Sziget 2026

[CCester]

There’s a live interview going on Telec with Gerendai and Kadar if anyone’s interested https://telex.hu/after/2025/10/28/sziget-fesztival-elo-interju-gerendai-karoly-kadar-tamas

[kristofm]

Gerendai and Kádár live interview at Telex youtube channel right now. 

They need council approval, they claim they've got 1-2 weeks to save the festival.

[TheAnonimMan]

Recent Sziget updates shared by Gerendai and Kádár with the local outlet Telex:

 

In the morning, they gave a presentation to the factions of the Budapest City Council about the cultural impact of Sziget, after which the factions were able to ask questions. At the end, they were asked whether they would support terminating the current contract and signing a new one in tomorrow’s vote. The result was 4 votes in favor and 6 abstentions, which makes this the biggest uncertainty — without approval, they cannot start selling tickets.

 

Gerendai set up a new company a week ago that would organize Sziget under the previous company’s structure. They still need to reach an agreement with Superstruct on taking back the festival, but almost all details have been discussed, and the transition is expected to happen soon.

 

The artists are currently on hold — several names are lined up, but it remains to be seen whether any will drop from the lineup once negotiations resume.

 

If ticket sales cannot start by November 15, next year’s Sziget cannot take place. For that to happen, local political factions need to focus on the public good rather than political battles, despite the upcoming elections.

[kristofm]

36 minutes ago, TheAnonimMan said:

 

 

If ticket sales cannot start by November 15, next year’s Sziget cannot take place. For that to happen, local political factions need to focus on the public good rather than political battles, despite the upcoming elections.

 

Now it's more or less about the voting that takes place tomorrow in the council.

[Kebabcz]

why the festival jsut cannot go independent? 

[kristofm]

Péter Magyar, leader of Tisza:  "We made it clear that we support holding the Sziget Festival and providing the discounts, but the capital, which is in a difficult financial situation, cannot just throw 300 million forints out the window. We expect the government to reimburse this amount to Budapest, since the state can book several billions in revenue thanks to Sziget."

 

This prick won't vote for saving it, will he...

Coward. I'll put my vote on parties who deserve it.

I'm not voting against Orbán only to bring in the same sh*t.

[CCester]

9 minutes ago, kristofm said:

Péter Magyar, leader of Tisza:  "We made it clear that we support holding the Sziget Festival and providing the discounts, but the capital, which is in a difficult financial situation, cannot just throw 300 million forints out the window. We expect the government to reimburse this amount to Budapest, since the state can book several billions in revenue thanks to Sziget."

 

This prick won't vote for saving it, will he...

Coward. I'll put my vote on parties who deserve it.

I'm not voting against Orbán only to bring in the same sh*t.

Are they intentionally stupid? They want guarantees, but what’s the guarantee that Superstruct will pay? The deadline for the 2026 fee was in April and they haven’t paid yet. Sziget’ll just go bankrupt and won’t pay a single forint for next year’s fee. Waiting for the government to reimburse Budapest is a bad joke. 

[CCester]

57 minutes ago, Kebabcz said:

why the festival jsut cannot go independent? 

They are trying to, the previous owner/founder wants to take over, but without the burden of loss and stuff, he wants to minimise the risks. It’s some legal shenanigans, but they created a new company which will handle Sziget, but for it to be able to book the public space from the city, the city council needs to let the current owner withdraw from the current agreement. Which they don’t want to do unless someone guarantees that the city will get the money. 

[kristofm]

Dávid Vitézy (another member of the council, 3rd party) says it's completely unpredictable what's going to happen tomorrow, if Tisza (or Fidesz) will be convinced by the new proposal. He does believe that Sziget could be held even if they don't get discounts as it is only the 2% of the festival's budget.

[CCester]

45 minutes ago, kristofm said:

Dávid Vitézy (another member of the council, 3rd party) says it's completely unpredictable what's going to happen tomorrow, if Tisza (or Fidesz) will be convinced by the new proposal. He does believe that Sziget could be held even if they don't get discounts as it is only the 2% of the festival's budget.

I think they don’t even want the discount at this point, they just want the old agreement to be gone, so the new company get it’s own. 

[mathuska]

6 hours ago, kristofm said:

Péter Magyar, leader of Tisza:  "We made it clear that we support holding the Sziget Festival and providing the discounts, but the capital, which is in a difficult financial situation, cannot just throw 300 million forints out the window. We expect the government to reimburse this amount to Budapest, since the state can book several billions in revenue thanks to Sziget."

 

This prick won't vote for saving it, will he...

Coward. I'll put my vote on parties who deserve it.

I'm not voting against Orbán only to bring in the same sh*t.

I feel you, hungary is a full of shame, for now the only acceptable party in hungary is a joke party (Double-tailed Dog Party).

[kristofm]

I'm nervous about tomorrow.

This whole thing makes me depressed.

[CCester]

7 hours ago, kristofm said:

I'm nervous about tomorrow.

This whole thing makes me depressed.

I’m somewhat optimistic that it’s just a political circus before the election. Like one of the representatives wanted Sziget to buy buses for the city. 🤦‍♂️Sziget is just too important for the country. 

[billybigballs]

Fingers crossed for today. Thank you to those friends in Budapest keeping us informed of outcomes/statements etc. If you can do it one last time today, I promise to buy you a beer at Sziget 2026!

 

😉

 

[bunnyv]

Fingers crossed guys. I agree and hopeful that it’s just a political circus.

I honestly don’t see how a 30 billion huf loss for this economy would be the best outcome for anyone.

[CCester]

I listened to these dear politicians debating for hours, you owe me more than a beer..

Gerendai also spoke, and told them to decide whether they want Sziget, or not. And they have to realise that if they want to see the money from Superstruct, they will probably have to sue them. I will update with the result of the vote. Or someone else will. They still have a few points to debate before the vote.

[kristofm]

Idk when they'll vote today but this debate did not look encouraging.

 

Fidesz is clear they're not voting for it, someone from Tisza only said so far that if they'll win next April they'll provide this funds but it was all blurry and weird as usual.

 

Gerendai spoke, he said as it stands there is no Sziget, what he's trying to do is to make it happen somehow anyways, they are late, artists are not booked, and that's why is asking for the help of the council. He said he's taking risks, he doesn't need this hassle financially, and if there is no consent among all parties that Sziget is important, then he can say with a clear conscience that at least he tried. 

 

I think they'll debate all the other stuff now (and they have plenty to talk about as Orbán's government took 8 billion forints from the city yesterday) and they'll vote afterwards.

[kristofm]

when are they voting? seriously they've been talking for 5+ hours about everything, now they're having lunch or what?

[CCester]

35 minutes ago, kristofm said:

when are they voting? seriously they've been talking for 5+ hours about everything, now they're having lunch or what?

This is pain. I had a long meeting and thought I’ll miss the vote. And yet they are still debating. Earlier someone said they hope the dogs’ representatives will be back for the vote in the evening, I thought I misheard it..

[kristofm]

20 minutes ago, CCester said:

This is pain. I had a long meeting and thought I’ll miss the vote. And yet they are still debating. Earlier someone said they hope the dogs’ representatives will be back for the vote in the evening, I thought I misheard it..

Awful. I also had meetings and stuff and experienced the same thing.

 

I'm going to see Enter Shikari today, I hope I won't find out just before or during the gig that my favourite festival I've been attending for 10+ years is done.

 

Kontroll did an interview with Gerendai while we're waiting, he was explaining why this is a key thing to get council approval.

 

He was asked about skipping a year, but he said that's not possible, because there is a fear that the audience won't come back if they go elsewhere, but more importantly, if there's no parent company, who pays the staff, organizers etc. for the year they're skipping? They won't have money to pay them, the current owner won't pay them, so they'll have to go work somewhere for a year and then they all have to come back, that's not something you can expect the employees of a company to do.

 

Another way was to just create a festival with a smaller budget, a smaller event, but they can't do that, because the deal they are making with their parent company is a licensing thing, they will be independent but they license the Sziget brand for 15 years, and the parent company said they can't change the profile and the size of the event, it has to be the same thing.

 

So TLDR he basically said they've been thinking about all options, and the only option to keep Sziget alive is to organize it the way it is next year - but they can't do it if the council keeps saying no. 

Edited October 29, 2025 by kristofm

[billybigballs]

I don't understand politicians.

 

We have attended 4 editions of Sziget and spent around 2m florints on accommodation.

 

In addition, we've probably spent at least another 1m florints in businesses in the city.

 

And, around 1.5m florints at Hungarian businesses in the festival itself.

 

That's six people spending close to 5m florints. And there are tens of thousands of people from outside Hungary who spend similar amounts to come to the festival each year.

 

NONE of these people would come otherwise (well, very few). So, billions of florints lost if they don't give the thumbs up.

[CCester]

19 minutes ago, billybigballs said:

I don't understand politicians.

 

We have attended 4 editions of Sziget and spent around 2m florints on accommodation.

 

In addition, we've probably spent at least another 1m florints in businesses in the city.

 

And, around 1.5m florints at Hungarian businesses in the festival itself.

 

That's six people spending close to 5m florints. And there are tens of thousands of people from outside Hungary who spend similar amounts to come to the festival each year.

 

NONE of these people would come otherwise (well, very few). So, billions of florints lost if they don't give the thumbs up.

In Hungary politics are always about short term goals and voter count maximising. If there’s a fear they will lose voters by doing something, they will simply not do it, even if that would be useful in long term. Also if the boss says something, members of that political party will follow that blindly and won’t speak out. All of these bastards are saying that Sziget is important, important for the city, the country etc. but in the end they won’t vote or vote no, because that’s the ‘order’ from the big man.

 

edit: that’s populism for you

Edited October 29, 2025 by CCester

[CCester]

1 hour ago, kristofm said:

when are they voting? seriously they've been talking for 5+ hours about everything, now they're having lunch or what?

Just checked it. They are debating #21 Stay in Budapest. And there are >38 agenda items xd not sure if there’s a time limit where they stop. I think reading the result in the press is sufficient for me. 

[gfa]

1 minute ago, CCester said:

Just checked it. They are debating #21 Stay in Budapest. And there are >38 agenda items xd not sure if there’s a time limit where they stop. I think reading the result in the press is sufficient for me. 

If they are just over halfway through 6 hours in is there a chance the vote is delayed? At the current rate they will be done by like 10pm?

 

Not sure if Hungary can be similar - but sometimes in the UK politicans waffle on and talk for hours to waste time to avoid a vote / put opponents off bothering to stay for the vote etc.

[CCester]

2 minutes ago, gfa said:

If they are just over halfway through 6 hours in is there a chance the vote is delayed? At the current rate they will be done by like 10pm?

 

Not sure if Hungary can be similar - but sometimes in the UK politicans waffle on and talk for hours to waste time to avoid a vote / put opponents off bothering to stay for the vote etc.

That happened a few times over the last few years in the parliament, when they were voting about crucial items. But it’s usually futile because of Fidesz’s 2/3 majority there.
 

It’s not the case here, I think they want to get through as fast as possible. I just think there might be a time limit when they stop the debate, delay the remaining items and vote about the rest.