Sziget 2026

[thetime]

1 hour ago, bunnyv said:

As Kádár said,if 2026 won’t happen it will be very difficult to gain back the audience’s trust for the 2027 edition. They’re no Glasto

 

Will perhaps be hard as well, if they put out a sub par festival. They have to be behind most festivals with negotiations for the lineup. 

 

Its in a very precarious position, what ever way we spin it really. 

 

 

[kristofm]

I still think it's gonna happen.

 

Based on the way they communicate (can't say anything YET, hopeful to get an update in a week or two, been working on it for a while now) and the fact that Leaks came back with a date suggests things in the background are hopefully on track.

 

But of course "There's A Good Chance Sziget Will Happen" is not a headline that attracts clicks.

 

[mathuska]

2 hours ago, kristofm said:

I still think it's gonna happen.

 

Based on the way they communicate (can't say anything YET, hopeful to get an update in a week or two, been working on it for a while now) and the fact that Leaks came back with a date suggests things in the background are hopefully on track.

 

But of course "There's A Good Chance Sziget Will Happen" is not a headline that attracts clicks.

 

Well i dont know, the hungarian political and economical situation is very hostile nowadays, domestic and international market is shrinking, and actually its almost jmpossible to make this fest profitable (not just this year but very likely in a mid term) even if everything would have been on track. The previous owner might drop the festival because they havent succeed strong bookings that would have attracted enough people. Every year for a while, people are just complaining about the fest and headliners on every social media, sziget simply cant meet the expectations in the couple of editions, and maybe (im not sure tho) the competitors became stronger.  

 

i must agree sziget had lost from its original charm beside all the recent efforts of improvements (lavatories, decorations, new installements, night district/szoho etc) seems has no effect to get the audience back… 

 

And all above that, bunch of other hungarian major fests (f.e. volt, balatonsound, banki to, kolorado) terminated their operation too just recently

 

I m not optimistic at all

 

According chatgpt, there s  60-70% chance that sziget 2026 wont happen

[mathuska]

And If 2026 sziget wont happen, they loose the trust from international crowd too (said by the CEO, Kadar Tamas) for the next years as well,  we have to deal with the possibility that sziget will be terminated permanently

[thetime]

9 minutes ago, mathuska said:

And If 2026 sziget wont happen, they loose the trust from international crowd too (said by the CEO, Kadar Tamas) for the next years as well,  we have to deal with the possibility that sziget will be terminated permanently

 

Its a no win situation. There's no way they can deliver a quality festival from scratch at this late stage.

 

Im quite sceptical about them negotiating with major artists. Who is going to negotiate with them? They don't run the festival at the minute, how they going to negotiate? Especially when August is packed full of alternatives. 

 

Are artists going to say no to festivals, on the off chance Sziget get new owners or if its onbat all. 

 

Personally would not invest in tickets, flights, hotel, spends on the off chance.

Edited October 19, 2025 by thetime

[mathuska]

4 minutes ago, thetime said:

 

Its a no win situation. There's no way they can deliver a quality festival from scratch at this late stage.

 

Im quite sceptical about them negotiating with major artists. Who is going to negotiate with them? They don't run the festival at the minute, how they going to negotiate? Especially when August is packed full of alternatives. 

They might try with a budget friendly 5days version, with a much higher presence of hungarian and central european artists, maybe just 1-2 wow headliners (f.e gorillaz, linkin park) and a few strong undercarts.. 

[bunnyv]

[thetime]

43 minutes ago, mathuska said:

They might try with a budget friendly 5days version, with a much higher presence of hungarian and central european artists, maybe just 1-2 wow headliners (f.e gorillaz, linkin park) and a few strong undercarts.. 

 

How would that attract the international visitor? 

[mathuska]

16 minutes ago, thetime said:

 

How would that attract the international visitor? 

Its more about the survival even with a weak edition

[billybigballs]

1 hour ago, mathuska said:

Its more about the survival even with a weak edition

 

I think what you're suggesting would be a final nail in the coffin of Sziget tbh.

 

 

[thetime]

2 hours ago, mathuska said:

Its more about the survival even with a weak edition

 

The problem is people won't buy on a weak edition, especially with a Hungarian themed festival.

 

The international customer won't take that. The festival is to expensive for the Hungarians, ticket price, food and drink.

 

I'd be curious who would buy tickets. 

 

Just have a break, refresh and go big in 2027. Thats the only way I can see. 

 

 

[billybigballs]

1 hour ago, thetime said:

 

The problem is people won't buy on a weak edition, especially with a Hungarian themed festival.

 

The international customer won't take that. The festival is to expensive for the Hungarians, ticket price, food and drink.

 

I'd be curious who would buy tickets. 

 

Just have a break, refresh and go big in 2027. Thats the only way I can see. 

 

 

I suspect they're going to try to go big in 2026. They'll have acts reserved, I'm pretty sure. If they can get it across the line this month I'll be buying flights and tickets. Need to show support imho.

 

Most people will be clueless that there's been any issues, so should be able to flog a decent number of early bird tickets to get the cashflow rolling.

 

Edited October 19, 2025 by billybigballs

[mathuska]

2 hours ago, billybigballs said:

 

I think what you're suggesting would be a final nail in the coffin of Sziget tbh.

 

 

What is more risky?
- Skipping a year, taking a huge financial loss (no actual income) and the meanwhile loosing trust of international audience and attention.. Honesly who would buy an earlybird or super earlybird ticket blindly for sziget 2027 after an inevitable pause?

 

OR doing a budget friendly edition balancing the previous losses, focusing on hungarian audience but also giving some interesting names -for maybe just a smaller fraction of the usual foreigner crowd (AND taking the loss of loosing at least partially the international audience).   
 

I think everyone agrees on that there wont be a “normal” festival next year anyway

[billybigballs]

14 minutes ago, mathuska said:

What is more risky?
- Skipping a year, taking a huge financial loss (no actual income) and the meanwhile loosing trust of international audience and attention.. Honesly who would buy an earlybird or super earlybird ticket blindly for sziget 2027 after an inevitable pause?

 

OR doing a budget friendly edition balancing the previous losses, focusing on hungarian audience but also giving some interesting names -for maybe just a smaller fraction of the usual foreigner crowd (AND taking the loss of loosing at least partially the international audience).   
 

I think everyone agrees on that there wont be a “normal” festival next year anyway

 

They both look equally as risky imho. If they sell tickets for 2026 and people who haven't been following this story buy them expecting similar quality line-ups to previous years and then they find out the line-up is mainly local acts, Sziget's new owners will be fire-fighting from the very start.

 

The only way it would work is if the new owners share their business plan (or mission statement) from the beginning, including on the website and social media and take everyone on the journey with them. I fear that won't happen though. 

[mathuska]

You are absolutely right, the other problem with local based lineup is that there are several alternative and much cheaper option for the hungarian audience (efott, campus, strand, szin) BUT getting big names lastminute and being finantially rational is a huge challange

[Matt86]

in 2020, we only got the first names in February ( 1 month before Summer got cancelled )

 

So I don't think they're late about the names they would get, as the owner said, they just need to start the sales by the end of the month.

[CCester]

Sorry Pitbull mongers, but he’s having his own stadium show in Budapest next Summer.

[kristofm]

19 hours ago, bunnyv said:

Let's hope this is true

[Yelo, the Parmiggiana]

On 18/10/2025 at 22:16, thetime said:

 

Will perhaps be hard as well, if they put out a sub par festival. They have to be behind most festivals with negotiations for the lineup. 

 

Its in a very precarious position, what ever way we spin it really. 

 

 

I think they would heavily rely on personal contacts and friendships with agents, so it would feel like a real "best of" for seasoned szitisens. Honestly, I'd expect Florence, Macklemore, a random EDM DJ + 2 headliners, and a few bands that are long-time Sziget regulars playing under speial terms or smaller fees (take Bastille for example), and a lot of experimentation with up-and-coming names.

If they have a solid art department on hand, this could actually be a great moment for Sziget to rebrand itself.

 

Of course, I'm probably inhaling copium by the ton; the other possible outcome is that they will just keep turning Sziget into another Ext Festival.

 

I also think they simply cannot afford to skip a year. You still have to pay for all the contracts anyway.

To me, Sziget's problem seems more high CAPEX than high OPEX, so it is better to hold "some" edition rather than none at all: with an active edition, at least you cover all OPEX and part of CAPEX, reducing the overall loss.

 

Another thing worth noting: this forum and Reddit are both bubbles and they do not reflect the real PR landscape. For us it is a shitsow and a nightmare, but for the average festival goer it is probably not even on their radar. Sziget is a mainstream event with a mainstram audience. I'd say the "hardcore" fans are now well belo 10% of total attendees, at best.

 

I also don't think Sziget needs to go fully local. They could just downsize/remove some minor stages (Lightstage, Dropyard), promote Petofi or more experience-driven stages (like Bonfire), and slot more Hungarian acts into lower tiers of the main stages.

For example, 2014 had Tankcsapda opening for Blink 182, and 2015 had Irie Maffia opening for Robbie Williams on an otherwise all-hungarian day.

 

I wouldn't call it a scandal to rebalance things a bit: it would actually feel truer to the Sziget spirit tahn whatever those lousy Americans have been trying to pull off for the past three years.

 

Edited October 20, 2025 by Yelo, the Parmiggiana
spacing

[mathuska]

I still think, if sziget 2026 will eventual  happen, they will have at least 1 or 2 big wow headliner and dozen of strong international subs, they need that even to sell for hungarian audience. I also think Gerendai will shift the fest back to rock at least a bit but still edm will be dominant

Edited October 20, 2025 by mathuska

[CS2110]

I received a marketing email from Sziget yesterday. They are still asking people to register for 2026 and sign the email off by saying they can’t wait to see us in 2026.
 

You have to assume that if it was looking like it wouldn’t be going ahead, then they wouldn’t be saying this

[CCester]

The Owners Committee or whatever the hell is their name in English failed to vote in favour of the abolition of Sziget’s old contract again. Will be funny if it all goes down because some politicians cannot take responsibility.

Edited October 22, 2025 by CCester

[thetime]

1 hour ago, CS2110 said:

 

You have to assume that if it was looking like it wouldn’t be going ahead, then they wouldn’t be saying this

 

Its been on there website since August its going ahead. 

[billybigballs]

45 minutes ago, CCester said:

The Owners Committee or whatever the hell is their name in English failed to vote in favour of the abolition of Sziget’s old contract again. Will be funny if it all goes down because some politicians cannot take responsibility.

When was this please? What stopped it, did they all abstain again?

[CCester]

14 minutes ago, billybigballs said:

When was this please? What stopped it, did they all abstain again?

Today. I’ll paste the mayor’s facebook post translated with Google. In addition 2 of the opposition’s representatives missed it along with the mayor with whose votes it would’ve passed. Anyhow.  
,,So there will be no Sziget, no discounted Sziget rental for Budapest's young people, no capital city revenue from the use of public space, no business tax revenue from Sziget – this is the consequence of the fact that the Fidesz and Tisza representatives of the Owners' Committee did not vote today on the proposal to terminate the previous public space use contract for Sziget.
In other words, they prevented the start of substantive negotiations on saving Sziget and Budapest's interests. The Fidesz representatives bravely abstained, the Tisza representatives even braverly did not press a button.
I'm trying to understand the point of this damage, but I haven't figured it out yet. Whether it's a matter of incompetence or some conscious political ploy is irrelevant now. Everyone must account for their own responsibility.
There were many nice statements and Facebook posts about how important Sziget is to the parties, what a value it is, according to the government representative it is the “cultural heartbeat of the nation”. This is the simpler part of politics, the wording. It would have been somewhat – but not much – more complicated to understand: in order for the Sziget Festival to survive, for the capital to have any income from it, and for us to be able to achieve serious discounts for the people of Budapest, they would have to accept the termination of the old contract, which is already impossible. Because until then, it is not legally possible to negotiate a new contract, since this is an administrative procedure.
However, an agreement could have been made so that the city and the festival could offer visitors a shared experience, from which both could benefit. And of course, the Metropolitan Assembly, that is, the factions, could have made the final decision on this – they could have written new Facebook posts, they could have asked me out loud again, what am I doing wrong, they could have worried about the “cultural heartbeat of the nation” with tearful eyes, but in the meantime they would have had to take responsibility.
But that didn’t work for Fidesz and Tisza, just the rhetoric. That’s not enough.”

Edited October 22, 2025 by CCester