In August 2004 it will be the twelfth time when Budapest and its green island in Óbuda will be one of the inevitable locations of the cultural and music life of Europe. During a week in the most pleasant month of the year Sziget Festival awaits students and young adults on vacation from Europe and other corners of the world with nearly a 1000 programmes and 60 venues.

Sziget is not only a festival, but a week-long opportunity to camp out in the temporarily built festival city on a gorgeous island where besides basic facilities posting and banking services, restaurants, pubs, shops and a number of other amenities provide comfort and entertainment.

Sziget is actually many festivals in one: each venue proposes a series of programmes, "individual festivals" are offered to the audience, to the lovers of the mainstream, hard rock, world music, electric dance music, alternative styles, blues and jazz. Visitors can enjoy a number of prosaic, dance and motion theatre performances during the week long festival at the theatre venue. The location also serves as a site of art exhibitions, literary events and classical music concerts. For the young, children's programmes are continuously offered and the older generations can also find favourable productions.

Sziget is more than just a festival: a place to meet, a place to make friends and fall in love; where one can spend a week self-abandoned, where parties and sporting programmes await the inquirer. The main venues of Sziget Festival:

Pop Rock Main Stage: an out-door venue with the capacity of 40.000 people, where three international stars and one of the most well-known Hungarian bands appear every day between 4:30pm and 11 pm. In the past years Massive Attack, Oasis, Fun Lovin' Criminals, Slayer, Morcheeba, David Bowie, Prodigy, Iggy Pop, the Faithless, Placebo, Run DMC, Faith No More, The Cure, Foo Fighters, Rammstein, Pulp, Muse and others performed on the Big Stage.

World Music Main Stage: also an out-door venue, where 15.000 people can enjoy the best world music performances between 5pm and 9pm. Among others Madredeus, Ibrahim Ferrer, Mory Kante, Baaba Maal, Omara Portuondo, Khaled, Taraf De Haidouks, Habib Koite & Bamada, The Klezmatics, Natacha Atlas, Femi Kuti, Boban Markovic, Hedningarna, Mau Mau, Toto La Momposina, Värttinä, Lo'Jo, Jimmy Bosch performed on this Stage.

Metal Stage is a tent with the capacity of 5.000 people for the hard rock fans. Music is played from 4pm until dawn; ten bands perform daily. In the past years Hammerfall, Ignite, Nightwish, Overkill, Rage, Anathema, Moonspell, Edguy, Gamma Ray, Amorphis, Kraetor, Savatage, Doro and Blaze, Napalm Death, Testament, My Dying Bride, Sonata Arctica, Annihilator performed on this stage.

DanceArena, the largest tent of Sziget Festival is 2.700 m2, presents the best known representatives of electric dance music. Programmes start at 10pm, and parties go on until 5am. Deep Dish, Way Out West, Nick Warren, Paul Van Dyk, Layo& Bushwacka, Dave Clark, Grooverider, Richie Hawtin, Sven Vath, David Morales, Jay Denham, CJ Bolland, Alfredo, Guy Ornadel, Austin Leeds, DJ Rush, Goldie, The Advent, Dave Angel and many others made appearance here.

WAN2 Stage is a colourful patch of Sziget Festival, during the week it thematically presents the different musical genres from world music to punk. This venue received Tito & Tarantula, Zenzile, Dreadzone, Uk Subs, Roy Paci & Aretuska, UHT, Dub Wiser, Marcel et son Orchestre, Les Hurlements d'Leo, Laibach, Dub Pistols, Senser, Zion Train, Dusminguet and others. In the WAN2 tent 5.000 visitors can witness the performances of eight bands every day from 4:30pm until dawn.

Audiences, longing for more melodious music, can find satisfaction in the tent of the Pop Stage from 11pm to dawn, daily. On top of all the above, further musical programmes, thematic musical tents from folk through blues to classical concerts guarantee versatile entertainment to the visitor for a week, every day, 24 hours a day. Nearly two-dozen "dance" venues with different styles are available for late night fun.

Naturally, Sziget Festival offers other cultural programmes. In the Theatre and Dance Tent (Színház és Táncsátor) ballets, operas, motion-and dance theatre entertain the audience; numerous exhibitions, performances, an out-door museum, a puppet theatre and a cabaret can be enjoyed at other locations. In the evenings movies are shown outdoors. Kids are welcome at the children programmes but if the adults decide not to take the children along to a program they can be left at the day-care under the attention of qualified personnel.

The sport events of Sziget Festival provide varied and active recreation from different extreme sports through beach volleyball to soccer. Over 100 civil organizations are present and provide services during Sziget Festival.

For the event a real festival town is built up in one of Budapest's most beautiful green areas, on the Óbuda Island (Óbudai Sziget) where everything that one may need for a week holiday can be found.

Accommodation and related services, groceries, a post office, banks, currency exchange, ATM machines, a pharmacy, left-luggage and safe deposit, etc. are available for the visitor. Sziget Festival has a unique service, called 'Language - First Aid', foreigners can get acquainted with basic Hungarian expressions, idioms and a multilingual information centre is also there to help visitors.

Visitors driving caravans are welcome at a specially designed Caravan Camping. During the Festival for security car traffic is limited at the location thus the campsite can only be used by drivers of caravans. Other vehicles can be parked near the festival site or in guarded car parks downtown. In order to make the festival more accessible special buses leave from different points of the city and from the railway stations.

The venue can also be reached from the water, using the special cruise ship from downtown to the island.

The organizers of Sziget Festival pay special attention to security and the protection of the environment. Besides the regular security service of the Festival, a police station operates and non-stop medical service is available. The organizers make a great effort to keep the festival area continuously clean.





Jookoskookos.com Finnish travel agency with
attitude for those with attitude! We offer package
tours for the youth from Finland to Sziget Festival!

There is always a touch of rock'n roll in our tours and all our summer destinations head for the best festivals in Europe. You have a chance to go sightseeing of course, but what's cool on the way is the people. So if you are staying in Finland and up for a party travelling take a chance and explore the Eastern Europe with us!

PLEASE NOTE! THESE ARE 2004 INFOS, UPDATED PRICES, DATES ETC COMING SOON! LATEST INFOS HERE.

BUDAPEST AND SZIGET FESTIVAL 2004
JOURNEY TO THE GREATEST ROCK FESTIVAL IN EUROPE
BUS 2nd August - 13th August,
PRICE 495 EUR (+7 EUR)
FLIGHT 5th August - 12th August,
PRICE 565-630 EUR (+7 EUR)

For more info ask your Finnish friends to
translate our site =) or mail us. We'll reply personally.

For bookings and additional info (also in English)
email mikko@jookoskookos.com or
call +358 50 596 8834.

For business contacts
please call Mr. Jarmo Hollanti in +358 41 456 3522
or email jarmo@jookoskookos.com.

BANDS NOTE! We represent Sziget Festival in Finland only, we do not have authority over the festival line-ups or bookings! If you're interrested to perform at the Sziget-festival please send your mail to Mr. Dan Panaitescu at dan@sziget.hu. He's also the contact for other international issues. If you're looking to play in any of the other festivals we can't help you at the moment but as we make contacts we will post them here.