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One week every August, a leafy, tranquil island in the
middle of the Danube, 10 minutes from the centre of Budapest, is
transformed into Europe's biggest music festival. A total of 382,000
visitors from more than 50 countries pass through the gates of Sziget
festival, and the number of foreigners is increasing. In a move reminiscent
of Gordon Brown's professed love of the Arctic Monkeys, a group of
Hungarian MPs recently described the event as "Hungary's third biggest
cultural export after Puskas and the Rubik's cube". After a week on the
island, you can't help feeling even this is a gross undervaluation.
Grotesquely-costumed heavy metal troupe Gwar kick the festival
off in unashamedly indecent fashion on the main stage. Having severed a
monster's head, its neck proceeds to shower the front rows in litres of
pressurised blood. Musically talentless (think childish scream with a
drumbeat written by a 12-year old) the band rely on sheer shock value
to entertain. Yet after they murder a policeman and Hitler ejaculates blood
following a bizarre, disjointed dialogue with Jesus, it seems as though
they've run out of ways to cover the crowd in goo, and they lose the
modicum of entertainment value they had.
Fortunately for times like
this, Sziget is far deeper than its main stage. Wandering around the
island's smaller venues never disappoints. Rather than corresponding to the
bands' reputations, Sziget's stages are themed loosely by genre, meaning
that there is less mad rushing to cram everything in. The MR2 stage plays
host to local talent, which sparkles. Though overshadowed by the big
international acts on the main stage, there is no reason to suppose that
the Hungarian bands couldn't hold their own at big English festivals, if
their reputation grew enough. Balkan Fanatik electrify with their
heady mix of folk, electro and rap, as their MC, Sonia Ferenczi,
struts up and down, hurling tightly-rhythmic vocals like a Hungarian
M.I.A.
The Hives are the first
internationally-renowned act to hit the main stage, and deliver an
energetic performance, kitted out in matching sailor outfits. Pelle
Almqvist's cartoon-like arrogance propels his band through a rip-roaring
set, but grows tiresome. Instructing the audience to ask for an encore is
bad enough; stopping and restarting the final song six times to maximise
applause is a step too far. The Hives are good, but not that good.
The normally-perfect scheduling is slightly awry this year, partly as a
result of the organiser's efforts to include festival favourites past and
present. This first presents itself as Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club
& Omara Portuondo, and they clash awkwardly with both Peaches and
Madness. Nevertheless the Cuban veterans light up the World Stage,
proving that half a century on, they still have it. 80-year-old
Portuondo shrugs off the years as she stalks the stage with aplomb,
belting out perfectly controlled lyrical lines and flirting outrageously
with anything that moves. Peaches, meanwhile, delights her fans and
wins some new ones over in the process, filling the darkened A38-Wan2 stage
with crisp electropop and a stage show that gives the likes of Lady
Gaga a textbook lesson in high camp.
One of Sziget's major
attractions is the sheer abundance of things to do after the music
finishes. Several dance tents keep going until 6am, and the island is
dotted with dozens of bars and pubs, which by the standards of most
European festivals are dirt cheap (half a litre of beer costs 500 Forints,
which is about �1.60.) For the more adventurous, a gargantuan climbing wall
finishes with a zip wire across the back of the main stage. However you
choose to spend your evening, though, you are thankful for another
distinguishing feature of this festival - the lack of separate camping
area. Tents are dotted in between the stages, alongside all the major
concourses and in the woods around the island's shores, meaning only a
short stagger back to the tent at the end of a hard night's revelry.
- Sziget 2010:
Day 1 |
Day 2 |
Day 3 |
Day 4 |
Day 5
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