Foreigners from 100 Countries Expected at Sziget Festival in Budapest - Tighter Inspections this Year

  • 8 Aug 2024 9:20 AM
Foreigners from 100 Countries Expected at Sziget Festival in Budapest - Tighter Inspections this Year
This year’s Sziget Festival in Budapest will offer more than 1,000 programmes featuring performers including Kylie Minogue, Liam Gallagher and Martin Garrix, the organisers said on the eve of the opening.

The festival is taking place for the 30th time this year between August 7 and 12 at 50 venues. Based on sales so far, the organisers expect a full house for Martin Garrix’s concert on Saturday and Fred again… on Monday.

Visitors are expected to arrive from some 100 countries, mostly from the Netherlands, Britain, Ireland, Germany, France and Italy, the event’s chief organiser, Tamás Kádár, said.

The main stage will also feature concerts by Hungarian performers Beton.Hofi, Margaret Island and Azahriah.

A total of six hundred performers will be featured over six days, many of them arriving from the UK, France, Germany, Holland and the US, but some will come from Senegal, India, Tanzania, New Zealand and Benin.

The daily capacity of the festival grounds is 95,000 people, of which 10-15,000 are performers and staff, with the remaining 75,000-80,000 being ticketholders.

Kádár said the average price of food for sale on the festival grounds will be lower than last year and the price of drinks will be the same as last year in nominal terms.

The Sziget festival area will include several campsites and a medical centre offering services 24 hours a day with a total staff of 200 people.

Budapest Govt Office Tightening Inspections on Sziget Fesztivál

The Government Office of Budapest is tightening inspections of Sziget Festival venues with the aim of ensuring the safety of festival-goers, the office said.

The inspections cover food, drinks, festival merchandise and clothes vendors as well as drinking water supply spots, toilets and waste management, the office said in a statement.

The office’s labour officials are carrying out inspections of festival facilities construction, ensuring that labour regulations such as working hours and terms of employment are observed.

The office is also overseeing inspections of taxi drivers, their licenses and the condition of their cars, as well as the transparency of fees and taxi bills.

Meanwhile, Budapest police said on police.hu that coordinated action involving close to 100 police officers saw 29 people taken into custody in three downtown districts on Saturday evening on charges of drug possession, rowdyism, illegal driving and other crimes.

The Sziget Festival takes place between August 7 and 12.

Foreign Police Helping Hungarian Counterparts at Sziget Festival

Dutch police are helping their Hungarian counterparts at the Sziget Festival, a spokesman of the Budapest police headquarters said.

Dutch officers are not permitted to act independently but are helping Hungarian police, mainly with communications, Soma Csécsi told a press conference.

A large number of Dutch visitors are in Budapest attending the event. A Prevention Point has been set up on the festival grounds, mainly to assist people who lose their official documents, he said.

Plainclothes police are also deployed to prevent criminal activity and apprehend any criminal offenders, he added.

MTI Stock Photo - for illustrative purposes only

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