Budapest’s famed Sziget fest begins

BUDAPEST - Agence France-Presse

The Sziget Festival is known as one of the biggest European cultural events. AFP photo

Placebo, LMFAO, The Killers and over 150 groups from Hungary, Europe and further afield will grace the stages at Budapest’s 20th Sziget Festival on Aug. 6-13, one of Europe’s most popular music events. For the first time, a live stream of the week-long fest, now one of Hungary’s biggest tourist events, will be available on YouTube, according to its organizers.
 
The open-air festival, held every year on an island in the Danube, will feature some 400 concerts in 50 venues, with theatre performances, dance workshops and circus acts held on the sidelines. Some 400,000 people are expected to attend.
 
Sziget, which is celebrating its 20th edition, was named Best European Major Festival at the European Festival Awards earlier this year.
 
The traditionally eclectic line-up includes major acts like Korn, Mando Diao, US rapper Snoop Dogg and British group Hurts, as well as a variety of groups from all over Europe and Hungary.
 
Among them will be Kraak & Smaak from the Netherlands, Italy’s Karmatronic, Serbia’s Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra and Danish singer-songwriter Agnes Obel. One stage will also be dedicated to Roma musicians and artists from eastern Europe, as has been the case for the past 11 years. Sziget is the only major festival with such a feature.
 
Over the past two decades, Sziget, Hungarian for “island,” has established itself as a major stop on the summer festival circuit, drawing fans of every type of music, from rock and reggae to hip hop and world music.
 
A novelty this year will be a 42-meter high ferris wheel, which will afford visitors a unique view of Budapest, and at night, will act as a giant screen for film projections.