Sziget Festival for Hungarians?

As the summer period approaches, the hype around popular summer festivals also erupts. Sure enough, a week-long gathering for music and party enthusiasts yields a number fun stuff ranging from listening to the favorite bands live to getting involved in developing relationships with even international friends. However, attempting to take part in such an event becomes less fun if it takes over a month of summer-work for teenagers or college students to earn the outrageous entry fee. The reason why nobody will ever care about the odd situation in Hungary, namely, that Eastern Europe’s largest festival in the middle of Budapest is invaded mostly by Western European foreigners who will eventually and necessarily raise the price threshold, is because economically there is no need to alter a policy which relies purely on financial considerations. On the other hand, the intention to create a new festival in Eastern Europe with its certain vibe and authenticity has faded away during the years of Sziget’s evolution.

Throughout Europe, attending musical festivals has been a popular and successful trend since the eighties, or, taking the UK as an exception, since even earlier. Even though it was the legendary Woodstock festival in the US that created such a chain reaction, the large capitals relatively close to one another on the map shifted the hotbed of musical festivals from the States to Europe. Many of the music festivals are built around a certain genre in music, resulting in a great variety of themes and styles. Drink or clothing brands promoting such events even form their entire marketing profile and strategy in order to accommodate the specific style of a certain subculture, or the taste of people who will presumably attend the festival; and Sziget has always been following the reliable patterns to attract promoters and visitors. True, the popularity of Sziget today is mainly based on this careful, step-by-step policy in gradually raising the bar in order to reach the Western European level. However, as Sziget finally managed to converge with the standards, its repertoire of both Hungarian and other European (but compared to the overwhelming Anglo-Saxon pop music trends, not canonized and, therefore, less popular) music was reduced to such a small proportion that these shows today generally appear on the smallest stages, which are carefully tucked in the far corners of the Óbudai Island.

Sziget has gained its global recognition only in the last decade, but even in such a short timeframe, it managed to outgrow the hosting Óbudai Island, where it takes place annually. Due to the sheer lack of space and the ever-growing number of visitors, Sziget must also gradually raise the entry fee to control the vast crowds forcing their way onto the island. And since the popularity of the festival manifests itself year after year in the increasing amount of attention it gets, why not monetize the inevitable opportunity?

For foreigners arriving from the West, Sziget is a cheap and atmospheric little place to spend much fewer money on drink and show-tickets than it would otherwise cost in German or English musical festivals, while still listening to the same music they hear at home. While it is obvious that globally recognized bands and artists will necessarily attract visitors with fat wallets, as a consequence: the vast majority of unduly underrated underground bands from this part of Europe slip off the stage. If Sziget had intended to create a balance between importing popular music into its repertoire and providing some reasonable amount of platform for either Hungarian or (so far) less popular artists, this intention turned out to be shamefully unsuccessful.