Reasons to visit smaller festivals instead of Sziget

Although SZIGET has a strong lineup this year and they are hoping to break the 2016 record of half a million visitors, there will be several other festivals in Hungary this August. In some aspects, these smaller, thematic festivals in the country will be even better, according to portfolio.hu.

August starts with a Jazz picnic, where the two main features will be music and wines, since the organizer is the Homeland Winery. The Paloznaki Jazzpiknik starts on the 2^nd of August, it lasts for 3 days, and they have already sold 30% more tickets than last year. They are estimating the number of visitors to 15000, most of them are coming on Saturday. 

Organizers say that Hungarians are getting more interested in thematic festivals and in the long run they could have regulars. Visitors from outside the country only make up about 5% of the crowd. 

Another festival at the beginning of the month (July 31 – August 4) is the Ördögkatlan Összművészeti Fesztivál in south Baranya.  Annamária Petz said that there are more and more people interested in their festival every year. The five day long festival will have concerts, theatrical performances and art exhibits, with the biggest crowd expected on Saturday. 

At the end of August we will have 3 festivals at the same time, in different locations: the Szegedi Ifjúsági Napok (august 22-26, Szeged), Strand Fesztivál (August 22-25, Zamárdi) and the B.my.Lake (august 22-25, Keszthely). The festival in Szeged is celebrating their 50^th anniversary this year and they are expecting to see about 150,000 visitors. 

It looks like people enjoy alternative options for the summer festivals: ticket sales have doubled compared to last year, says Erika Kolonics, director of the Szeged festival. The most popular concerts will be on Friday and Saturday: the Pet Shop Boys and Sean Paul.

The two festivals on Lake Balaton, the Strand and B.my.Lake are also estimating tens of thousands of people. Last year’s record was 125,000 on the two festivals. Strand Fesztivál will have a Punnany Massif concert on the first day, while B.my.Lake will have mostly electronic music. 

All of these festivals are reporting an increased number of ticket sales and they are expecting a record number of visitors. But for them a record number is a couple thousand, while for the VOLT or SZIGET festivals it is hundreds of thousands. So what do they have that the big festivals do not?

At least half of their income comes from ticket sales, the rest from sponsors and vendors. Every year they are doing their best to organize a fun festival that is also affordable to locals. These smaller festivals usually do not have many foreign visitors, and the prices are more along the lines of what you could expect in Hungary. Their budget is considerably smaller than that of the SZIGET festival for example, but the ticket prices plus food and drink are also much cheaper. 

Here is a list of festivals and their ticket prices:

– Ördögkatlan – 1-day ticket: 4200 Ft online (13 Euros), 4900 Ft (15 euros) at the festival, 7-day ticket: 10-14,000 Ft online (31-43 euros), 16,000 Ft (50) at the festival

– Paloznaki Jazzpiknik: 1-day ticket: 9,200 Ft (28 euros), Day 0 is 12,500 Ft (39 euros), 3-day ticket 21,900 Ft (68 euros).

– Sziget festival: 1-day ticket: 23,900 Ft (74 euros), 3-day ticket: 59,900 (186 euros), 7-day ticket: 99,000 Ft (307 euros)

– Szegedi Ifjúsági Napok (SZIN): 1 day ticket: 6,950 Ft (21 euros), 4-day ticket: 19,950 Ft (62 euros)

– B.my.Lake: 1-day ticket: 15,990 Ft (50 euros), Day 0: 10,990 Ft (34 euros), 4-day ticket: 31,990 Ft (99 euros)

– Strand Fesztivál: 1 day ticket: 9,900 Ft (30 euros), Day 0: 6000 Ft (18 euros), 7-day ticket: 27,500 Ft (85 euros).

Featured image: Facebook.com/Szegedi Ifjúsági Napok – SZIN

Source: Portfolio.hu