Security to be tightened at 2016 Sziget Festival

Budapest, April 19 (MTI) – Security measures will be tightened at this year’s Sziget Festival in the interest of the safety of visitors, the chief organiser said on Tuesday.

The identity of every ticket holder will be checked at the entry points which will be surveilled by cameras, Péter Gerendai told a press conference, adding that security services will be present at the venue with an increased staff.

Migration will be one of the main themes addressed at several programmes at this year’s festival which will be held between August 10 and 17, said Jozsef Kardos, a programme organiser.

Related programmes will include a performance by the Maxim Gorki Theatre from Berlin, a travelling exhibition of the National museum for the history of immigration from Paris, as well as several roundtable discussions and film screenings, he said.

Antonio Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005-2015, will also pay a visit, he added.

The line-up on the Main Stage this year includes Rihanna, the Muse, David Guetta, Manu Chao, Sigur Ros, Noel Gallagher, Jake Bugg, the Last Shadow Puppets and Kaiser Chiefs, said Gerendai.

The World Music stage will present Goran Bregovic with his band, Buika, Varttina, Leningrad, Rachid Taha and Les Hurlements d’Leo. The A38 Stage will offer acts by MO, Naughty Boy, the Movits!, Block Party and the Bullet for My Valentine, he said.

Programmes in the Theatre and Dance Tent will present performances by the Maas theatre from Rotterdam, the National Dance Company of Wales, as well as acts by choreographers Hioraki Umeda from Japan and Cortez-Fontan from Argentina.

The guest star at the Classical and Opera Stage will be Gabriel Prokofiev, the grandson of the famous Russian composer, who lives in London and performs as a classical music DJ, said Gerendai.

Last year, the Sziget Festival attracted visitors from 95 countries, most of them from The Netherlands, Britain, France, Germany and Italy, but the number of guests arriving from Turkey, Israel, Russia and Ukraine has also gone up, he said.

The Sziget Festival held on a Danube Island in Budapest last year attracted a record number of more than 430,000 people. It fetched the European Festival Award for Best Major Festival first in 2011 and 2014.

photo: Sándor Csudai – www.facebook.com/csudaisandor

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters