Sziget Festival marks 15th birthday with extra day

The Sziget Festival will celebrate its 15th birthday this summer with nearly 500 international bands and artists and an extra day added to its traditional week-long schedule, reports . Music lovers from around Central Europe will get their usual dose of international stars such as Killers, Chemical Brothers, Faithless, Pink, Sinéad O`Connor, Goldie, Madness and The Good, the Bad and the Queen, and the event will be kicked off by Hungary`s pop legend Lokomotive GT.

While the extra day will add roughly 15% to the duration of the event, ticket prices are rising by an average of 20%. If purchased before May 10, weekly `sleepover` passes cost Ft 30,000 (€120), while `day-only` tickets go for Ft 25,000 (€100). After that, the prices rise to Ft 37,500 (€150) and Ft 30,000 (€120), respectively.

This year will be the first for the festival without any financial backing from the public sector. Such subsidies amounted to Ft 100 million (€402,000) in recent years, said Károly Gerendás, Sziget`s chief organizer. The festival`s budget will be about Ft 2.5 billion (over €10 million), somewhat less than originally planned.

Last year the festival hosted some 250 foreign bands and artists from 44 countries, as well as 500 Hungarian performers, and drew 385,000 visitors.

All Hungary News
www.caboodle.hu - Thursday, March 29, 2007