the city, where they would of gone elsewhere in Europe. 

[kristofm]

8 minutes ago, thetime said:

Seems odd Budapest having an issue with Sziget, Hungary have a struggling economy and bring in many many tourists into the city, where they would of gone elsewhere in Europe. 

I wouldn't call it a big issue but there are definitely people who don't understand why they have to tolerate a huge European festival next to their flat being extemely loud at 5am when they are getting up at 7 to go to work (and take the suburbian train and tram that's full of drunk people and it's a struggle to get on it). I mean, it is loud, my mate says he listened to the Ed Sheeran gig from his bathtub. If you look at festivals that are as huge as Sziget I don't think they're in the middle of the city.

[thetime]

7 minutes ago, kristofm said:

I wouldn't call it a big issue but there are definitely people who don't understand why they have to tolerate a huge European festival next to their flat being extemely loud at 5am when they are getting up at 7 to go to work (and take the suburbian train and tram that's full of drunk people and it's a struggle to get on it). I mean, it is loud, my mate says he listened to the Ed Sheeran gig from his bathtub. If you look at festivals that are as huge as Sziget I don't think they're in the middle of the city.

Festivals have always had issues with residence, glastonbury back in the day always had problems getting licences. Budapest need to be careful, as for me Sziget is very much at the crossroads in there very being a festival. 

[Akujin]

18 minutes ago, kristofm said:

I wouldn't call it a big issue but there are definitely people who don't understand why they have to tolerate a huge European festival next to their flat being extemely loud at 5am when they are getting up at 7 to go to work (and take the suburbian train and tram that's full of drunk people and it's a struggle to get on it). I mean, it is loud, my mate says he listened to the Ed Sheeran gig from his bathtub. If you look at festivals that are as huge as Sziget I don't think they're in the middle of the city.

Mad Cool is Madrid and main stage goes on till 3 am. It’s just about to change location, I can’t imagine the residence in the area will be very happy

[ReljaGajić]

Can someone help me out, I am struggling to find accommodation in Budapest during Sziget for reasonable price (last year I paid 80euros for 10 days and now that's the cost for one night), are there any other booking sites besides airbnb and booking 🙃

[Akujin]

9 hours ago, ReljaGajić said:

Can someone help me out, I am struggling to find accommodation in Budapest during Sziget for reasonable price (last year I paid 80euros for 10 days and now that's the cost for one night), are there any other booking sites besides airbnb and booking 🙃

8 eur per night sounds extreme to me. Even in Hungary. I don’t think you will find many such gems. But defo can find cheaper than 80 eur per night.

The Hungarian equivalent of Booking is szallas.hu have a go at that

[Newjem]

10 hours ago, ReljaGajić said:

Can someone help me out, I am struggling to find accommodation in Budapest during Sziget for reasonable price (last year I paid 80euros for 10 days and now that's the cost for one night), are there any other booking sites besides airbnb and booking 🙃

80€ for 10 days? That must have been hostel, right? No way you got a hotel or whole flat for that price.

[Yelo, the Parmiggiana]

11 hours ago, kristofm said:

[...]
I'd say that - and that's just my opinion - Sziget doesn't really have a very positive or negative reputation among people in general. It's locals who are mostly concerned of the noise, rightfully so, a few thousand (possibly tens of thousands) people don't really sleep during the festival, while they do have to wake up in time the next morning to go to work, but the noise is pretty loud until about 5am. That's one thing you hear in the press, the other thing is how expensive Sziget is for Hungarians, and how it's full of tourists and foreigners. It's mostly uni students in Hungary who tend to go. As of now it hasn't been really connected to human rights or anything like that, there was some noise around Magic Mirror more than 20 years ago, but I believe that's the past. My only concern is that you never know what's happening next week, some of the anti-LGBT laws (making adoption and media appearance tougher) were created in a couple of days. They wake up on a Monday, decide to create a random law, by Wednesday it's done and dusted, it's been happened before, hence the lack of trust.

[...]

TBF, I do not think Sziget is really interested in the LGBT+ movement for any other reason rather than marketing. Maybe it used to, but it is not anymore, not that much anyway.

In the last ten years they removed a lot of NGO panels, put less focus onto social discussion or critique, the Magic Mirror lost part of its edginess (remember when they invited the Pussy Riot? Right, try to do that now) and you can tell that they rejected to take a stance on any political/social situation (think of the Russian flags displayed the last year). Honestly, they strained further and further from anything that was not show-related.

Generally speaking, they just went from having a social identity to using a social identity (that as a mainstream festival you are compelled to have) as a marketing leverage.

I'm not saying that Sziget should have a social/political identity or that it is even good to have one to start with, but if Hungary at any point will block Sziget from happening because "it is pro LGBT+" or whatever it will be utter political b***shit.

 

 

[kristofm]

21 minutes ago, Yelo, the Parmiggiana said:

I'm not saying that Sziget should have a social/political identity or that it is even good to have one to start with, but if Hungary at any point will block Sziget from happening because "it is pro LGBT+" or whatever it will be utter political b***shit.

 

 

Yeah, fortunately I don't think that happens in the near future, as someone mentioned before we still have Pride and stuff like that, so until these kind of things are still around, LGBT+ rights won't be an issue held against Sziget.
The example I used was more about the quickness of the laws they create, on one day everything's fine, in 2 days something is closed, changed, removed, out of nowhere. It's not just gay laws, they do this to taxes, housing, education, and other issues as well, so that's why I think they're unpredictable, and why everyone is paying attention to their slightest comments now (even if they turn out to be irrelevant). 

Edited April 4, 2023 by kristofm

[ReljaGajić]

8 hours ago, Newjem said:

80€ for 10 days? That must have been hostel, right? No way you got a hotel or whole flat for that price.

there was 5 of us that shared the whole flat and each person paid 80 euros, maybe I should've mentioned that

[ReljaGajić]

I have a feeling that we won't get Elrow this year at Sziget, in previous years Elrow was at BalatonSound for the whole festival, and now they (balatonsound) announced the timetable and there is no Elrow anywhere 😬

[eyebrain]

17 minutes ago, ReljaGajić said:

I have a feeling that we won't get Elrow this year at Sziget, in previous years Elrow was at BalatonSound for the whole festival, and now they (balatonsound) announced the timetable and there is no Elrow anywhere 😬

Elrow has been great, that would be a huge miss… the only thing that really dragged me to Party Arena…

and i had my first ever crowd surfing experience there last year… good times… 

oh well…

[activean]

13 hours ago, ReljaGajić said:

I have a feeling that we won't get Elrow this year at Sziget, in previous years Elrow was at BalatonSound for the whole festival, and now they (balatonsound) announced the timetable and there is no Elrow anywhere 😬

Looks like no Elrow. But Rampage, Q-dance, Higher ground and Awakenings takeovers were announced.

We arelady have Q-dance and Higher ground full lineups:

[Akujin]

5 hours ago, activean said:

Looks like no Elrow. But Rampage, Q-dance, Higher ground and Awakenings takeovers were announced.

We arelady have Q-dance and Higher ground full lineups:

For someone who isn’t really into dance music. What are these exactly?

[activean]

19 hours ago, Akujin said:

For someone who isn’t really into dance music. What are these exactly?

I don't know, I'm not into electronic music eitheth so let's wait for someone else to give us a better answer why/how ? 

At a festival this means a themed evening with a specific music genre and maybe some decorations... 

 

[Akujin]

3 hours ago, activean said:

I don't know, I'm not into electronic music eitheth so let's wait for someone else to give us a better answer why/how ? 

At a festival this means a themed evening with a specific music genre and maybe some decorations... 

 

It’s kinda what I’m thinking. Maybe a specific visual experience. Like how Anyma/ Tales of Us have Afterlife.

[swelsbyuk]

This is a really interesting article about Download, the UK rock festival. Two points to take from it:

- Download is about to sell out for the first time in its 20-year history

- They sold 35,000 'early bird' tickets before an act was even announced. This is ten times what they would usually expect to sell.

Seems like some people aren't searching for the next big rapper, or EDM name of the month, or artist nobody's heard except an eight second clip that's gone viral on TikTok.

Yeah, some people just like to see groups make music on stage together. The louder, the better.

Link: Download Festival set to completely sell out for the first time in its 20-year history (planetradio.co.uk)

Edited April 6, 2023 by swelsbyuk

[Matt86]

4 hours ago, swelsbyuk said:

This is a really interesting article about Download, the UK rock festival. Two points to take from it:

- Download is about to sell out for the first time in its 20-year history

- They sold 35,000 'early bird' tickets before an act was even announced. This is ten times what they would usually expect to sell.

Seems like some people aren't searching for the next big rapper, or EDM name of the month, or artist nobody's heard except an eight second clip that's gone viral on TikTok.

Yeah, some people just like to see groups make music on stage together. The louder, the better.

Link: Download Festival set to completely sell out for the first time in its 20-year history (planetradio.co.uk)

That's interesting, and kinda true. Even if I think that the fact Download UK is celebrating an anniversary might be a reason for those great sales ^^ Anyway, it's a good news.

In France, the only festival that sell out before any name come out is HellFest (rock-metal festival). So I'm glad that an English rock fest' might do the same in the next years, 'cause it would give some ideas to other fests' bookers

[Newjem]

2 hours ago, Matt86 said:

That's interesting, and kinda true. Even if I think that the fact Download UK is celebrating an anniversary might be a reason for those great sales ^^ Anyway, it's a good news.

In France, the only festival that sell out before any name come out is HellFest (rock-metal festival). So I'm glad that an English rock fest' might do the same in the next years, 'cause it would give some ideas to other fests' bookers

Rock and metal festivals have very loyal fanbases but they're slowly running out of headliners.

[Akujin]

6 hours ago, Newjem said:

Rock and metal festivals have very loyal fanbases but they're slowly running out of headliners.

Yeah that’s right. And I say that as someone who has been to Download and loved it.

They are already having a lot of repeats but even those are mostly getting old. In ten years or so they will have to pivot.

In regards to sales. Yes it is high for them but let’s not forget that their max is 90k, and Sziget gets 450-500k visitors.