There was a point in the run up to this year’s Sziget when I felt I am somehow less happy with the lineup compared to other years, maybe I still feel, just a little, that this is the case. Nevertheless, I did manage to summon five names that I’m really looking forward to seeing, and…
Category: festival
Pleasures of the Over-familiar: Goran Bregović Wedding and Funeral Band @ Arad Open Air Festival
When you are a regular concert goer of a certain age, you reach a point where some gigs attain an almost mythical status which manifests itself in your retelling them in the Homeric tradition to anyone who cares to listen, with details varying slightly from account to account to the degree that you yourself, and…
In Wine There is Truth, in A38 There is Music: Best Concerts of Sziget 2018 Part Two
#5 La Femme As a part of my Summer of the Ignoramus project (the season is interchangeable, the ignoramus remains) I arrived at the La Femme gig knowing principally that they were French. As in did not just have a French name because it was cool, in the way all high street store T-shirts have…
A Matter of Energy: Best Concerts of Sziget 2018 Part One
This is somewhat of a novelty list for me: for the first time ever, I have managed to keep it down to an actual ten acts, and not go for some esoteric number like 12 or 17. I haven’t landed one of my favourite bands at number one, a crime to which I plead guilty…
And on the Last Day Cometh the Monkeys and the Flood- Sziget 2018 Day Seven
It’s been a strange and somewhat unwelcome Sziget tradition, but the rain insists to come on the last day of the festival and insists to do so in the manner rain generally prefers in summer time, in the form of the mother of all storms. As with any form of extreme weather, even such a…
The Fangirl Awakens: Sziget 2018 Days Five and Six
Day five started early with the yearly pilgrimage to the VOLT stage, this time at 3 PM, which in szigetian translates into bloody morning, to catch Black Bartók– previously it’d be for Hangmás, of which Black Bartók is basically a second coming, with a slightly modified line-up. The scheduling obviously meant a scarce crowd idling…
An Islandful of Wonders: Sziget 2018 Days Three and Four
Day three is the day when most festivals end, on Sziget it’s the ‘it finally began in earnest’ day, also the day when I could spend a good session of moaning over my spritzer that maybe the line-up isn’t all that it’s hyped up to be, and I literally (few things feel more satisfying than…
Things I Am Yet to Learn and Never Will: Sziget 2018 Days One and Two
The security guard stared grimly at the girl in front of me and barked a mildly irritated how old are you, to which she sheepishly responded sixteen, which seemed to please him and he thus let her through. I prompted no question but he proceeded to attentively inspect my lens, which could have been used…
The Europe Stage Round Up: Part Two
We begin the second installment of the Europe Stage review, naturally, with Canada. While this might sound odd, perhaps it isn’t, after all, the already mentioned Eurovision has adopted Australia, and I’d always thought Canada would be a great match too- in all honesty, they did once kind of send Céline Dion, albeit she belted…
The Europe Stage Round Up- Part One
Last week, amidst pre-Easter frenzy and other springtime fun, Sziget quietly dropped a big bunch of Europe Stage names, and the information that five day tickets are sold out-those who do not want to miss out still have the seven and three day options available, and of course daily tickets, but prices will hike once…