With no Glastonbury in 2018, we were in need of an alternative, so we settled on Sziget. Eastern Europe is still pretty unknown to me, so I was keen to see more. Big thanks to Dave (Man vs Globe) for providing so many recommendations for this trip.
The City
We were staying in the NH Budapest City hotel, close to Margrit Bridge on the Pest side. It had all the transport links we needed to get around, and had a few breakfast options near by. Kino Cafe had some filling omelettes, but their catchphrase was “thank you for your patience” - taking your order and getting your food could take the best part of an hour. Thankfully Bubo was much quicker so we ended up there most mornings.
The thermal baths were definitely something I wanted to explore. Thanks to my other half’s reluctance to get out of bed before midday, the popular Széchenyi baths felt like they were out of the picture. A bit of searching and we found the Király baths in Buda - literal searching, you walk past it a few times before realising it’s not a cafe. It’s smaller, more local and most importantly does not allow children - a big plus for me. We skipped the sauna and went straight in the main pool - a Turkish influenced design that felt like sitting in a giant terracotta kettle. There was an extra heated section to the side and an ice bath at the back if you were insane. I left feeling so relaxed, like part of my very essence had been been drained away. In a good way.
We had one evening walking around the ruin bar district in the Jewish Quarter, having a meal at Koleves. There were excellent vegetarian options and good beer, but the service was a little lacking - two requests for tap water were completely forgotten. It wasn’t exactly busy so I’m not sure what happened there. In need of a bar, we settled at Ellato Kert just down the road - a mashup of all the ramshackle late night areas of Glasto. Halves of local beer worked out at around 85p. A film crew was there and we couldn’t work out if we were sat in the background of soap opera or a porno.
During the week a couple of meals were had at Street Food Karavan. Firstly I sampled one of the Langos. It was a filling experience that I probably wanted to enjoy more than I did. Still, it’s worth trying. Then on our last afternoon we went to Las Vegans, I had a deep fried “cheese” creation and my companion had a mushroom burger. Both were excellent. The tables fill up quickly so I recommend getting there early if you want to sit down, and be prepared to overhear Stag Lads brag about last night’s conquests.
With our mornings free before the festival, we had time to see most of the main sights, such as getting a bus up to the views at Fisherman’s Bastion, skipping the busy funicular. On one of our first walks we stumbled across Miniversum, a miniature railway world. You get to control some of the vehicles and background actions, it was fun for us big kids. The museum at the hospital in the rock is definitely worth a visit, especially if you want to escape the sun. We also had walks around the Parliament and Margrit island, all recommended. Walking over Margrit bridge at night, you get a strange scene above the lit up parliament building: glowing shapes circling overhead. At first I thought these were drones. It turns out they’re birds & bats mopping up the insects attracted to the lights. Quite a sight.
We saw a lot, but I got the feeling there’s so much more to see. I think we’ll definitely be back in the future.
The Festival
I’d heard a few descriptions calling Sziget the Glasto of the East, and the comparison definitely holds. The weather was insane, rarely dipping below 35 degrees with very little cloud, and rain holding off until the very last day. Camping must have been torture in that heat, I was so grateful for our hotel room aircon.
The island setting felt both expansive and self contained. It had all the things you’d expect - circus tent, gay cabaret, dance fortress - with things I’ve never seen at a festival before, such as a beach and a Sky Bar. There were a few bottlenecks around the main stage that felt like they could have been solved with an improved layout, but that aside it was always fun to stumble around this festival. Maybe it was a lack of English people (it’s fair to say I have little love for my country right now) but it was one of the most friendly festival audiences I’ve ever seen.
The music doesn’t start until around 3 or 4pm, encouraging you to stay out of the sun. That did mean that most acts got longer sets then they usually would. Accidentally seeing The Kooks aside, I don’t think I saw a bad act. Bonobo was the one I knew the least about that I enjoyed the most - their set built and built to an explosive end. Unknown Mortal Orchestra also went from Spotify Discover Weekly to new favourites.
There were some easy wins too - I was always going to enjoy MØ, Lykke Li and Dua Lipa, and thoroughly did. Kendrick Lamar could have stolen the show, but like a lot of people I left after 30 mins of waiting for him to show up. It sounds like he went on not long after I bailed, but the moment had passed. Props to Gorillaz from learning from Glasto 2010’s revolving door of guests and having a more coherent stage presence. Wolf Alice put Don’t Delete The Kisses in my head for the rest of the week. Lana Del Rey thankfully played the only two songs I wanted to hear early in her set so we could escape the monotone parade that followed.
Every evening on the main stage there was a different type of party, each highlighting one of the core themes - environment, human rights, anti racism etc. It was a fine sentiment, but there was something ironic about talking about saving the environment by throwing out hundreds of plastic globes that definitely didn’t all end up in the bin or the river.
A few nights were spent in gay mecca Magic Mirror. There was an amazing cabaret that contained show tunes, pole work, acrobatics and opera, ending in a rave. You can always judge a club by the quality of its GoGo Boys. I thoroughly approved.
Something a little different was the Sky Bar - after buying a ticket and waiting for your turn, you get strapped into a bar seat and the whole bar is lifted by a crane 140 metres into the air. We went at night and, bug apocalypse aside, the view was amazing. I’m usually terrible with heights, but I was dangling my feet off the end with glee. The rum helped.
This was billed as a Love Revolution and I definitely fell for Sziget, big time.
Conclusions & Advice
The festival might be cashless but a lot of bars and attractions around the city are still cash only, so keep some currency on you.
Get a travel pass. Our Sziget tickets got us a discount on a City Pass wristband for the week, getting us on every bus, tram and metro for free.
Don’t forget your passport when you go into the festival for the first time. You won’t get your wristband without it.
Don’t use the Festipay wristband if you have a contactless Mastercard that you can use. Adding money to the wristband charged an admin fee each time, and each new top up had to be activated when you went to buy something. This wasn’t fully communicated to a lot of the staff I encountered, so it wasn’t always a smooth transaction.
Go on the treasure hunt to collect all the festival stamps in your Sziget passport. It helps knit the site together, and you get a prize!
Get the boat to the festival at least once. It’s a little slower than the train, but there’s a shorter queue to get in. There’s also a bar which always helps.
Get a taxi back to the airport. Our airport bus was one of the most uncomfortable and badly run journeys I’ve ever had. The driver ended up physically shoving people on board an already overcrowded vehicle, and several of us fell out when the doors opened at the end. Not the best way to say goodbye to a city.
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