Sziget Does It For The Record

A mega Sziget was always on the cards once the day tickets for the opening were all snapped up, meaning the island in the Danube had reached its 85,000-capacity. If only for that day, Sziget was not far short of challenging Belgium’s Rock Werchter as mainland Europe’s biggest festival.

The festival had a gross visitor count of 415,000, following on from the record-breaking crowd figures that Sziget Cultural Management’s earlier festivals had achieved at Balaton Sound (145,000) and Volt (120,000).

Sziget, which started as a low-profile student event in 1993, welcomed fans from 87 countries (and artists from 41 countries), backing up its claims to be a truly international event.

It’s previously sold out an individual day, but not since the capacity was increased to 85,000. The total 415,000 visitors beats the previous record of 390,000, which had stood since 2009. More than 660,000 ticket-buyers should also perk Sziget Cultural Management, which three years ago borrowed money to buy back the three festivals it had sold to media giant Econet in 2008.

It’s barely two years since the firm was shedding staff, apparently re-engaging some of them on what appears to be more of a consultancy basis.

Another ever-increasing cost for Sziget has been its desire to continually upgrade the site, constantly improving event services, like toilets, showers, and catering.

“Booking a strong international lineup has been quite a challenge in the last few years, but we also aimed to make Sziget an extraordinary visual experience and to further improve our services,” said Sziget chief Karoly Gerendai. “This year’s Sziget was definitely more appealing than ever before and we got great feedback both from the fans and the professionals.”

The acts helping to perk Sziget Aug. 11-18 included Queens of the Stone Age, The Prodigy, Placebo, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Outkast, and Skrillex.