"Sziget festival was first set off in 1993 introducing 200 concerts, 80 films and 40 theatre performances; the budget totaled 26 million forints (cca. 100 000 euros) and the event attracted 43 thousand visitors. In 2007, the 15th jubilee festival welcomes 250 foreign performers representing 56 countries, as well as 500 domestic performers.Altogether, this year’s event offers almost 1500 cultural programs. Thanks to the anniversary, the ’week together’ lasts 8 days this year. Headliner on Main Stage for the zero-day is Locomotiv GT, one of the most important bands in Hungarian rock history. The four millionth visitor of the festival is expected to set feet on the island this year as well.
Short Sziget history
’It all began in a jolty minivan. It was spring; not yet green, but full of anticipation. Halfway between the capital and a country location, returning home from an ancient concert of Sziámi, poet-musician Peter Muller Sziami, and concert-organizer Karoly Gerendai were fantasizing at great length.’ The point of their conversation was the idea of a vast festival, which would combine the summer holiday feeling, with concerts and other sorts of entertainment.
Hardly had the idea taken shape when it came up again on a meeting with the municipal council concerning another event. The idea proved sympathetic to the leaders of the council and they offered their help provided that Müller and Gerendai try to make arrangements for the event. In the summer of 1993, Sziget Ltd. was founded promptly with all the founders making significant contribution; Muller offered his connections in the show business, Gerendai brought organisational skills as well as money he received from his parents to buy his first flat, and Balazs Szekfu, who later quitted the company, provided for the office.
In spite of all the initial problems, the first festival organised by enthousiastic amateurs proved highly successful. The first event was patronaged by Arpad Goncz, president of the Republic of Hungary at the time. The event, which had struggled hard for its existance in the beginnings due to economical and organisational difficulties, has stepped on the path of considerable progress since 1995; ever since, more and more venues and international stars have been invited.
The mature concept that characterises the program-structure of today has become fully-fledged by the beginnings of the new millenium; since 2001-2002, the program includes a large variety of cultural genres. The rise of Sziget’s popularity can easily be tracked; from 2001 on, there has been several days when the ’House Full’-sign was called on duty (a maximum of 65 000 people are allowed to enter the festival area due to infrastructural limitations) and in 2005, weekly tickets had been sold out before the festival started. Alongside programs, the quality of services has improved continually; today, Sziget is an acknowledged and well-known multicultural event throughout Europe and further.
Jubilee Sziget, 8-15 August 2007
The 2007, jubilee Sziget promises the strongest international lineup ever. Main Stage, for instance, features a very colourful and up-to-date program with the likes of Manu Chao, The Chemical Brothers, Madness, Nine Inch Nails, Sinéad O’Connor, Faithless, Tool, Chris Cornell, The Killers and Pink, among others. As in previous years, the world music venue of Sziget tries to gather the most exciting performers of the genre; to be seen on stage are Salif Keita, Cesaria Evora, SKAtalites, Rachid Taha, Manu Dibango, Eddie Palmieri, Mari Boine and many more.
The lineup of WAN2 stage is also worthy of the jubilee; Unkle, IAMX, Cassius, Sud Sound System, Hyper, GusGus, Nosfell and others will perform there. Fans of electronic genres will not be disappointed either, since Party Arena brings some world-class DJs this year, such as Dave Clarke, Goldie, Satoshi Tomiie, DJ Hell, Cedric Gervais, Annie Nightingale, Plum DJs and Motor. The theatre and dance venue constitutes an island within the island.
On four venues, daily 6 performances, altogether 42 international and Hungarian productions will be presented throughout the week; beside an abundance of top-quality theatre-, dance-, opera- and performance professionals, young, upcoming artists will have their chance to prove their talent too. Moreover, Sziget presents a jazz venue with top-class productions from around the globe, the Roma Tent, which features new talents as well as acknowledged artists and many more programs which make Sziget a class of its own; metal-, blues- and classical music venues, cabaret, movies, fine arts, handicrafts, literature exhibitions, children-, sport- and leisure activities and much much more.
The spell of numbers
The 4 millionth visitor
In 1993, 43 000 visitors attended the debut of Sziget. One year later, already 100 000 more were attracted by the event of the Shipyard Island. In 1999, the number of visitors nearly reached 300 000. This year, more than 400 000 visitors are expected to join the 8-day-long monster event and organisers expect to welcome visitor no. 4 000 000, counting from the very beginnings of Sziget Festival.
Performers from 56 countries
The jubilee Sziget- apart from Hungarian acts- brings the most diversified supply of programs ever.
From the 6 inhabited continents of Earth, performers arrive from 56 different countries, 250
acts altogether. Most of them are Europeans, but there are also 23 groups representing the US, and there will be further productions from countries as far as Cameroun, India, Mexico, Ivory Coast, Japan, Madagascar, Iceland and Cape Verde Islands.
The 76-hectare merriness
Sziget Festival stretches on a 76-hectare ground and is built by 6000 workers during 15 days. The ground-surface of all erected tents is 30 000 m2 , the biggest of them all is the huge Party Arena tent with a groundspace of 2700 m2 , hauled to its location by 6 trucks. 11 truckloads of plastic road-covering panels are laid down to set up public roads, while tents are floored by 24 000 m2 of plywood.
160 trucks brought containers to the event, among them are 140 water- and boiler containers, and 180 containers for office, storage, production, dressing, and other purposes. Fencing and cordons arrived in 20 trucks, while cabels and switchboards were brought by 4 trucks to the island. Toilet-containers imported from Austria will be arranged in 5 centres, each of those centres will include 45 illuminated toilets, with constant cleansing staff and continous maintenance.Together with the mobile toilets, the toilet containers from previous years and the toilets in buildings, 1492 toilet seats are available for visitors, a 100 more than last year.
80-ton Main Stage
Stages are built by 80 workers and 4 forklifts throughout 7 days; their surface totals 3700 m2s and their material is brought by 18 trucks. The biggest of them, the 840 m2 Main Stage weighs 80 tons, it is 14 meters high, and can carry up to 20 tons of weight. The lighting equipment of Main Stage weighs 4 tons and puts out 400 000 watts with its 80 smart lights. The sound quality is being continually improved.
Main Stage, features the latest digital sound systems, produced by Meyer Sound featuring Line Array system. At Party Arena, JBL Line Array amplifiers and sound systems are used, at further venues the sound is provided by Meyer Sound. The visual experience at Main Stage is provided by a 120 m2 LED display. LGT, for instance, uses 58 microphones, 27 Di-boxes and their music will be emitted through an 85-chanel system. This year for the first time, delay-towers will be used in order to improve tonality.
A medical staff of 400 and a security staff of 1500
The medical staff comprises 400 people on Sziget; among them, there are 12 doctors and 45 nurses on the ambulance, 12 scooter-patrols and 100 walking patrols cruising the festival area, 1 paramedics car, 3 ambulance cars and two more rescue cars. Sziget will have its own pharmacy. In-Kal Security takes care of security services with a crew of 1500 guards and 250 multilingual crowd-coordinators. Beside the security staff, a crew of 400 carries out ticket- and traffic controlling duties. Organizers implemented further safety prearrangements this year; the entrance corridors are multi-channeled so as to prevent crowds, vehicles carrying performers travel on secluded paths which will be covered by ’honeycomb-cell’ steel panels.
Sziget has its own police station, with a service crew of 80-100; they are on duty at all times during the festival and are supported by multilingual interpreters. Incidental problems concerning passports will be taken care of at the station by cooperates of the Office of Immigration and Citizenship.
Food Drink
Catering blocks that successfully fulfilled expectations last year will be available this year as well. According to increasing expectations, organizers augmented the number of catering stalls in blocks. This year, altogether 62 food caterers - ranging from pastry horn stalls and vegeterian kitchens to international cuisines- wait hungry festival guests.
Apart from these, visitors can quencher their thirst in 2 orange-squeezer stalls, 5 wine taverns, 3 spirit houses, 65 pubs, 7 coffeeshops and 2 teahouses. 1 deciliter of soft drinks costs 60 forints, 1 deciliter of fruit juices and wine costs 90 forints, and half a liter of Arany Ászok beer costs 320 forints.
Press Office at Sziget
During Sziget Festival, the press office is located in Main Stage backstage. From 10 to 21 daily, the office supports the works of journalists with daily updated press materials, technical equipment (computers with net, photocopiers, faxes, phones) and coordinational support. Press armbands (not passes) are also available here."
Source:
Sziget.hu
10.08.2007