On the small island of Óbuda, which rises in the middle of the Danube, half a million celebrants gather each year to make it during the Sziget festival, the “Island of Freedom”.
This year and for the first time ever, Mze will take part in the event which will be held in the heart of Budapest from 10 to 15 August, and will take you on a journey to discover Europe’s biggest open air festival.
The Sziget festival is extraordinary first of all because of its size; It occupies an entire island north of Budapest and covers approximately forty square kilometers. Since its creation in 1993, the event has grown, and now has sixty stages with a variety of music styles.
It is also the meeting of the people coming to the festival that makes it an extraordinary event; Sziget attracts the attention of the whole world, and hundreds of nationalities are present on the site, both at the public and artist level.
This cultural intersection is fully integrated and exploited by organizing the festival. In addition to concerts, the five days spent on the island are also an opportunity to discover the museum district, circus or theater established on site; Art also comes out of its usual confines and invites itself in the form of performances and animations among the visitors. Sziget is an immersive experience that the viewer navigates through; Mounted on stilts, with colorful characters in their different roles, from concert spectators to walkers in the center of the exhibition, who walk through the crowd with animal automatons several meters high. There is also an amusement park, complete with magicians and a small Ferris wheel.
Don’t assume, however, that this is an airy center; Europe’s biggest festival is above all a meeting place for partying, whether it’s singing loud in front of a stage or getting covered in glitter that’ll have you in your shoes six months later. The atmosphere of the festival is engaging, colorful and promises encounters and discoveries.
A true adventure that promises to be unforgettable, whoever walks through the doors of Sziget comes away full of color and memories. We do not emerge untouched by the experience!
a programming Generous
Artists from all over the world come together at the Sziget Festival, an important meeting place for touring world-renowned artists. You can find all music genres there from pop to country, rap and electro until the early hours.
This year, we will find headliners like Billie Eilish, Imagine Dragons, David Guetta or Lorde; For lovers of more alternative styles, we announce the English Yungblood, and for those who want more independent sounds, Girl in Red or Florence + The Machine are also on the agenda. And for all those who are not convinced by the big names in music, Sziget is an opportunity to discover emerging artists; The festival brings together over a hundred artists, and the tiny stage will provide all the surprises you could expect from a line you’ll never have the courage to read to the end.
We’ll also find the winner of the French selection Sziget 2023, Yum, on the “Europe Stage” for a charismatic show. Visit “Ethnosound” workshops, which offer you the possibility to discover music from cultures that are still unknown to you, instead of an artist or group, and also the possibility to participate by following the musicians’ example.
In parallel with the musical stages, festival-goers can attend dance classes, creative workshops, meditation groups, conferences, comedy shows, screenings of films made around the world… More than just a music festival, the Sziget festival offers five days a year, a week dedicated to the discovery of oneself, others and the world. Artists and festival-goers are provided with all possible means of expression, in order to create a bubbling of art in this enclave in the midst of daily life in the heart of Budapest.
Eva Duck and Lily Morel-Almonte