Sziget Festival 2024

[sandorbeni]

I'm at the main stage right now and on the screen they are showing clips from the artists of today and one said fred again, skrillex, four tet main stage

 

Unfortunately I couldn't take a photo

[Tom Lobo]

On 8/8/2024 at 9:08 PM, Sziget2024_Leaks said:

AMA

Which main changes do we have to expect for 2025?

[kristofm]

Can't believe it's over

[bunnyv]

I honestly had a great time. 

[Deckard]

3 hours ago, bunnyv said:

I honestly had a great time. 

Yeah me too. Especially the last two days! Let's see what changes they propose for next year...

[iamdebrii]

Was a lovely one. Closing it off with a surprise Four Tet b2b Skrillex last night was a blast.

[billybigballs]

Really enjoyed this year. Still think the line-up was lacking in some areas but enjoyed pretty much everyone we saw, with the exception of Azahria and Skrillex - but they're just not my type of music. Brought a Sziget virgin with us who thought the whole experience was amazing.

 

Thought Fred was great, and Halsey was better than I expected. Turnout for Sam Smith was bigger than I anticipated. Favourite act was Editors who I thought were immense. As were Yard Act, despite the poor turnout. I expected Fontaines to deliver a future headliner performance but they're still not quite there. 

 

Raye was lovely, if slightly indulgent. Royel Otis were great, helped by meeting them at the airport where Otis kindly signed my son's t-shirt!

 

Due to personal circumstances, the next time we can attend is likely to be 2027 but I'll keep an eye on this board and the line-up.

 

Gutted to have missed Barry Can't Swim and Dead Poet Society. Did anyone catch them? 

Edited August 13 by billybigballs

[Mondo-kun]

Dates for the next year are 6-11 August, so six days again. 
Let's see if it completely becomes electronic festival.

[bunnyv]

Sometimes the crowds were awful though.Dutchies kept talking incredibly loudily around us 

[dude111]

it was a great year (as always). the magic mirror and fun fair were my favourites with amazing acts and that crazy hair-make up artiats.

 

the line up needs more good names as heads, but it was nice to have known names in the mid day and not only at night.

 

my biggest problam this year (and any year) is the djs on the cola/lipton etc. the songs are always old (abba is everywhere!) and they all starts with pop hits and at 2am there is not a single one that still play that kind of music and its all techno.

 

[bunnyv]

19 minutes ago, dude111 said:

it was a great year (as always). the magic mirror and fun fair were my favourites with amazing acts and that crazy hair-make up artiats.

 

the line up needs more good names as heads, but it was nice to have known names in the mid day and not only at night.

 

my biggest problam this year (and any year) is the djs on the cola/lipton etc. the songs are always old (abba is everywhere!) and they all starts with pop hits and at 2am there is not a single one that still play that kind of music and its all techno.

 

And there’s clearly a demand for more pop and mainstream stuff. Everybody was asking in every WhatsApp gc if someone knows which places play that kind of music

[mathuska]

Anyone found the secret ToiToi party?

[poelim]

I was positively surprised this year. The lineup worked out pretty well escpecially the last 3 days. The first 3 days it were just not good and you could see that all around the island. It was empty.

 

Other than the lineup, i still find the festival has downgraded. Way less variety in food options (and much of the food is BAD), less activities, a lot of empty spaces (is it just me or does this get more every year?), ugly fences EVERYWHERE (island of freedom, island of fences), the beach was just an ali express version of what it once was. Not to mention sanitary facilities at campings, did they even get cleaned? It was bad.

There was soooo much edm/techno etc going on at night we found it pretty hard to enjoy ourselves since we get bored at that stuff after 1 night.
Not to mention the audience has changed. I have never seen so many ambulances at night. Walking around colosseum/bolt arena everybody is just completely off their nuts and suddenly forgets how to behave properly. Seeing people getting harassed all the time or fighting, people having seizures or passing out. Way more than previous years. But i guess that’s what they want since they put so many dj’s etc on this years lineup. But this stuff just takes the sziget vibes away imo.

 

I enjoyed myself as always and i’ll miss it again once i’m home. But for the first time i do think this is my last time here. The vibes are off, the festival is changing, maybe it’s time for the younger generation to take over and hopefully they’ll respect the sziget atmosphere and keep it that way.

[activean]

We are over to the moon and back that nearly 400.000 Szitizens, 700+ amazing artists visited our island.

 

Down from 420k last year and 450k in 2021.

[SweetJesus]

1 hour ago, poelim said:

I was positively surprised this year. The lineup worked out pretty well escpecially the last 3 days. The first 3 days it were just not good and you could see that all around the island. It was empty.

 

Other than the lineup, i still find the festival has downgraded. Way less variety in food options (and much of the food is BAD), less activities, a lot of empty spaces (is it just me or does this get more every year?), ugly fences EVERYWHERE (island of freedom, island of fences), the beach was just an ali express version of what it once was. Not to mention sanitary facilities at campings, did they even get cleaned? It was bad.

There was soooo much edm/techno etc going on at night we found it pretty hard to enjoy ourselves since we get bored at that stuff after 1 night.
Not to mention the audience has changed. I have never seen so many ambulances at night. Walking around colosseum/bolt arena everybody is just completely off their nuts and suddenly forgets how to behave properly. Seeing people getting harassed all the time or fighting, people having seizures or passing out. Way more than previous years. But i guess that’s what they want since they put so many dj’s etc on this years lineup. But this stuff just takes the sziget vibes away imo.

 

I enjoyed myself as always and i’ll miss it again once i’m home. But for the first time i do think this is my last time here. The vibes are off, the festival is changing, maybe it’s time for the younger generation to take over and hopefully they’ll respect the sziget atmosphere and keep it that way.

You mentioned so many negative sides of the festival and you was positively surprised? 🤔

[poelim]

1 minute ago, SweetJesus said:

You mentioned so many negative sides of the festival and you was positively surprised? 🤔

I meant line-up wise i was positively suprised 😋 Really wasn’t looking forward to it like other years but saw some great acts

[eyebrain]

 

My 9th Sziget in a row. Where to start..

If someone complains about Glastonbury line up, everybody jumps on a bandwagon and claims “Glastonbury is so much more than line up”. I really think Sziget is the same. I guess it comes down to personal preference - are you going for music or festival- are you willing to pay money to watch music specifically for your taste and completely let music decide if you’ve had good time, or are you willing to pay that money to have a great guaranteed overall experience, with somewhat okay line-up. Sziget is always going to have at least something good to watch for every kind of taste. But yes, for us bigger music nerds here in this forum it always seems to lack some names. 

 

We had a blast, absolutely best time ever. No matter how hard of a marathon 6 day festival is, we did not want this to end. Yes, we are insane bunch of friends who talk to every stranger possible, start a mexican wave at the circus tent, facetime with strangers parents and eventually when leaving last morning having our campsite staff asking for a selfie cause apparently we were the coolest visitors ever. But not every festival has an atmosphere that allows us to have that much fun. Sziget is something different man… 

 

Music favorites were Aurora, Stormzy, Janelle Monaé, Raye, Fred Again, Fontaines D.C. 

Magic Mirror is still the best venue at the festival. Did not see very good stand-up comedy this year, but Danny Beard, Queens Brunch Vienna and Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett were brilliant drag shows. And music bingo they did was great atmosphere as well.

Circus Abyssinia was one of the best circuses i’ve seen for years at Sziget. These Ethiopians were more talented than some of Cirque Du Soleil shows i’ve seen.

All Star dance battle at DropYard did not disappoint for 3rd year in a row, better than olympics one lol. 

Giant Street Theatre did disappoint a bit - it has usually been a huge visual spectacle, but this time around it was way too artsy for my taste. 

Overall we always had something fun to do every single day, early on. 

 

Changing location of artgarden next to theatre fields made much more sense. It just took so much useless space next to Colosseum and Party Arena. 

I agree, beach was such a let down compared to what it used to be.

New barrier and FOH system at main stage was much better. Better visibility and overall made so much more sense. But I’m not sure about the one in Revolut Stage. As long as the tent wasn’t packed, it was good. But once it was full, way big chunk of the venue couldn’t actually see. 

Extra water refilling stations were great, but there was none in dedicated campsites (we stayed in Comfort Ville). 

Toilets are the best. Constant cleaning, paper supply etc. Haven’t seen any other festival do it so well. In our campsite, 100% of toilet visits they were totally clean. Big main stage ones during rush hours, they were... good enough! 

 

Food is a complicated one. I felt like variety was great, but at the same time it wasn’t. You go through a food court that has pretty nice variety of stuff, but when you go to another food court, they have these same vendors not something new. So there’s not much “shopping for food” to do. But within years i know good vendors and usually manage to pick good food. Aldi free grilling is amazing as well, especially if you got skills to mix it with other stuff you can buy from there. Overall food prices were not higher, in fact at times it felt they were cheaper than last time. 

 

Oh... I was one of those who did go to meet the team thing early morning whatever day it was. Free breakfast - yay! This is something every festival should do. They had A LOT of people who are working full time for the festival, everybody had a shirt which said their position. You could walk around and have a chat, ask whatever and actually get genuine answers why are some things like they are. I am not going to bother to write it all, but just a few things mentioned in this thread. Knowing what Sziget CEO looks like, I straight went to their table, we ended up talking for about 20 minutes. Moving away from band type of acts definitely was not coming through from his general thoughts overall - I think people disappointed with recent line ups have just taken it out of context. Variety seemed very important to them and honestly it didn’t seem like there was coming a huge change to the festival. To me it seemed just a marketing comment.. more like a new visual identity, deffo some changes to stages but nothing as big as everyone seems to be afraid of. But to be clear he said he can not comment on it yet. What happened with Martin Garrix power outage?  I made a pinky promise not to tell anyone as there’s obviously an agreement between festival and artist, but I can assure you the festival had no fault on it. And don't worry, I straight up said critical things I don't like as well. 

[CCester]

34 minutes ago, activean said:

We are over to the moon and back that nearly 400.000 Szitizens, 700+ amazing artists visited our island.

 

Down from 420k last year and 450k in 2021.

That must be underwhelming for them. But still, the CEO said they want to continue and try to attract the younger generations with acts they like. I wonder what those changes he mentioned before will be.

 

On the other hand the festival was great as ever. The lineup was maybe a bit bad, but as we have 2 kids now, it was easier to manage not to miss anything we really wanted to see. I've already felt the blues on the way home on Tuesday morning. Looking forward for the next edition and crossing my fingers for a better lineup.

[Matt86]

I really enjoyed the LightStage this year (The Meffs, Gallus, .. many great rock/punk bands ), very nice surprise !

 

I knew it before, but its confirmed : I regret the "too many electro acts" , sometimes I really didn't know where to go because only this kind of music.

 

The beach : it's a joke lol... through the years, they abandonned it, let's be honest.

 

No more bus every 20-30 minutes the last day to go to the airport, you must take a taxi now.. shame 😕 

 

weather/dust situation : again, well done for handling it effectively 🙂 I suppose they can't do anything for the lack of beautiful green grass...

 

 

 

[kristofm]

4 hours ago, poelim said:

Way less variety in food options (and much of the food is BAD), 

Next year I'll just write a guide and put it everywhere online, it's just difficult to know in advance which vendors will be around. Crunchy and Simon's were great and I paid 12 euros, not cheap but not terrible for good burgers + sauce + fries.

Going to Aldi and get 3 pastries for 2 euros was also a pretty good deal. Anyway. My only bad food experience was when I bought the meat at Aldi, that they cook you on the spot. Took an hour, rubbish meat, had to leave half of it there, spent something like 7 euros.

I know there are tons of sh*tty places at Sziget but as a local it's easy for me cause I can eat at places, chain restaurants where I would eat normally when I'm grabbing a takeaway (the ones above + Smokey Monkies), but foreigners don't know which places exist outside Sziget that are trustworthy, and which ones are just here to rip you off and don't even have proper restaurants anywhere. I don't know how Sziget could regulate that, but the quality is so different everywhere. 

And I miss pizza. You have this awful looking crap, 6 euros for a slice. Wouldn't touch it with a stick. There's a great Neapolitan pizza revolution in Budapest and none of those places go to Sziget. I don't know why. 

 

Edited August 14 by kristofm

[CCester]

17 minutes ago, kristofm said:

don't even have proper restaurants anywhere.

There was this thai noodles place a few years ago (Thai Box maybe?) and offered one of the best foods at that time. Nice padthai for a reasonable price. They didn’t have a restaurant, only operated at festivals, but I think they were f**ked by covid. Anyhow, my point is there could be gems that only exists at festivals.

 

And one more thing. Start your guide with big red letters saying don’t ever ever EVER eat at those places where they store the food in big pots all day. NEVER. I still don’t understand how those places can still exist.

Edited August 14 by CCester

[kristofm]

2 hours ago, Matt86 said:

I really enjoyed the LightStage this year (The Meffs, Gallus, .. many great rock/punk bands ), very nice surprise !

 

 

 

 

Have you seen Cherym?

[bunnyv]

1 hour ago, kristofm said:

Next year I'll just write a guide and put it everywhere online, it's just difficult to know in advance which vendors will be around. Crunchy and Simon's were great and I paid 12 euros, not cheap but not terrible for good burgers + sauce + fries.

Going to Aldi and get 3 pastries for 2 euros was also a pretty good deal. Anyway. My only bad food experience was when I bought the meat at Aldi, that they cook you on the spot. Took an hour, rubbish meat, had to leave half of it there, spent something like 7 euros.

I know there are tons of sh*tty places at Sziget but as a local it's easy for me cause I can eat at places, chain restaurants where I would eat normally when I'm grabbing a takeaway (the ones above + Smokey Monkies), but foreigners don't know which places exist outside Sziget that are trustworthy, and which ones are just here to rip you off and don't even have proper restaurants anywhere. I don't know how Sziget could regulate that, but the quality is so different everywhere. 

And I miss pizza. You have this awful looking crap, 6 euros for a slice. Wouldn't touch it with a stick. There's a great Neapolitan pizza revolution in Budapest and none of those places go to Sziget. I don't know why. 

 

I totally agree! There are a bunch of good places they just don’t know where to go. 
i would add Grilled Piggy to the list and Meraki is quite alright with their gyros aswell. 
In 2019 Digo was at Sziget,one of the best pizzas in Bp if you ask me. Later they were only in the vip area🥲 same for 101 bistro

[kristofm]

3 hours ago, bunnyv said:

I totally agree! There are a bunch of good places they just don’t know where to go. 
i would add Grilled Piggy to the list and Meraki is quite alright with their gyros aswell. 
In 2019 Digo was at Sziget,one of the best pizzas in Bp if you ask me. Later they were only in the vip area🥲 same for 101 bistro

Exactly. Yeah gyros is one of those things where you need to be sure where you're buying it from. A random Sziget gyros/kebab messed me up 2 years ago badly, that's when I made the rule that I'll only eat at Sziget where I've eaten before outside Sziget. (And the other rule that if it looks raw or sort of flexible don't eat it, no matter how expensive it was.)

And yeah, I really like Digo as well. And nowadays these kind of places suddenly spawn out of nowhere and now there's so many great places! I was out in Szabadság tér watching the Euros quite frequently in June and even there was a random place making neapolitan pizza for something like 5000 huf, and of course that's a lot but I remember thinking if we had this at festivals I'd definitely go for it even for that price.

Edited August 14 by kristofm

[Akujin]

On 8/13/2024 at 5:57 PM, bunnyv said:

And there’s clearly a demand for more pop and mainstream stuff. Everybody was asking in every WhatsApp gc if someone knows which places play that kind of music

Not supported by ticket sales tho (at least in terms of pop). I mean they had Sam Smith, Halsley, Kylie, Janelle, Bebe Rexha, Raye, and ticket sales were very poor.

 

The busiest day was sith Fred Again and Skrillex  who I defo would not cast as pop. Last year the busiest day was with Imagine Dragons. 
 

Yeah I mean obviously mainstream but not exactly pop. 
 

If they had Limp Bizkit, Imagine Dragons, Twentyone Pilots, Kendrick, Paramore, The Prodigy as headliners, it would sell out faster than almost any pop headliner lineup you could imagine maybe discounting Taylor and Adele.