Budapest - Sziget Music Festival

After a very slow start to the day (I seem to keep writing that…), we left Krisztina’s apartment for some lunch around the corner so that we could be at the Sziget music festival by mid-afternoon. Krisztina took us to a little food place on a corner in her neighbourhood with very traditional food (almost self-service without actually getting the food yourself, but you do get to see it all there infront of you). Josh and Andrew tried traditional meat dishes, and I wasn’t as hungry so munched on some veges and shared a plate with Krisztina of noodle-ish things cooked with eggs. I wasn’t initially sure about the taste but it did start to grow on me.

We went back to Krisztina’s for a drink before the concert, and Josh was the only one game enough to share a glass of traditional Icelandic spirit with our host, who had brought it back from Iceland during a recent trip to do volunteer work. I took a sip, and the syrupy menthol spirit really warms you from the inside out. After the very high temperatures of the days before, we weren’t exactly sure what to expect, but the forecast was for more than 10 degrees colder, so we had to be prepared for a shock to the systems.

The festival was on one of the islands in the river between Buda and Pest, so we caught a train to the gates, and joined the herd of people queuing to get through to the grounds. Krisztina was there to see the rock and metal acts, which we were planning to avoid, but she spent the first wee while with us walking around the island and having a drink or two. The place was filled with market stalls, the scent of every kind of food merging in the air and accents from all over the world. So many stages and areas were jampacked onto the island, from live theatre to dance. The place was like a small city, and tents were squashed like sardines onto any available inch of grass. We left Krisztina at the metal after poking our heads in for a taste and seeing the mass of long hair being thrown around like ragdolls in a dishwasher. Then it was off to see Roisin Murphy of Moloko who put on a great show with countless changes into fantastic 80s attire – headpieces, shoulder pads, giant bright ponchos. Her, combined with her enthusiastic back-up dancers just oozed cool… The whole crowd was shaking, and it was so early in the evening - that was the only downside. It would have been so much better to dance to later on, but still got us off to a great start.

Dinner was next, and we sat at a picnic table surrounded by food stalls, deciding on some spiced chicken breasts, sauerkraut (yes, still a staple), and bread, which was very filling… Some drinks (wine which was okay, and cheaper wine which was AWFUL!), and after finding a few uninteresting acts in the break between the next gig, we sat down for some drinks in an outdoor bar and met Krisztina so she could have a bite with us. She kindly shouted us to a shot of the Hungrian spirit Palinka we’d tried with her before, but this time tried peach, which was very sticky and yummy…

Krisztina then left for her next gig and we headed to the main stage to see REM. There was a huge crowd as expected for the headline act for the night, and they played some old stuff, some stuff we didn’t know, but they did put on a great show and the audience loved it. The next thing we wanted to see was Maceo Parker in the jazz tent (via some dancing in the dust...see photos), who was a member of James Brown’s band, and composed some of his music. We don’t think they quite expected a gig in the jazz tent to get so big, as they had tried to make the area into a lounge atmosphere including an area with tables and chairs (which quickly became viewing platforms for people in the back to see above the swarm of people). The music was great, and definitely got us moving and shaking, although some of the crowd were idiots, as it was nearing midnight and the drunkards had come out, and jazz wasn’t quite the music to headbang to.

After an hour or so there, we left the tent going into the morning and tried out the huge wooden seesaw outside. A half-moon shaped structure that fitted twenty or so people onto it, the idea was that people crowd onto each side and push down with their bodies alternately to start it rocking. Josh and I were right at the very end, and were moving metres up and down and losing our stomachs quite nicely. We then walked the length of the island back, and tried the delicious funnel cake (sweet bread baked over coals in a tube shape, then rolled in vanilla and cinammon sugar… mmmm). Deciding to check out another gig before it was time to meet Krisztina, we entered a tent to see a DJ, had a dance, and then met Krisztina to start the trek home. After a VERY crowded bus ride, we finally got home around 4am, and easily crashed out for the night.