The scorching sun and 34-degree heat might have been punishing, but that didn’t put off the crowds at Sziget this weekend.
Now in its 30th year, the Budapest-based festival mainstay is still going strong, attracting an ever-improving line-up of the best musical names from around the world. And it delivered here too: across six days, around 450,000 people flocked to see Kylie Minogue, Stormzy, and Sam Smith (among many others) strut their stuff across 60 stages.
Though the lineup was relatively sparse during the day, that was no bad thing, because the party really started after dark, when the light dipped below the horizon (pity Becky Hill, who performed her set in the full glare of the setting sun. It looked hot).
At this point, people emerged from hiding places to gravitate towards the main stage. We arrived on Saturday, and kicked things off with Martin Garrix spinning decks, surrounded by a blaze of lights and pyrotechnics (barring a brief five-minute power outage) – but the following days served up treats aplenty, too. One highlight came in the shape of a truly stupendous set from Janelle Monáe, featuring a shout out to the “electric ladies” in the crowd, a period in which she writhed on the floor like a slug, and stint of conducting her adoring fans like an orchestra.
She was rapidly followed by Sam Smith, who appeared on stage dressed in a flowing black dress and wiped away a tear as they addressed the audience.
“I’ve been wanting to come here since I was a little kid,” they said – before launching into a set that saw them call back to their old hits (including multiple cuts from In The Lonely Hour, their first hit album) and ending with recent hyper-pop single Unholy.
So far, so feel-good, but some of the best parts of the festival were to be found off-piste, on one of its many other stages. There was the Techno Coliseum, which served pounding Berghain-styled beats from 12pm all the way through to 5am every day.
There was the circus area, where acrobats spun in the air on rigs suspended a hundred metres above the ground, and giant dinosaur puppets emerged to wander around the rest of the festival. There was even, bizarrely, an on-site Aldi, where budget-conscious partygoers could buy a selection of burgers and sausages before having it cooked for them on Aldi’s handily-provided grills. Revolutionary stuff for somebody raised on a festival diet of chips and, um, more chips.
After a week of mainstream pop, electronic heads also had something to look forward to on the Monday, when dance music wunderkind Fred Again.. took to the stage for an epic hour-and-a-half set that saw the crowd transforming into a sea of waving phone torches.
Arguably the best set of the weekend, though, went to his friend Four Tet, who took over the Revolut Stage nearby, only to be joined by Skrillex, who had played earlier that evening. Together, in front of a crowd that spilled out of the tent and into the field beyond, they served up a masterclass in electronic music that had the crowd dancing along. Red hot beats to finish off a red-hot week of music: when can we go again?
