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Sziget 2014: Hungary’s answer to Glastonbury?

When a friend first suggested trying out an international festival, and one in Hungary at that, I was more than a little skeptical. However, the impressive line-up, its location on an island in the Danube and critics’ claims that Sziget was an “European Glastonbury” soon had us parting with our money and scouring for cheap flights.

Sziget did not disappoint. A week long fusion of arts and culture, it featured headliners such as Blink-182 and Queens of The Stone Age (the sheer energy of the former rivalling the slick riffs of the latter), as well as The Prodigy, Imagine Dragons, and Outkast. These bands were interspersed with DJ sets from Skrillex and Calvin Harris, whilst The Kooks, Bastille and Jake Bugg performed more relaxed sets earlier on in the day

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The dominance of British and American bands on the main stage was a little bittersweet at first. Although the line up was fantastic, it did seem somewhat pointless to travel to Hungary to see bands that also graced the line-ups of British festivals.

However, the main stage did hold a few unexpected musical gems. Ska-P drew us in with an intriguing, but funky, blend of ska and punk. Their set further verged on the bizarre when serious political videos were set to crazy brass solos and a series of satirical characters began to populate the stage.

We could easily have spent the entire week at the main stage. Yet it was when we ventured further afield that we found the most exciting and alternative bands. Sziget’s World Village Stage lived up to its name, playing host to a range of bands hailing from Mali, Argentina and Jamaica amongst many others. Here, the standard nod and bob of the main stage turned into an impromptu conga, whilst mosh pits became circles of something which may have been Romanian folk dancing (either way it involved a lot of kicking).

The fantastic music was offset by a variety of art stalls and cultural events that took place throughout the week. The island was littered with art installations, meaning that a walk back to the tent often involved an encounter with some sculpture or another; the camping areas themselves had been decorated with fairy lights, paper jellyfish, flags and balloons.

Sziget represents an explosion of musical and artistic freedom following years of paranoia and repression under communist rule. It has it’s own dedicated LGBTQ area hosting talks, films, and music dedicated to queer culture, as well as an Afro-Latin area, where we learned an African dance before heading over to the Hungarian tent to try our hands at traditional crafts.

Sziget certainly lived up to the critical hype that surrounded it. I can’t wait to go back.

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