If you know me well you know that I like to go to a music festival or two. I decided that in the northern hemisphere summer of 2009 I would go to one in Europe. The choice is vast, there is at least one on every weekend of the summer in one country or another. I decided I would venture to Hungary for the first time and go to the Sziget Festival in August.
It was a great decision. Hungary is still a relatively cheap country, and is not in the Eurozone, meaning that I didn’t get raped by the currently tragic Pound-to-Euro exchange rate. Apart from that, it was also a huge festival in a beautiful city.
The festival was on an island on the River Danube in suburban Budapest. You could come and go as you liked, so when there weren’t any bands you wanted to watch, you could go to one of the nicest cities in Europe to go sightseeing.The line-up was vast, but I managed to catch these acts:
Wednesday: Snow Patrol, Lily Allen
Thursday: Ting Tings, Bloc Party, Fatboy Slim
Friday: Jet, Primal Scream, Pendulum, Prodigy
Saturday: Placebo
Sunday: Maximo Park, The Offspring, Faith No More, Turbonegro
It was a tiring 5 days!
I had gone semi-alone. None of my friends in London were able to come along, so I found a tour company offering to do it as a package tour. Wasn’t much of a tour, more like a handful of people, most of whom had never met before, all going for a week of fun. It was a small group but a great crew to spend the week with, although my liver needed some rest by the end!
The festival itself was the most organised event I had ever been to. The island has everything you could possibly need, from hot showers to internet cafes to convenience stores, and of course many, many bars (serving cold pints of beer for about £1.50 a pop).
And as for Budapest, quite a beautiful city. Perched upon the Danube, with plenty of fine European architecture – it provided a great setting for some river cruising and riverside pubbing.
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