The Sziget Experience: Highs and Lows of my First Major Music Festival

A shirtless, barefoot tourist sprinting across an intersection to his fanny pack wearing friends confirmed what I already knew: Sziget was starting. Having never been to a music festival, I was sucked in to the buzz I’d heard all year about Sziget (pronounced see-get)–one of Europe’s largest music festivals that takes over a small island in the middle of Budapest’s Danube River (Sziget is Hungarian for “island”, after all). I was curious, so I bought two day tickets ($80 each) and made my way to the island. There’s loads of ways to find it, but once you’re crossing the colorful bridge onto the island…how you got there doesn’t matter. The rest of the world across the river fades away. And the festival–and who you become while you’re there–is the only thing that matters.At least, that’s the sexy rhetoric. The truth is, while there were some shiny moments in my first major festival experience, some of it turned out to be a dusty cloud of disappointment (seriously, the crowds kicked up soooo much dust–but I guess that’s better than mud!). From a festival first-timer, here are my highs and lows, insider details, and true impressions from that weekend I became a Szitizen.

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First impressions: So many colors. So many people.

Y’all, I think I woke up on the wrong side of the bed Day 1 of Sziget. I’ll admit, part of me wanted to be that girl, perched on some buff dude’s shoulder’s, body covered in flash tats, waving some flag. But instead I was that grumpy girl–the one who reciprocated elbow jabs, viewed large crowds with suspicion, and judged tourists (I was this close to telling them to get off my lawn).

I spent a lot of time wondering if something was wrong with me–all these glittery 20-somethings were laughing and frolicking and having a seemingly amazing time around me, and I couldn’t quite find the Festival Spirit. Maybe I just wasn’t cut out for this kind of thing?

The major crowds looked cool in all the advertising (who doesn’t want to be a part of something bigger?), but I think I would have enjoyed myself more if I had prepared for the reality. And I wasn’t prepared for how lonely one could feel even when surrounded by a sea of people–Sziget lacked the community I had come to expect from the relentless marketing calling it a “Love Revolution” and the “Island of Freedom”. It sounded like it would be a dream place to connect with people from all over the world, but in reality felt very commercial. A lot of my Hungarian friends working the festival expressed similar feelings, telling me that Sziget’s changed from what it used to be (namely, that it’s become a lot more expensive and impersonal). As always, when you’re in a crowd of well-meaning humans, there are real love connections to be made–you just had to navigate all of the props and Insta-traps along the way.

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Best small concert—Of course the venues differ in size, and a Hungarian friend had tipped me off to catch Hungarian rock band, Dope Calypso, at a smaller stage early in the day. Aside from sounding tight, these shirtless fellas seemed so at ease–coming down into the relatively small crowd, passing the microphone to die-hard fans, wiggling their hips like there was no tomorrow. It was intimate and hilarious and the best way to start my Sziget experience.

Best big concert—I may have sprung for a second day ticket to see Dua Lipa, but the magic happened when Mumford and Sons got on stage. Leave it to M & S to lure me into the pressing, elbowing, empty beer cup jettisoning crowd of the mainstage. Before they even started playing it was a dream come true, really–I’ve never been able to shake the effect of the honest, searching lyrics of their first album, and it was surreal to be singing those lyrics with the thousands of people around me–to be singing them with the band. And it all came to a head later in the set: Marcus Mumford had the widest smile across his face as the music built around him, trumpeting out one of the bands’ classics. As it was reaching its climax, he threw back his head and let out a strong, pure note–it sounded like a lion’s roar, like victory. I could feel it going straight into my heart and I could tell that everyone around me felt it too. This was what I was at Sziget for:  for experiencing music that lifted me, being lifted with others, all of us connected by the song around us. The stars had aligned.

Best venue–While making my rounds I stumbled upon the Afro-Latin-Reggae Stage. I guess “stumbled” is the wrong word. It was more like getting caught in the gravitational pull of the colorful beats and instruments. You know that scene in Jumanji when the kids hear the game’s drums coming from the attic and can’t help but to race upstairs? Yeah that was me. I heard the drums and had to follow. And then I had to dance. A lot.

Best discovery–Music-wise, Wolf Alice’s arresting sound and charisma pulled me in and wouldn’t let me go. But there’s so much more than music at Sziget–there’s programs like meditations, film screenings, group dance workshops, and a circus (!!!) among others. But my favorite discovery beyond music was the Tea Tent. Quiet and unassuming, the whole point of the tent is that people volunteer their time to sip tea with you and talk about anything–your festival experience, God, the recent death of your cat, whatever. This touched me the most, this place where there was actual intention and connection. Where I didn’t feel like just another face in the crowd, where I could get some of that freedom all the advertising had promised. It was balm for my grumpy  lonely soul. And I didn’t have to worry about getting elbowed in the face, so that was nice.

Best part of going solo—Being swept away by the music, those rare moments of connection with strangers being made all the sweeter, choosing my own schedule and coming and going as I pleased. The worst part of going solo was sometimes being lonely. Eating an overpriced, microwave-heated lángos next to a trash can because that was the only seat that was open wasn’t exactly a highlight of my life (but it wasn’t the lowest point of my life, either haha).

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The Nitty Gritty–

Getting there: Sziget is accessible by boat, train, and bus, so you can get to the festival or into central Budapest pretty easily (it takes about 40 minutes between the two). Buy a BKK transportation pass (daily/weekly/monthly options available) in the city at any purple kiosk in order to avoid the long lines near the festival’s transportation hubs. The HEV train delivers you closer than the bus, but you still have about a 10 minute walk ahead of you. If you’re not in a rush, taking the boat back to the city center is a great way to cruise past all the sights of the Danube (but be warned, on the weekend you must buy an additional ticket, as your BKK pass won’t work for this method of transport).

Food/Drink:It seemed to be a general consensus that the festival food was overpriced and underwhelming–but it sure did the job in the moment! 1500 ft ($5.50) seems like a low enough price for a lángos or a palacsinta, but it’s hard to pay when I know I could get the same thing in the city for 400 ft. And the quality definitely didn’t measure up to outside-festival food. But the only thing I hate more than overpriced food is not eating all day, so I packed a couple of sandwiches and then made my peace with the prices for all the other times that hunger hit. The options spanned all sorts of cuisines (Thai, Italian, Chinese, American…), but somehow I always gravitated towards the Hungarian comfort food.

Also know that when you buy a drink there’s a one-time ~400 forint fee for a plastic cup deposit, and then you can use it the rest of the time and recycle it at the end of your stay.

Money/Payment: Money can fly out of your hand at Sziget–but really it won’t be in your hand in the first place. Payment is contactless and your overpriced beer budget is uploaded to your armband. While convenient, it forced me to be extra conscious of the amount I was spending (contactless will get ya). There are top up points all over the island (find those and more on the Sziget app’s map–super helpful!), but I preferred to avoid the lines and top up on the app. Stop by the top-up points on your way out of the festival to retrieve any money still left on your wristband.

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Takeaways? Sziget is a playground. And after two long days out in the schoolyard, lil Denae was ready to come home to a comfy, clean bed and her own personal space. For all of the ways I failed to live out the picture-perfect festival experience, I’m still thankful for the late night forest dance parties and music discoveries and crazy energy of those two days. If I do it again (and maybe I will–Ed Sheeran’s headlining in 2019), I’d likely find a partner or group to go with, eat a looot beforehand, and only go for one day (or at least have shorter days–it gets exhausting walking around in the sun if you don’t have a tent to go back to and crash in for a couple of hours). I’m glad to have had my first major festival experience in this city I love, but the next festival I look for will definitely be smaller, and hopefully I’ll get that intimacy that I only caught glimpses of at Sziget. And there will certainly be plenty more festivals to come!

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Have you been to a festival before, small or large? How was your experience? Let me know in the comments below!