The Sziget Festival
The Sziget Festival, held annually in Budapest, has emerged from being a comparatively low-key student event to a real international rock and cultural festival, with visitor numbers tallying to 385,000 in 2005, up from a mere 43,000 back in 1993, it's first year in existence.
It takes place on the Óbudai-sziget (Old Buda Island), a vast natural territory with many trees and large meadows. Starting in the beginning of August (when the weather is usually very nice in Budapest), and it usually lasts 5-7 days.
In 2008, the festival will take place from the 12th to the 18th of August, and it will feature famous bands, amongst them Iron Maiden and R.E.M.
The festival is very popular with West Europeans; about 50% of the festivals' visitors are Hungarians. One of the attractive things about the Sziget is that it features acts from many different genres, from UK, German and French as well as Hungarian bands.
Just a few notable performers on the Sziget in the past few years: Manu Chao, Chemical Brothers, Nick Cave, Jovanotti, Faithless, The Rasmus, Morcheeba and many, many others.
Ticket prices for year 2008 are already set, and tickets are available via on-line order with Budapest.com. There are two types of weekly tickets and one type of daily ticket: camping or non-camping weekly tickets. With daily tickets, camping is only possible if you buy (and wear) two or more daily tickets for consecutive days.
- Weekly Camping Ticket: EUR 120
- Weekly Non-Camping Ticket: EUR 100
- Weekly Caravan Ticket (on top of the visitors' tickets): EUR 100
- Daily ticket (camping only if two or more consecutive days are purchased) : EUR 32
These rates are valid until May 15 only; after this date, the prices will be higher.
