City Says Szin Too Noisy

Hungary’s Szin Festival came head-to-head with the local municipal authorities who complained the event was too noisy and ordered it to shut down at midnight on the final night.

Baris Barisan of Istanbul-based Charmenko, the agency that books the international acts, said it didn’t present a problem for the live bands as the main stages had already shut down. But the midnight shutdown did mean several latenight DJ slots had to be canceled.

It had already been a trying day for the organisers of the 7-year-old event – a revamp of the Youth Days of Szeged Festival that started in 1968 and ran for 20 years – as a heavy storm had already put something of a dampener on the day.

Barisan said Szin deserved a better ending as it’s become a smoothly run event that’s starting to attract higher calibre international acts. It also offers a range of other attractions including karaoke, children’s playgrounds and a huge swimming pool. It pulled 60,000 people across four days.

The acts helping Szin weather the storm in northern Hungary Aug. 26-29 included Gabriella Cilmi, Macy Gray, Guano Apes, Evil Nine, Russkaja, !DelaDap! and Black Sun Empire.