István Marnitz;
Sziget Festival;
2024-04-26 11:49:00
The company manager hopes to make a profit this year.
Between August 7th and 12th, the Sziget Festival will be held again on the Óbuda Island, the organizing company of the same name announced at their press conference yesterday. representatives. The event, which was first held in 1993, was still a light music event, but now is more of an all-arts event. Due to the forced 2020-2021 Covid break, this year it celebrates its 30th anniversary. Although the “revolution of love” was replaced by “being free” while keeping the slogan “island of freedom”, the most important message could be praiseworthy change. As company manager Tamás Kádár emphasized: the main values of the event, cultural diversity, inclusion, love, attention, acceptance of difference, the power of community and the right to personal happiness, have not changed. The Australian superstar, Kylie Minogue, was announced at the press conference as this year’s probably best-known name, who will close the opening day. Some of the biggest stars include Sam Smith, Liam Gallagher, Halsey, Martin Garrix and Fred again, and this year Azahriah is also on the Main Stage. This year, like last year, the event offers nearly 700 performers from 56 countries in around half a hundred locations.
Nevertheless, at the briefing, Tamás Kádár promised to further enhance the “customer experience”, that is, the amenities of the festival. In addition to making the routes more efficient, in order to ensure a smoother flow of arrivals and departures, the related public transport is being developed, and the southern H-bridge is gradually being used to divert the crowd, making no secret that they are still waiting for the capital to completely renovate the K-bridge, famous as the iconic entrance to the event. . After developing their idea from last year, cheap “budget food” – around HUF 3,000 – will be available again, which is now checked more thoroughly based on experience. Invariably, only flush toilets are used, and the packing of tents is also financially encouraged.
Tamás Kádár called their pre-sale sales encouraging, emphasizing that most of the season tickets, for the first time in many years, were once again bought by Hungarians. (At the same time, nothing would prove the international orientation of the festival more than the fact that, along with the slogans, the names of most of the locations and programs are also in English.)
Although Tamás Kádár did not want to share any other figures in response to our question, he told our newspaper: Sziget Zrt., due to the forced break in 2020-2021, which caused a loss of several billions, ended with a loss even last year. At the same time, they are confident that this year the balance sheet can turn into a profit. Their American owner, Providence Equity Partners, provides all the support for this. (In recent years, the capital fund that has acquired major festivals, which bought the majority from the founders, Károly Gerendai, Gábor Takács, Norbert Lobenwein and Zoltán Fülöp, in 2017, also bought the minority package from them last year.) In addition to Sziget, this year Zamárd Heineken BalatonSound, as well as the Gourmet festival and the free Children’s Island. However, the revival of the Volt in Sopron, which was last held in 2022, is not on the agenda, he said.
