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Firing it up
Sziget Festival 2004 looks hot as ever
written by Neil Horner
Early each summer, Budapest begins to buzz with the excitement
of the Sziget Festival. What began as an informal gathering of
mostly amateur musicians over a decade ago has since diversified
and developed into one of the largest, most comprehensive music
and performing arts festivals in Europe. Now in its 12th year,
the Sziget Festival, scheduled to take place on Budapest’s Hajógyári
Sziget (Shipworkers Island) August 4-11, promises yet again to
be a Budapest summer highlight.
 While the Sziget Festival final program has yet to be finalized,
it includes more than 1,000 shows, ranging from big name hip hop,
alternative, trance and heavy metal acts to contemporary dance,
information booths and sporting events at 60 venues, including
five concert stages. In recent years, the festival has gained a
loyal following regionally and across Europe due to the diversity
of performances brought together in a single outdoors event. Artists
from around the world will be performing at the festival with acts
ranging from Canadian/UK contemporary dance, Ukrainian ska, Indian
dervish-like Gypsy music, Finnish heavy metal, Macedonian folk
and avant-garde New York Klezmer.
Festival Creative Director Péter Müller conceived the event as
a big party for his friends 12 years ago, and has made every effort
to maintain this community feeling in spite of financial and commercial
pressures in recent years. Tickets for the event have been priced
at EUR 80 for a full week pass or EUR 15 daily. Müller says keeping
prices low has been one of his priorities to ensure the spirit
of Sziget is rooted in artistic expression through a good party.
“We tried to keep politics out of the event to make sure Sziget
stays true to its sprit, and I think the recent addition of an
NGO village to the event combines the best of politics with the
power of youth culture,” Müller said.
The timing of the festival has traditionally made it a challenge
for the event to attract larger acts, which are rarely touring
Europe in late July/early August due to holidays or studio time
requirements. But the Sziget team nevertheless put together an
impressive list of acts for Sziget 2004, and programs can be viewed
at www.sziget.hu. It should be noted that the best information
is available in Hungarian due to recent problems with the English
language version of the website.
Highlights this year include main stage acts such as metal giants
Anthrax (USA) and Rasmus (FIN), hip hop legend Busta Rhymes (USA),
Faithless (UK), pop sensation Sugababes (UK), punk classics Die
Aerzte (D), Basement Jaxx (UK), the Fun Lovin’ Criminals (USA)
and the Bloodhound Gang (USA). This year’s festival will also see
an impressive selection of DJs spinning in festival dance tents,
the largest of which is 2,700 square meters and can accommodate
crowds over 5,000. Masters on the decks include Paul Oakenfold
(UK), Josh Wink (USA), Roni Size and Talvin Singh (UK) and Jeff
Mills (USA), with dozens of smaller acts to discover. The festival
will also feature returning classics such as Besh o droM (HUN),
Omara Portuondo (CUB) of the Buena Vista Social Club and celebrated
Algerian musician Rachid Taha.
The success of the festival depends heavily on weather, and flooding
in 2002 nearly spelled ruin for festival organizers. Heavy rains
on opening day in 2003 also dampened turnout, but Müller, and his
self-proclaimed weather voodoo promises to make sure the sun shines
on Sziget this year.
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