No more Sziget Fesztivál in Budapest? Commissioner speaks darkly, and he owns the territory

Szilárd Demeter, Ministerial Commissioner and Director of the Petőfi Literary Museum, said they could end the Sziget Fesztivál in a recently published interview with Spirit FM.

According to 24.hu, the Petőfi Cultural Agency owns many parts of the Hajógyári-sziget, the venue of the grande event. Therefore, they could easily ban such a festival to be held on their territory. Mr Demeter said that his agency owns the entire Southern segment of the Hajógyári-sziget. He added that the American owners bought up the shares of Tamás Kádár. Therefore, there is no Hungarian property in the event. As a result, it is not in the interest of his cultural agency to allow such an event to be organised again. However, he added they could not think like that because the cultural profit is much bigger than what he would like to do on the 8 hectares his agency has on the Danube island.

He added he sat down with the event organisers and agreed they would sign a contract each year to allow residents to reclaim the island. An estimated 450,000 attended last year’s Sziget Festival. The event drew a sell-out crowd on its opening day and near-capacity crowds on two other days, the festival’s main organiser said in 2022.

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