Music Yes And More

Sziget festival is held annually in the month of August and is located just 3 miles out of the city centre on Obudi Island. The island is set in the middle of the Danube River which lies between Buda and Pest in the European country of Hungary. The Island is easily accessible by public transport.  Visitors can choose to take the train, a tram or a water taxi.  Sziget is a week long festival and is very well priced at 110 quid which grants you access to the festival and covers your camping fee. The festival site is entered via an old tram bridge which looks as though it has not seen traffic in many decades, and as soon as you pass over the threshold a new world opens up before your eyes.   

There is, of course, a designated camping area but these festival goers don’t seem to mind where they pitch their tents.  Some of the more peculiar spots include right next to bars, mere feet away from some of the smaller stages and even in the midst of thick bushes. Along with a great choice of camping spots there are also more than adequate sanitation facilities, with a large variety of shower blocks and toilets available for use.  

The centre of the festival site is referred to as the City Centre and quite rightly so. Within the City Centre there is a post office, supermarket, bank, pharmacist, places where you can leave your luggage and get your photographs developed and even a marriage tent where festival goers can and do get married. There is also a laundry service and a wide variety of food available including American, Chinese, Spanish, Hungarian, Serbian, Latin and Transylvanian cuisine. Bars and alcohol outlets in the Centre range from student bars that cultivate a grungy look complete with car tyres as seats, trendy cocktail bars and popular dance bars so there is more than enough choice as to where to get your drinks. No doubt that there will be fancy exhibition stands aplenty to entice festival-goers into every bar and shop.

Sziget is well known for being more than just a music festival. Some of the activities available at the festival include pottery under the guidance of a skilled potter armed with a potter’s wheel.  Also a puzzle tent in which you can find any imaginable puzzle from the Rubik’s cube to complex relations and tangled wheel puzzles to keep your intellect busy for hours. In the Latin village Salsa and Samba classes are available or you could learn some moves from a Brazilian martial arts/dance group.  If that doesn’t tickle your fancy, why not try the Moroccan tea rooms or the African coffee making ceremonies.