Sziget 2014 Festival Timed To Avoid Overlaps

(MTI) – The Sziget 2014 festival will be held between August 11 and 18 in order to avoid overlaps with other international festivals, the chief organiser said on Monday.

By holding the event a week later than in recent years, Sziget 2014 will not overlap with festivals in Japan and America, and more international stars can be invited to play in Budapest, Karoly Gerendai said. Advance ticket sales have already proven the decision right, he added.

The Sziget 2014 line-up will include The Prodigy, Lily Allen, Bonobo, Skrillex, Die Fantastischen Vier, Brody Dalle, Bastille, Calvin Harris, Outkast, Manic Street Preachers, and The 1975.

Gerendai said that in addition to a good line-up, Sziget offers special services and circumstances that make the event unique.

“The festival has become Hungary’s number one tourism attraction, drawing twice as many people as for instance the Formula One race. We can utilise the fact that Budapest is getting increasingly popular among young adults,” he said.

He added that several new festival venues are planned, with increased emphasis on community areas and activities. Last year’s popular Sziget Beach will reopen and a new stage will be dedicated to street musicians playing the best songs of rock history, also to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the Woodstock Festival. The 25th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin wall will be remembered with a 100-metre wall to be decorated by street artists and all festival visitors.

A giant Rubik cube will be built to celebrate the 70th birth anniversary of its creator Erno Rubik and it will house an interactive exhibition about the cube’s global success.

The Sziget Eye giant Ferris wheel will be once again set up in central Budapest’s Erzsebet Square throughout the summer and a smaller version will operate at the festival site.

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