Sziget 2016

[Diocane]

or at least they make an exception for Sziget. Radiohead also announced they're gonna finish the new album this autumn. I'm fapping so much this days... 

[meepmoop]

Hey all, myself and a group of friends are thinking of going Sziget for the first time this year, we were wondering how early is the lineup typically announced?

[ilbeyene]

First names before Christmas and the rest of the names are announced 'till late June. In 2011 Prince was even announced in mid July. So you'll never get the full lineup before you get the ticket

[amfy]

Well we have our apartments and flights booked & are going for 10 days.

We have already decided that we'll see as much of the festival as the line up warrants, and if it there are days that don't offer us anything much - we'll just be on holiday in Hungary! We have a day or so on the end to ensure that we can still see a bit of Budapest if the festival does fully engage us for the week. I do expect the line up, and the overall festival itself, to offer us enough to see us there most days from what I see of previous years.

I guess my only concern watching the various videos is that it looks an incredibly young festival, so I hope we won't feel too out of place. I have always felt at ease at festivals though, so I think it'll be OK. I'm really looking forward to the international feel of it.

[doobie ninja]

hay Amfy

 

it might look a young festival, but it def didn't feel it! i'm used to things like SGP and going to raves where I feel old, but not at all at Sziget!! I thought the line up was quite naff this year BUT.....there is so much going on there, from the beach at night, to the circus and all the bars. The best part of Sziget for me was wandering around, going to all the bars, I preferred that to standing there watching bands which you can do at any festival in any country.

 

Budapest is fantastic! I had 4 nights in the city before the festival and one after. I did a walking tour, went to the waterpark, went to the spa (that was actually during the festival), went to many bars but feel there is still so much I want to see out there.

 

i'm going again next year.

[amfy]

Thank you.

I have been going to Glastonbury on & off since 1986 & I feel Sziget offers us the opportunity to enjoy a similar type of festival with better weather and an option not to camp without breaking the bank.

We do love the 'love loads of other stuff going on' that you get at Glastonbury, and It does look like Sziget offers this. At my husband's very first Glastonbury, he ended up watching Hungarian folk music, so it feels fitting that we should go!

We have always camped at the festivals we have been to before, but are finding it hard work now. To fully enjoy the festival, we need better quality rest than we used to! However, all the more comfortable options at Glastonbury seem to cost a fortune! Sziget gives us flights, apartment, tickets & extra days of holiday for less than trying to do a comfort option at Glastonbury.

I am pleased that we won't feel too old. We enjoy being around young people anyway, but I suspected that the publicity videos probably focus more heavily on the young, and hopefully there'll be a few of the older crowd to keep us company too. Having had a good nights sleep in a proper bed, I am also sure we will be up raving with the best of them again anyway!

[doobie ninja]

i'm sure you love it....I do think Glasto has a bigger mix of ages though but I preferred Sziget to Glasto by a mile.

 

I myself am a little torn by the staying onsite or off site thing. I have always preferred staying on site at festivals as I love partying then being able to crash out in my tent 15 mins later (depends where you camp I know) I also love waking up and being surrounded by the festival, its just such a great feeling!

 

but with Sziget its rather hot, this mixed with noise can make day time naps very hard. And basically I go to Festivals for the night times...so i'm shattered in the day. So the thought of a comfy bed in a quiet apartment sounds great! but I hate being away from the festival, I feel like I'm missing out on  stuff. Even if its just laying on the grass (mainly dirt) just people watching    I went to Auchan supermarket one day and that's only 10mins away, and walking over the bridge leaving the site felt horrid hahah

 

My friend last year had an apartment. looked fairly easy to get to on the map...but in reality took a minimum of 40mins, and that was if you were partying near the one side of the island where the entrance/ exit was. if not...took longer

 

I might bite the bullet and get a caravan in the VIP area, dam expensive though! benefits are you're in the middle of the site with a half decent bed in a place quieter than a tent.

 

Sziget is cool though, how ever you do it.

[amfy]

I have always loved camping in the festival too, for all the same reasons as you. I love the warm glow of dropping off to sleep with the buzz & hum of the festival all around me. I even love the morning visits to the water tap & the long drops - there's something so communal about it!

But, now we are into our 50s, it has got really hard, even with a good sized tent with room to stand, and as many comforts as we can carry. With flying, it wouldn't even be possible to make ourselves as comfortable as we are camping in the UK, so we really fancied the comfort option. It's going to be interesting to see how we get on with being offsite, and how this influences our future festivalling. I think I will always camp at Glastonbury - however much it hurts I can't imagine doing it any other way - in any case, the so called 'comfort' options there, are about a 40 minute walk away anyway!

[504329lt]

Best way to get comfort is to get a camper and drive there.

[amfy]

It'd probably work out dearer and I'd use up a week's holiday just driving!

[504329lt]

Budapest is driveable in under 2 days from any of the Channel ports with a night in Prague on the way.  Alternatively make a tour / holiday of it.  We have spent a week touring around Romania previously before heading to Budapest. 

 

Campervan fields have hook up so you can run electric fridge, take a fan etc and remain comfortable yet not having to drag backwards and forwards to hotels / apartments. 

[amfy]

That's just not for me at this stage, although I can see how that would work for some people.

For me, I get 29 days annual leave, and spending 4 days of that (very close to a week of my leave days) driving to and from my holiday doesn't appeal to me at all. To be fair, neither of us like driving, and for the most part we like being somewhere more than travelling.

We are spending 10 days in Budapest, enjoying all that it has to offer including the festival. It is different to how I have done festivals before, but I am 51 years old and I have done the roughing it and mostly loved it. Now I want to fly in & stay somewhere with a bed and and a bath. I've always camped in a tent at Glastonbury, I've done driving all night, It's time for me to do something different & I believe that will help me to have the energy to enjoy my time at the festival more.

If anything, I would get a camping ticket, - and throw a little tent up for us to crash in if we really can't be bothered with the drag back at the end of the night!

[doobie ninja]

quick questions - are the prepitched caravans in the VIP camping? on the map for last year it showed a caravan symbol up towrds alternativa camping, but i think that was for people who brought their own. (and motorhomes)

 

cheers

[Chris Lfc]

Really considering trying Sziget after I've been to Glastonbury next year! I do have a few questions tho for the people who have been before.

 

1. With the city pass is the spa/pool a one off or can you go there whenever you like? and is the swimming pool in the campsite or in the city itself?
2. Since id be getting a plane there would it be better to buy my own supplies there such as a sleeping bag and mat etc? I know it takes up quite a lot of space in the bag
3. How would VIP camping compare to the normal camping?
4. How far is the airport from the island and how long does it take to get there?

Thanks!

[Noeliam]

1. With the city pass is the spa/pool a one off or can you go there whenever you like? and is the swimming pool in the campsite or in the city itself?
2. Since id be getting a plane there would it be better to buy my own supplies there such as a sleeping bag and mat etc? I know it takes up quite a lot of space in the bag
3. How would VIP camping compare to the normal camping?
4. How far is the airport from the island and how long does it take to get there?

 

1- This year I had a coupon so it was independant from the city pass. Both are outside the island; 

2- Everything camping related will be available at the Auchan, 10min away from the entrance by feet (tent, sleeping bags, ear plugs...) and it's pretty cheap;

3- Never tried it but I'd say swimming pool + more security + wifi + electricity...

4- I can't remember we arrived by bus and left from the city center!

[Chris Lfc]

1- This year I had a coupon so it was independant from the city pass. Both are outside the island; 

2- Everything camping related will be available at the Auchan, 10min away from the entrance by feet (tent, sleeping bags, ear plugs...) and it's pretty cheap;

3- Never tried it but I'd say swimming pool + more security + wifi + electricity...

4- I can't remember we arrived by bus and left from the city center!

 

Thanks for that

[Vishualization]

Hey Guys! This is my aftermovie from this year at Sziget 2015

Would be great to know what you guys think

[Zero_Newnab]

Cool video. I wonder when they'll be releasing the official one?

[J A C K]

Hi guys. I'll be posting in here quite a lot this year I'd imagine. Completely fallen in love with Sziget and cannot wait to go back. Went this year with 7 friends and as much as they enjoyed it don't want to go back again this year so I'm most probably going by myself this year so expecting a completely different experience but still looking forward too it massively.

[J A C K]

Really considering trying Sziget after I've been to Glastonbury next year! I do have a few questions tho for the people who have been before.

 

• With the city pass is the spa/pool a one off or can you go there whenever you like? and is the swimming pool in the campsite or in the city itself?
• Since id be getting a plane there would it be better to buy my own supplies there such as a sleeping bag and mat etc? I know it takes up quite a lot of space in the bag
• How would VIP camping compare to the normal camping?
• How far is the airport from the island and how long does it take to get there?

Thanks!

1 single use bud

2 it was so hot this year I never needed a sleeping bag but I did buy an air bed from within the site

3 I stayed in VIP camping and having never been before have nothing to compare it too but was very impressed with level of cleanliness and availability of toilets/showers. Pool was brilliant to cool off in. Wifi is obviously useful for finding out information about festival and contacting others worth the extra money I'd say.

4 think it was like a 45 minute bus ride

[Diocane]

Well we have our apartments and flights booked & are going for 10 days.

We have already decided that we'll see as much of the festival as the line up warrants, and if it there are days that don't offer us anything much - we'll just be on holiday in Hungary! We have a day or so on the end to ensure that we can still see a bit of Budapest if the festival does fully engage us for the week. I do expect the line up, and the overall festival itself, to offer us enough to see us there most days from what I see of previous years.

I guess my only concern watching the various videos is that it looks an incredibly young festival, so I hope we won't feel too out of place. I have always felt at ease at festivals though, so I think it'll be OK. I'm really looking forward to the international feel of it.

Definitely in the promotional videos they choose only young people to sell more, and it's true that great part of the Szituzens are young. BUT it's also true that I've always seen people of all ages and I've interacted with all of them. I'm a young Italian student and this year on the island I've become very friend with an English 40 years old father who was on the island with his wife and children. And this is just an example. And also one night I ended up having dinner and laughing with two funny Hungarian men (45-50 y.o.). I danced in the front row for major lazer and kings of Leon with a couple of Americans (wife and husband) and they looked like 50y.o. or more. Age is not a problem on the island. And about accommodation: yes it's true that if you want to stay outside the island you'll probably have to travel 30-50 min. But you have a lot of time in the morning to reach the site (everything sleeps on the island until 13:00/14:00). I mean, there's music anyway, but everybody is looking for some shade to sleep or chill

[amfy]

Thank you for your post Diocane. Very encouraging!

[Chris Lfc]

1 single use bud

2 it was so hot this year I never needed a sleeping bag but I did buy an air bed from within the site

3 I stayed in VIP camping and having never been before have nothing to compare it too but was very impressed with level of cleanliness and availability of toilets/showers. Pool was brilliant to cool off in. Wifi is obviously useful for finding out information about festival and contacting others worth the extra money I'd say.

4 think it was like a 45 minute bus ride

 

Thanks for that mate!

[AndrewSmith]

Thank you for your post Diocane. Very encouraging!

Just a little further info for you from my experience this year (my first year at Sziget). A group of 4 of us stayed in Deak Ferenc and bought the city pass for the whole week which got us everywhere we needed to go. Obviously there was always things to do at the festival with things to do almost 24/7 but not all of it is to everyone's taste. We skipped the festival on one of the days this year and instead explored the city and visited one of the clubs in the city (the name escapes me but there are a few). There is also a Party Cruise boat along the Danube that goes for about 2 hours. There was also what seemed like a pop-up bar area right by Deak Ferenc in the 'Erzsebet ter' area which became lively in the night and had quite a few decent restaurants/bars around. 

 

The metro in Deak Ferenc ran from around 7am until midnight and the normal overground trains ran a little longer. When we did stay at the festival until late, we either got a cab back which was never too expensive between 4 of us or we carried on exploring the festival until the early hours of the morning and grabbed the first train. Beer and wine at the festival was cheap this year, we often just bought an entire bottle of wine for less than £5 and topped that up when needed. Card top up points are everywhere but avoid the ones at the entrances as far too many people queue for those, if you walk in to the festival a little more there are other areas to top up. Avoid the bars/food straight after a headline act unless you're in the VIP or away from the mainstage.

There's loads more pointers but I'm sure everyone here will give you the info as we still have 10 months to go!

[Noeliam]

It would be nice to do an efestival meeting at Sziget!